E 5th Day Pilgrimage to Rome

5.5.50.
I woke up at 6.45 am, got up and went downstairs but there was no-one
around. Eventually I
discovered people going to Mass at 7.45 am. Margaret and I went with
them to St. Isidore's. At 10
am we went to St. Maria Maggiore, for our Jubilee visit. This basilica
is also known as Our Lady of
the Snows. As in St. Peter's, a vague impression only could be gathered
as we walked in procession
and recited the Litany of Our Lady afterwards singing a hymn to Our
Lady.

From here we went on by coach to St. John Lateran, the "Mother and Head
of all the Churches of the
World." Having recited the Litany of the Saints, we entered, kissing
the Holy Door, and made our visit.
On this occasion the coaches could not wait either to look round the
basilica or visit the Scala Santa.

Cook's had arranged a short tour for us. We passed the ruins of some
ancient Roman baths where open-
air opera is now sung, the pyramid which was the last thing St. Paul
set eyes upon before he was
martyred, the Protestant cemetery where Keats and Shelley are buried,
and an English military cemetery
where the coach paused while we said the De Profundis for those who had
lost their lives in the war.
Further on we visited the very ancient church of St. Maria in Cosmedin.
There is a legend connected
with a massive carving of a face with a large mouth called "The Mouth
of Truth" which says that those
who place their hands in the mouth fear to lie ever again. The church
made of stone dates from the
seventh or eighth century.
In the afternoon Margaret and I went to Cook's to change some money
into lire, and then on to San
Silvestro, the first time we had visited it. Margaret went out with two
others to find a particular shop.
I had been asked by the lady in San Silvestro to order some more
rosaries from the other shop. I set
out to find this other shop. I had been detained a minute and thus
missed Margaret, and I could not find
the shop.

Miss Green took Mrs Kilbride and me with her, saying the others of the
party were following. However
Miss Green, who was looking for a large store could not find it, and as
Mrs. Kilbride was tired we
returned to the hotel.
Margaret arrived back an hour later.