Catacombs

I made another stab at the catacombs today, this time with Bailey in tow. The bus came, this time, but there was another minor snag: namely, when we looked out and saw that we were at the stop before Via Appia (San Sebastiano), we knew we had to get at the next stop. Wrong! As we discovered, there are no fewer than three stops all called Via Appia, all spread out over this very long, narrow, and congested road with about a two-foot clearance on either side between the wall and the cars speeding past. We wound up having to walk about a mile to the Catacombs of St. Callixtus, only to find it closed, so we kept going to the Catacombs of St. Sebastian a little ways further.

As usual, when ever anything is cool in this country, you can't take a picture of it, but the catacombs were very interesting, especially in terms of early Christian graffiti--the fish, the chi-rho, and anchors, which are a symbol I haven't really seen before. However, you can only go down with a guide, the guide takes you on a rather brief trot through what amounts to 6 miles of passageways, and then, voila! You're in the church above. I must say that although the tombs in Cerverteri were all separate instead of being connected underground, it was way more fun to wander on your own than to be crammed in with 20 other people like we were here.

In other news, Sean flies out tonight! We will soon be reunited in Spain--that is, if I can successfully navigate my way to the airport through the transit strike planned for Friday. Ughh. I do not want to have to pay 45 euro for a shuttle!