Day Three: Pious

Pope Pius IX certainly looked pretty pious kneeling before the reliquary containing (reputedly) a piece of wood from the holy crib (couldn't really tell myself as it was enrobed in a rather large casket of silver) in the rather amazing Santa Maria Maggiore. This church wasn't quite as pious as I expected as they only required bare shoulders to be covered but not bare knees...one can only assume that knees are slightly less offensive in the sight of the lord than shoulders....

Again the day was rather hot (33 degrees) but with a bit better planning (and the use of the air conditioned metro) we managed to see a bit more of Rome including the (outside of) the Colliseum...still too hot to queue for tickets (even the locals were feeling the heat). Managed to get our first real Italian coffee at Castroni.

So far today so good...not yet got run over by a moped....