Exciting Epiphany Day in Rome

My Last day in Rome was January 6th, which is the Epiphany - the day celebrating the visit of the Magi to the baby Jesus.  Christmas is Celebrated until then so all the decorations were still up in Rome :)  My family often tried to do this, but because we had a live tree, it didn't always survive until the 6th.

I scheduled a Crypt and Catacomb tour for the afternoon.  In the morning I decided to walk to the Vatican.  There is a Castle near there, on the Tiber River that I wanted to take pictures of.  On my way there I noticed some roads were closed, I saw a lot of bicyclists - I thought maybe there was a race.  As I got closer to the Castle, I heard drumming.  I wandered into a great Epiphany Day Parade.  They were dressed in crazy costumes and walking straight to St. Peter's Basilica.  Some were dressed as witches. La Befana is an old woman in Italian folklore who delivers gifts to kids in Italy on Epiphany Eve - similar to Santa Claus.  There are icecream shops everywhere in Rome, but I hadn't had any - until today.  I got some near St. Peter's and ate it with my gloves on at the parade - it was so cold.

In the afternoon I went on a Crypt and Catacomb Tour with Dark Rome Tours (the same company that I joined for Pompeii and the Vatican) We went to one of the Roman Catacombs.  We went through the winding tunnels and learned all the history.  We weren't allowed to take pictures :( They call Rome an Archeological Lasagna - there are layers of history.  We went to Basillica San Clemente where the sound of running water drove a clergyman to dig through the tiles.  Layers of history were discovered.  You start in a 12th Century church then walk down to where remains of a 4th century church were,  a 2nd century church remains of a Mithraic temple, and 1st century Roman Street.  (57 feet below the surface)  Then we went to the Capuchin Crypt and Museum where the remains of 4,000 Capuchin monks rest.  Their remains were used to decorate - vertebrae chandeliers etc..  Again, we were not allowed to take pictures - so I looked up some on the internet.   It was so cool the way the bones were laid out.  There are laws now that you cannot decorate with human parts anymore so if a piece of bone falls of, no one is allowed to put it back up.

As I was walking back to my hotel -The Mecenate Palace (next to the Santa maria Basilica)  I saw another parade - it was quieter, solemn, and more religious.

A great way to end my trip to Rome :)