Rome

So we actually only have one proper day in Rome before flying out to Sydney via Dubai at 3pm tomorrow.
I have already been to Rome and so had Cat. There were some things that I wanted to see so we stayed around the Colosseum area and saw those things.

The first place we visited was La Scala Sancta church. This is a small Catholic church that contains a relic - Pontius Pilate's stairs. These are supposedly the stairs that Jesus ascended when he was appearing before Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem before his crucifixion.

Constatine the Great's mother, St. Helena apparently brought these stairs to Rome around 326AD. You can only ascend these stairs on your knees and people still do it today. There are 28 stairs and you say a prayer on each step. Popes used to grant indulgences to people who did this.

The reason why I wanted to see these stairs is because Martin Luther climbed these stairs on his knees and went home without any assurance that his sins were truly forgiven. He later read the Bible for himself and realised that being right with God depended on faith in Jesus alone and not from any works he could do or any indulgence the church or the Pope could dispense.

We did not climb the stairs on our knees. There are two staircases to either side of the 'holy' stairs and we went up there. Once at the top you can see a very well decorated room that they call the 'holy of holies'. There is a little chapel to the right of the stairs.

This part of the visit was quite funny. Rome is actually still quite hot at this time of year. Cat and I were both wearing shorter dresses and I had a cardigan on. We were given bad looks when we entered the church and then a priest asked us to leave because our knees were not covered and neither were Cat's shoulders.... Hehe that was the most decadent thing we did all trip - get thrown out of a church!

Across the road is the Pope's chapel which is actually not a little chapel but one massive, huge ornate building. We didn't even try to go in...

The next thing I wanted to see was the Arch of Constantine which is next to the Colosseum. In 312, Constantine the Great (one of the Roman emperors) saw a vision in the sky during a battle at Milvian Bridge. It led him to put the Christian symbol, a Greek 'chi-rho' on the shields of his troups and win the battle. In 313, the Edict of Milan granted tolerance to Christianity in the Roman Empire. Christians had previously suffered immense persecution.

We learnt about all this in church history but the question was asked whether Constatine was really a Christian. His mother was a Christian and he supported it. The Arch of Constatine was erected to celebrate the triumph of the battle of Milvian. I was just interested to look at it. I did notice that there is no 'chi-rho' on the arch at all and no Christian carvings appear on the arch.

Cat and I were in the general area so we decided to visit Palatine Hill and see some Roman ruins. We had both done the Colosseum so did not bother as time was short.
It is amazing to look at the ruins and try to imagine the buildings as they were. The remnant columns are so large and high. It's amazing to think they built all this such a long time ago when there were no cranes or electronic tools to help lift all those heavy stones.