Triclinium Leoninum

We started the day with breakfast at the hotel, catching up with Peter and Grace, and Paul and Janine. Janine had nearly lost her phone to a beggar thief the night before but Paul had chased the beggar and recovered her phone, and tow additional phones of others at the restaurant. He was the hero of the hour.
We then caught a bus to the Basilica of St John in Lateran, a church established first in 324ad just 12 years after Constantine had legalised Christianity in the Roman Empire. It is a huge church, alongside a palace occupied by the pope for hundreds of years until the Middle Ages. And outside the church is a huge obelisk taken from the temple of Karnak in Egypt where it had been placed in 1400BC. The first place it occupied in Rome was at the centre of the circus maximus, until it was relocated to this significant church.
The twin obelisk from the Temple of Karnak was placed by Constantine in the hippodrome in Istanbul where it can still be seen today.
The interior of the church was very impressive and it is one of the four major basilicas in Rome.
We stopped for coffee and refreshments at a small cafe across the road from the church before catching a bus back to the hotel.
We then explored the church across the road from our hotel which is also one of the four significant basilicas in Rome - the Basilica of Saint Mary Maggiore. This church was founded in about 450AD on the Esquiline Hill in Rome, not far from the Termini Railway station today, it is an impressive church and the hotel we are staying in was built 600 years ago as a palace to house the cardinals who were candidates in the election for Pope.
Lots of amazing history. Then we went to the Mercato adjacent to the station for lunch. It is a high quality food market. The pizzas are some of the best in Rome.Read more