Today we visited four churches and two of the classical classics for Roman visits.  We went from the massive and spectacular to the ornate and compact, we went underground or the first time this holiday.

So first, the crowning glory of Rome, we went back to St Peter’s Basilica and today we had a guided tour inside the Greek cross designed church; a church overflowing with the history of the papacy and the Roman Catholic Church, full of Christian art, both sculptures and pictures; the pictures both painted and mosaics.  To try to describe and do justice to this is impossible.  To take it all in during a one hour visit (although I really do not know how long we spent inside) is also impossible.
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From there, we walked through a car park and continued up a hill to what must be the highest point in Rome – certainly the views across the city were stunning.  This was to attend St Onofrio, a pretty church with a charming cloister.  In the church we said Mass.
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Next, after lunch we visited the Basilica of St Mary the Major, yet another absolutely stunning church in the form of a temple rather than cross.  Decorated with gold and containing mosaics dating back as far as the sixth century, this is indeed a special place.
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The last of our churches was that of St Clemente, where unfortunately photography was not permitted.  It again had a wonderful mosaic behind and above the altar in the traditional curved form.  Here we went underground to explore the church on the previous level and the ancient temple that formed the level below that; originally this lowest level was ground level.  It has successively been filled in, built on, excavated and finally supported, losing the upper portion of wall paintings depicting scenes from some lesser known saints (at least to me – look up St Alex as an example). The images below are from their website.

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Classical Rome consisted of the Coliseum, which we walked around rather than going inside, followed by a walk down the road to the Roman Forum.
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We walked over 10km today, so I will stop writing here!