Arrivedercci Italia

Our last day it was blowing a small gale and raining buckets. The south Asian umbrella and plastic poncho hawkers were making a fortune. We borrowed some umbrellas from the B&B and walked/ran to the Church of San Clemente, a 15th century church, that although small, by roman standards, was beautiful in its own right. But it's what is hidden underneath was fascinating, excavations in the 1870s revealed a 4th century church that had been partially raised to build the present day church. Some of the frescoes, inlaid marble floor, and marble columns were still intact. New walls and vaulted ceilings had been built to to support the structure above. It was clear that the walls were built from rubble of the old; there were fragments of intricately carved marble in the rough masonry.
Then in the next level down there were the remains of pre-Christian roman buildings including a Mithrian cult meeting place and a house with running water either from a spring or an aqueduct. It was the first place this trip that the layers of Ancient Rome and the transition from the pantheistic empire through the Holy Roman Empire, the fall, and then the Renaissance to the modern Rome was so clear.
After a wonderful lunch at what was obviously a very popular local spot we retrieved our bags and jumped on the Leonardo Express to our sleep and fly hotel in Fiumincino, closing the circle.
The last Italian experience was L's dive into Grappa as an aperitif...although quite interesting the one small glass left me feeling a little rough at our 0400 wake-up to catch our flight.

Ci vediamo dopo...