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Rome
Choir Pilgramage February,
2010
Our goal is to raise funds so that no choir participant will be left behind. All parties interested in singing with us should contact Rich Pitre, Music Director, St. Charles Borromeo at (207) 725-2624 or by email . You do not have to be a member of St. Charles to join but you do have to be part of the Rome Tour Choir or a guest of a member of the choir. Fund raising is intended to benifits those who will be singing on the tour. Here is a link to Domenico's own B&B: http://www.romeby.com/napoleonebb/ Also, here is his website coordinating umpety ump B&B's - but we'd deal directly with Domenico. He is a great guy! www.bbitalian.com Rose and I are working on lodging prices. Here is a link to a place where we have spent over three weeks all told. We really like it and the price is right. We are looking for similar places to keep things affordable. http://www.romeby.com/napoleonebb/pages/profile.htm. Also, I find this site really interesting: http://www.rome.info/map/ If you click on Santa Maria Maggiore on the right of the screen, you will get an easy zoom into the area that we would propose as our base. Giving directions from the Basilica: If you look at 4:00 from the basilica, you will see the Vittorio Emmanuele park and Metro Station (Station is actually on the East boundary of the park). The park is great for kids and there is a cat sanctuary for those who like that. At 5:00 is the Via Merulana which has a lot of restaurants. Those that the locals frequent tend to be about one block off the main road which offers a pleasant walk to Saint John Lateran where you can catch a bus to the catacombs. At 1:00 are the Stazione Termini where we would arrive from the airport. At 8:00 you can see the Cavour Metro and the Via Cavour, nice shopping, and a pleasant walk to the Foro Romano and the Campi D'Oglio, the Column of Trajan, etc. At 6:00 or so, you see the park where Nero's Palace was and, beyond that, at about 7:00, the colloseum. All these sites were in walking distance with our 4 year old, to give you and idea of the convenience of the place. In the Square of SMM, there are restaurants, a grocery store, lots of busses, street vendors, the Arab restaurant I mentioned, and the lovely little basilica of San Eusebio - a must see, methinks. Also, on the Square is the Russicum where priests (e.g. Blessed Walter Ciszek) were once sent to train to go to Russia. The choir at the Russicum is a "must" on a Sunday morning. If you look at about 2:00 from the Vittorio Emmanuele Metro, you will see some beige-looking areas. These are the outdoor (covered!) markets where you can buy everything fresh. Right next to the markets is the sociology faculty of the pontifical university "Sapienza" with lots of student eateries in the area. Busses and metros we would need are accessible from at least one of the three points: Vittorio Emmanuele, Stazione Termini, Santa Maria Maggiore. We have found this a wonderful location over the years. Quiet, reasonably priced, and centrally located. Besides local sites (I'd like to propose a "ceilings of Rome" tour featuring the Ceilings of Andrea Pozzo (San Ignazio - fantastic!, Il Gesu, Palazzo Barberini) and - of course - the sistine chapel, IF we can tear you away from San Ignazio, we'd propose a trip to Ostia Antica which is practically empty this time of year, and another to the catcombs of San Sebastiano, ditto. |