Viator Rome

If you’re going to be in Rome during January, there are two dates to put in your calendar. The first is January 6th, Epiphany. This marks the end of the 12 days of Christmas and the end of the holiday season in Italy. In Rome it’s an important religious day and the Pope leads a morning mass in St Peter’s Basilica.

Two very good reasons to head to Rome during the Christmas season are that the first Christmas mass was said in Rome at the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, one of the city’s five large basilicas and the biggest dedicated to the Virgin Mary; and also that here are located the Vatican and the Pope, head of the Catholic Church in the world and thus epicenter of celebrations of the birth of Jesus.