Rome: Day 6

Happy Halloween!

In the spirit of the holiday, Aaron and I visited some spooky sites. The first was the Santa Maria in Cosmedin church, where the Bocca della Verita is located. The 'Mouth of Truth' is a 17th century drain cover shaped as a mask. According to legend, if you stick your hand in the mouth and tell a lie, your hand is removed. I got a great picture out of it, stay tuned. The second was another church, the Santa Maria della Concezione. It has a rather famous crypt containing the remains of 4,000 Capuchin monks. There are five chapels with artful arrangements of all the bones, some skeletons completely intact and dressed in the robes of friars. Femurs, ribs, spines, and skulls meticulously organized and covering every surface, even the cieling. It was both disgusting and beautiful. I'm not sure which was greater. The last chapel had the engraving, 'What you are now, we once were; what we are now, you shall be.' Day of the dead, indeed.

We also had some successful shopping today. And after an amazing meal of wine, bruschetta, and tortellini, we had the best ending to our last full day in Rome that we could possibly ask for: lemoncello shots, on the house.

Tomorrow I'll get into Heathrow at about nine o'clock, and it will take me a good two hours to get to Kate's friend's house where I will be crashing (with Kate). It is my hope that I will be able to blog once I am there, but that will depend on a lot of factors, such as how tired I am, how gracious my hostess is, whether or not she has ready internet, etc. I'll do my best.

Ciao.