Well here we go the final push. We are in single digits now. The next thing we are looking at is the Vatican Museums. When I went on my tour the tour guide said something like, “if you spend one minute looking at each piece in the museum, it would take you 4 or 5 years to get through the whole museum.” Needless to say, there is a lot there. There is a lot of info on the museum in our guide books. (Pages 234-237) The tour ends with the Sistine Chapel. This is just something you must see to believe. This is where they choose the next pope and the guide book has an excellent layout of the different works in the chapel.

We will then take the Appia Antica to the Catacombs of St. Callixtus, San Callisto. (both of Page 265) The guide book doesn’t have a lot on this, but I found a website that lays out the catacombs. This is where we will have mass, much like the early Christians who did so in secret because of persecution. We will be walking in the exact place where many of the early popes and martyrs walked. I wasn’t able to find to much on the Appian Way. This is the road where Spartacus and his army were crucified along the road stretching for miles, roughly 190 km, about 118 miles. It is suppose to start at the Porta San Sebastiano, but the catacombs and the actual tourist part of the road don’t start until a little further down the road.

http://www.catacombe.roma.it/en/dettaglio.html

http://www.italyheaven.co.uk/rome/appiaantica.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spartacus

MILK