Dreams come True: Serendipity

Rome is great for serendipitous experiences. Following our hotel host's suggestion, "You must get lost in Rome!" we became quite adept at it. And being lost allows for serendipity!

Although I AM a tourist, I prefer not to look like a screaming tourist...I avoid a fanny pack, I only wear my white tennies when needed, and I haven't bought an "I Love Rome" t-shirt. So, I usually tuck my map of Rome and Italian dictionary in my purse and try to hide the fact that I'm often referring to them...except I've found it's "the look" here. As we're standing on a street corner, turning our Rome map fifteen times...trying to figure out where we are and in which direction we're headed...I sheepishly look up. What do I see? Tourists on every street corner, and many in between, doing exactly the same thing! I have an urge to go up to these fellow sojourners, give them a hug, and say, "Just give up and get lost!" and so we follow my own advice.

What do we find while "being lost"? The Aurelian Walls, the Circus Maximus, the bascillica of Santa Maria Maggiore, the baths of Caracalla, and many ancient ruins excavation sites. Good thing we didn't set out to find them...because then we never would have seen them!

The Aurelian Walls are Rome's original city walls built in the 200's to defend against barbarian invasions. Of course we weren't supposed to be venturing to the exterior of the city so we shouldn't have found them, but they were amazing!

The Circus Maximus is the field used for chariot racing and religious festivals of the first century B.C. Presently it looks like a large park and it seems it was being used to stage some sort of tax protest while we were there. Italians seem to love their protests and strikes as much as we do! Long reign freedom of speech!

(the basilica of Santa Marria Maggiore)

There was a church just a block from our hotel...so why not step in? We had seen so many churches on our other trip to this amazing country, that we were avoiding churches. We had become so jaded on that trip that our standard phrase was, "It's just another church!". Well, what a church this one was! It was built in the 400's (with additions added in later centuries). It is huge and amazingly adorned with gold, brass, and marble mosaics. Truly beautiful! It's interesting to note how the order of visits to sites affects the way you see things. Because we had had such an informative tour of the Colosseum prior to this church visit, I couldn't help but wonder how much of the beautiful marble in this church had originally been used at the Colosseum. Seems the Romans were great examples of recycling!

(It's just another church!?)

(found this staring at us in a side chapel)

And visiting the Baths of Caracalla was a quite a surprising experience. We were once again "lost" in the outskirts of the city...noticing a pattern here?...and stumbled upon these ruins. Stumbled? How can anyone "stumble" upon anything so massive?