Originally posted on July 21, 2011 by Canicus

Today was a bit curious. I took the Archeobus that goes through the Via Appia with the intention of visiting the catacombs. When I got there I discovered that you had to go through in groups with a guide, could not leave the group and could not take photographs. Since they are on levels I’m sure there is a good deal of descending and subsequent climbing. I wasn’t sure I wanted to try to keep up with a group in those conditions so I skipped the catacombs.

I went back to the area known as the Bocca della Verita — the Mouth of Truth. It refers to a bas relief in the wall of church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin. Supposedly it will bite off the hand of liars who dare put their hands into it. The church is one of the earliest in Rome and is Eastern Rite Catholic.

From there I walked a few blocks to the Theater of Marcellus which goes back to the days of Augustus Caesar. There is some resemblance to the Coliseum remembering that it makes more sense to say the Coliseum resembles the theater as the theater is roughly a century older. It is still in use for performances.

Then back to Termini for lunch. I returned to the hotel apparently just at the change of shift. One of the ladies at the desk was departing and another arriving. I picked up my key and then when to the entrance way. The lobby is separate from this entrance. You go back out to the street and then through another entrance which is locked and controlled by the lobby desk. I went up to my floor where you have to press a buzzer and the person on the lobby desk unlocks it. But the door isn’t being unlocked. So I returned to the street only to find that now the door to the lobby is also locked. Apparently the afternoon person had checked in and immediately left. Ringing the bell, banging on the door produced nothing. After about 10 minutes she showed up and opened up. This time I was able to get through all the security to my room.

Somehow or other, I managed to switch my camera to black and white mode. So today’s pictures are black and white. Zipped up backups of my pictures now occupy 4 DVDs. There are well over 1,000 pictures so far. Photoshop elements didn’t cooperate again, so I wasn’t able to get captions on today’s pictures.