In the name of Mithra give me my bags!

So we've been here for three days, moving steadily into our fourth. Still no bags. Al Italia is being rude and Delta is absent. This is moving from a bit of a minor inconvenience to a major bloody problem and while not as horrid as say genocide or bus bombings its not too fun. We're enjoying Rome despite the fact that we're doing laundry in our sinks every night. We're starting to get a little ripe. Anyway I was struck by that trembling sense of the sublime at St. Peter's square, was amazed by the Sistine Chapel and enjoyed the Keats-Shelley memorial house (where Keats died.) Still so far the best has still been the Basillica Di San Clemente which as sites in Rome go is a bit underrated.

A few tidbits about it:
The Basillica stands on the sight of an earlier fifth century Basillica which stands upon a house in which early Christians established a home church. Winding bellow this excavation is a shrine to Mithras, a Persian Cult that Alexander the Great helped bring across Europe. It became quite popular amongst roman soldiers (it also was the genesis of Zorastrianism which helped give birth to the dualistic concepts found in later Judaism and Christianity, so its kind of a thouroughly pagan grandcousin of the religions of the Book.) It was so widespread that there was actually a shrine in London built by the Roman occupiers, the remains of which can be seen in the Museum of London. In the Basillica di San Clemente beneath the Mithric shrine, down a descent of another twenty feet or so, is an old Roman public building. The excavations began in the 1800s and continue and they keep finding more. It would suprise me that in ten years or so they've unearthed an ancient Etruscan foundation. Its an amazing place.

There will be a full report more than likely drafted on the train to Florence. Hopefully by then I'll have my bags.

And I am quite enjoying Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince even though the European cover is quite thouroughly ugly.