A couple of days before I left for this trip, I got a phone call from my mom. "Guess what?" she said, "You're cousin, Brian is going to be in Rome this Sunday!" Crazy! After I e-mailed Brian and said, "Hey, we're both going to be in Rome this Sunday. Coffee?" I discovered more craziness: this is Brian's first time in Rome and he only has one day to "see" it. This is probably a good time to mention that Brian is working on his PhD and has a special interest in the role of Ancient Rome in Medieval and Renaissance English literature. This is also a good time to mention that it is no coincidence that Brian's name, rearranged, spells Brain.
Brian and two colleagues were nice enough to let me tag along on their marathon of sight-seeing. We managed to hit San Clemente Basilica (very cool, I'd never been there before), the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Vittorio Emanuele monument, the Church of Maria Sopra Minerva, the Pantheon, a pizza place, the Tiber river, and the Vatican.
Above: Cousins in front of the Arch of Constantine. Don't we look cute?
Brian photographs his daughter Anneka's stuffed giraffe in front of the Colosseum
View of the Colosseum from the North (no family members in this one; keep going, Mom)
So appropriate
We got to hear a men's chorus sing in the Pantheon. The acoustics were huge! (surprise, surprise) We tried to leave, but then they started singing Oh Sacred Head Now Wounded, so, being good Lutherans, we had to come back.
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