June 10 - First morning in Rome

I survived the unnerving first hour in Rome, and eventually relaxed as it became evident that Joe's memory of place was in overdrive.  So our first night in the Eternal City was done, time for my first shower there and first breakfast there . . . Joe was already in the Hotel Pomezia's dining room.  He went out early to retrace in daylight our evening route:  Campo dei Fiore and Corso Vittorio Emanuele, but without crowds or police.  Breakfast was plentiful:  coffee, orange or pineapple juice, corn flakes, three kinds of pastry and bread, butter, cheese, and jam.  Very strong coffee.  I had a quiet time without Joe to write about the the train trip of Saturday and the awful walk to find the hotel last night.  There were many very young American women in the dining room and only one young American man.  I think they are highschoolers; Joe thinks college.  He later learned they are from Savannah College of Art and Design.

Church of S. Ivo alla Sapienza

Check-out from the hotel is 11 am and I went out at 10 to find the Pantheon.  Walked up the Corso Rinascimento, stumbled upon the church of S. Ivo alla Sapienza (?), where a large courtyard passes through a kind of cloister to the small church with the odd spiral dome or steeple.  Mass was in progress.  I went and heard the Pater Noster sung in Italian - the great and wonderful sound of a few voices reverberating in the church brought me to tears.  It is a small baroque church in the form of a Greek cross.  Twelve elaborate silver candleholders behind the altar, a large painting above it.  In front of the altar was a simple vase with a large sheaf of grain - oats?  wheat?  I felt this was a great place to have happened upon.

Continued walking onward.  After considerable confusion I realized that the Church of St. Mary and the Martyrs is also the Pantheon.  I'd walked around it thinking I was right, but was misled by the signs that identified it as the church, and that while Mass was being said all tourists were kept out.  So I missed.  I walked round behind to find Bernini's elephant carrying an obelisk (you have to see it, but here is a photo)

one of the many cats in Largo Argentina

What's the back story?

 and Santa Maria Sopra Minerva Church.  But time ran out.  I got lost, hurried back to Corso Vittorior Emanuele, past the Largo Argentina with all of its ruins and cats [above, right] and the back of the dome of S. Andrea delle Valle, and to the Hotel Pomezia.  Joe was in the lobby, having all of our luggage there too.  He asked the desk clerk to call a taxi to take us to the Cicerone Hotel, and then had to explain that we were to join our tour there.

Entry to the Cicerone Hotel

The Hotel Cicerone is a very large hotel (compared with what we'd seen during the past several days) not far from the Vatican.  The room is typical European size on the first floor (that's the second floor in the USA), street side, twin beds, closet, table, lamp; chairs, long shelf beneath the wall to wall window, a TV, and a nightstand between the beds, all in very soothing shade of green.  We napped a bit, wrote in journal, washed two white shirts, and cleaned up the stained knee from the fall at Genoa's train station.  We reconnoitered the lobby and ground floor to get our bearings.  Per the tour's message board, our guide is named Nicholas (no last name), and all are to meet in the lobby at 5 p.m.