Two Churches and a Cold

Ciao!
We are all studying hard here in Roma. However we have had an outbreak of sickness in our group- several people have got the flu and just about everyone else has a cold, runny nose, allergies, or some other ickyness. Fortunately I have only had a cold (or allergies, I can’t tell which) so the worst that I am dealing with is going through a box of tissues a day.
This week we have started learning about the early Christians. Yesterday we went to visit two medieval churches, and they were exquisite. The first is from the eleventh century or so, but it was built atop another church from the fourth century which as built atop old Roman apartments and temples. It has all been well excavated and restored, and they let people go down into the basements to explore the ancient temple and the older church. It was amazing! We could see the river that was once used to flood the Colloseum flowing through the basement, and the ancient roman temple still had stars painted on the stucco of its ceiling! Then, when you rose one level you could see the ancient church. It was so amazing. The church still had the same form, but it was much simpler and less ornate than the later churches. It also had the first instance of written Italian ever on one of the frescos, which was so cool! The walls were decorated with frescos that were still mostly intact and the floor still retained much of its mosaic work. Going up yet another level brought you into the eleventh century church, which is still used today. It has a beautiful mosaic floor made by slicing old colored marble columns and turning the pieces into a patchwork quilt-like design. The nave of the church was also exquisite. It was a mosaic done in glass paste tiles that haven’t faded over the last thousand years. It was beautiful.
The second church that we visited was a newer church that was also used as a fortification that the Pope would flee to whenever the fighting between the papal and the Imperial troops got to dangerous for him at his church. We saw a beautiful fresco there and a lovely cloister garden. The church is inhabited by one of the most cloistered order of nuns. They have as little contact with the public as possible, so getting to see the cloister was a treat. It was so calm and peaceful, with a little fountain in the middle of beds of day lilies and camellias inside a small courtyard with graceful double columns all the way around. It was a lovely way to end the day.
I hope everyone at home is doing well, and I hope you save a little of the snow for me J
Kristine