I had planned on a ‘down’ day in Rome to recover from the jetlag. I had figured it would be Monday, but it turned out to be Tuesday. 

CJ woke up at about 11pm Monday night, and couldn't get back to sleep for 4 hours. Eventually I woke up, then Robby. I got about an hour of sleep that night, Kathy didn't get too much more than that. The kids got more, but not nearly enough. I started reading Harry Potter by flashlight at about 4am, and decided that the day was going to be relatively short and painful due to our lack of sleep. While I was in the shower CJ threw up. We at first decided it was from exhaustion and lack of food, since he hadn’t had anything to eat the day before except breakfast, and not too much the day before that. Then he threw up a few more times, and Kathy decided he had a virus. 

Bob and I decided to spend a few hours exploring by ourselves - we walked to the Spanish Steps, which seemed to me to be highly overrated. The view from the top of the steps was unimpressive – television antennas everywhere. We checked out the church above the Spanish steps, then went to the Cappuccin Crypt, which was very, very strange. It was almost impossible to believe that in this beautiful tree lined neighborhood was hidden a crypt with thousands of human bones shaped into ‘art’ (and candelabras…) and a few mummies. None of it was too impressive, but we'd at least checked them off our list. 

Bob and I had a great lunch in a café on via Barberini. We tried to check out the Santa Maria Vittoria (a church with another Bernini statue), but it had closed at noon, not 1pm as RS' book had indicated. When we got to the Baths of Diocletian, the big building labeled Planetarium was closed. We eventually found the Church Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri (Church of St. Mary of the Angels and Martyrs) at the sites of the bathes at Piazza Republica. It is incredible - its huge, and the acoustics are such that you can hear the slightest noises bounce off the walls. After a while I consulted ‘the book’ and realized we'd bagged our second Michelangelo, since he'd designed this building. 

Roma - Santa Maria degli Angelia Notice the notch in the column to allow the light to hit the sundial	Roma - Santa Maria degli Angelia The sundial - the time is now 'crab's butt'

Bob noticed an article in Italian near a strange chart on the floor that was roped off, and soon we realized that this was a calendar. A hole in the ceiling indicated the date at a certain time of day, and we were there at a few minutes after the appointed time - we could see the beam of light shining through the hole, through the slice in the arch overhead, and on the ground. Way cool - RS didn't describe any of this in his book. We couldn’t determine the meanings of the markings on the ground - there were two different sets of numbers, both increasing, as well as symbols, which I later realized must mark off the months of the year. This turned out to be Pope Clement XI’s sundial, built in 1703, which became the official time reference for Rome for over 150 years. 

By the time we returned to the hotel at about 2pm the family was going stir-crazy. CJ seemed fine, so we decided to head back out. I pointed us to the museum. Bob & Karin had indicated the staff was on strike when they'd checked it earlier, but it was open now. We saw more statues and busts than I can remember ever seeing before. This time CJ wasn't too interested, but Robby listened intently to everything in the audioguide and was very into it. I unfortunately was very exhausted, and didn't really appreciate too much. The museum was only in Italian, and there was very little information on the background of each item there. I realized later that the audioguide really limits your pace. I was impressed by the full bronze statue they'd found in the Tiber, and by the sarcophagi. The basement was full of coins, which I found really boring.  I think at this point I was far too exhausted to enjoy anything. Bob loved it and would have stayed for hours, but he was far too polite to let on. The kids enjoyed it too. 

We came back to the hotel, then went out for dinner at Lu Cucina Nazionale. Rob got spaghetti and ate most of it. CJ got a pizza and at about half of it. When we got back to the hotel my half-liter of wine kicked in quickly and put me mercifully to sleep.