Roman Churches and other Rome, Italy Off The Beaten Path Tips

Let's face it. You won't go short of a church in Rome. There are some fabulous ones though most people just go to see St. Peter's Basilica. Santa Maria Maggiore and St Pietro in Vincula (St. Peter in chains) are excellent choices. Neither is far from the other and they're both close to the Train station. St. peter in Chains has the status of Moses by Michelangelo and is a lot more accessible than the Pieta in St. Peter's. S. maria Maggiore is has some stunning chapels and frescos and the highest bell tower in Rome.

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Tourists to go to see the catacombs but it doesn't seem to be on the top of most lists. We were of two minds whether to take the option tour and in the end we did.

The San Callisto Catacombs were just a Christian cemetery, not a refuge for people being persecuted. Very interesting though and the guide that took us must have been Methuselah's father or one of the original gravediggers! But he was very interesting and really knew his information but you really had to stick with him going through the corridors because you really could get lost in there and it wasn't a place for claustrophobics. You went down 3 or 4 flights of stairs into narrow passageways who's walls were very high, several stories deep. The graves were dug out of the walls and went up 4 or 5 levels up. Turns out they started at the top and dug down as it got filled up and there are several more levels beneath the one we saw. The graves are now all empty on that level, the bones had been moved to one of the other levels as it would be disrespectful for all these tourists to be gawping at them. There are little family chapels dug in as well with the remnants of decorations on the walls. It was quite cool and self ventilating too which surprised us.

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