Monday, Monday!

Today we did our first site visit!  But first we went to the San Clemente church, which is really cool, because they have excavated below the church and found two entirely different structures under the existing church, one right on top of the other!  The lowest portion is an ancient Roman house, then the middle part is a Mithreum temple/ancient slave place of worship, and the the top is the current church, which was built in the fourth century.  We were only allowed to take pictures upstairs, though. . .

After San Clemente, we went to our site, which is the Basilica Santi Quattro Coronati.  It is a really awesome site.  The building was built in the 4th or 5th century, incorporating the ancient wall of Rome, so it looks really imposing, but inside it has a number of really beautiful spaces, both inside and out!

I'll be going back tomorrow (after Jeffery's Tour Part III) to take some measurements for studio. . .

After we went to the site, we went to the oldest baptistry in the world (on the right) and St. John Laterine's (on the Left)

St. John Laterine's is the actual Cathedral for Rome (most people think it's St. Peter's), so that's pretty cool. . . and it has these awesome bronze doors (which were repurposed from an ancient Roman building). . .

Whew!  I'm all caught up, so now I'll just have to do one post per day, and one for the entire weekend of Assisi, I think!  Yay!  One week down, seven to go!