There is nothing like a trip to the salon to boost a girls mood.

After a very wet Easter weekend, the sun finally came back out on Tuesday. I celebrated by taking myself out for a day of sightseeing. I kicked things off by visiting the church, San Clemente. I had read about this church many times but never visited. It is a church built upon a church, built upon another building. The building on the bottom level is from the 2nd century, the next level is a church from the 4th century, and the main level is a church from the 12th century. This was one of the best preserved and organized ruin I have been to in Rome. It was really well done and very interesting. I couldn't take pictures though so you have to imagine.
Next I went to another church, San Giovanni in Laterano. This is no ordinary church though. You get major bonus points in the Catholic faith for a stop here. This was once the sight of the original papal headquarters before the move to the Vatican. It is a massive, massive, massive church. My guidebook used the turn "hangar". Maybe that is more appropriate. I did give out a little gasp and "oh, ah" when I came in.


After my stop here I walked across the street to visit Scala Santa (Holy Stairs).
Apparently, these are the steps Jesus climbed in the house of Pontius Pilate. They were brought here by St. Helena in the 4th century. You are supposed to say a prayer as you walk up the 28 steps. I stopped to ponder...do I know 28 prayers? I thought of 3 I could say and then thought in my mind it shouldn't have to be an "official" prayer. However, since this was a catholic holy site I decided I probably did need to know 28 official prayers and opted instead to walk up the side stairs to take a peek at the Sancta Sanctorum (Holy of Holies).
Apparently this is where the heads of Peter, Paul, and Agnes were kept at one time. Why do they keep the heads? yucky.

I also did something totally impromptu and spontaneous. I popped into a salon and had my hair colored. I was walking by this little spot and there were two stylists standing in the doorway talking. I walked past them, stopped, turned around and asked if they could color my hair right now. I was able to barely explain what I wanted and even chatted with my stylist a little, all in Italian. When they started me out by washing my hair (not normal for someone who is having color done - you wash afterwards) I started to worry a little. The whole event took forever too between them washing my hair 3 times and the power going out (hello Beirut!) but when they finished my hair looked great!