Alessandro Poerio, 63

Once again, this morning we got the rag end of breakfast. It finishes at the ungodly hour of 10:00 a.m. And we struggle to get there by 9:30!

After breakfast sorted our selves and headed off to Trastevere. Some distraction along the way (shops) and a stop at a cafe for a drink. Then headed up Monteverde (Green Hill) to our destination at Alessandro Piero, 63. Otherwise known as Padri Maristi. Otherwise known as the Headquarters of the Society of Mary – Marist Brothers. There to catch up with Paul Martin former Principal of St Pats Town who has been based here since February.

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It’s rather a smashing headquarters. Built in 1925 its got great views from the roof terrace as you can see. It’s beautiful inside but in quite a simple way – except the chapel: see below. It’s set outside the old city walls – was in the countryside when it was built. Walking around the area later on there’s a lot of post war development. All apartment living. The concept of a quarter acre paradise has never existed here.
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The bottom row of photos show the chapel in the small attached convent and the access tunnel. The nuns have control over access. A Mexican order rotate nuns through who do cooking etc for those in HQ. Met them – they were quite delightful. Because we were with Paul we got hugs and kisses. We had lunch there – very civilised, a prelunch drink and a glass of wine with lunch: pasta, then a meat and veg dish and then a salad. Thursday is the day the nuns have off. So we got the Italian cook.  After lunch a short hymn and prayer in the main chapel. Once Wellington educational issues had been updated Paul took us, on foot, to St Paul’s Beyond the Walls.
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St Paul’s Outside the Walls is Vatican territory- hence the designation of Zona Extraterritoriale. It’s the site of the burial of St Paul. It’s massive the second largest Bascilica in Rome. They started work on it in the 5th century. Obviously there were developments over the centuries but it was essentially unchanged for over 1400 years until 1843 when a careless workman fixing the roof started a fire which destroyed the nave. Just shows the importance of good tradies.
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The Tiumphal arch is original 4th century and its Mosaics are 5th century, (top row). Get that! The mosaics in the apse (bottom row) are 13th century as is the tabernacle (centre picture). They are completely amazing.
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Paul introduced us to Roman public transport. Cheap and on this attempt efficient. A metro to Colosseo and then a bus to via Corso and a short walk to hotel. Vanity Ivess had told me to get a cane.la gelato from Blue Ice. As any sensible teacher would do I did as the office staff “suggested”. They didn’t have cane.la so settled for hazelnut. Weather app said it was five degrees feeling like one. But tomorrows predicted maximum is three! 

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