Day 3 (Fri Nov 12)
Friday was another very full day in Rome. Our first stop was San Luigi dei Francesi, the main church of the French community in Rome, dedicated to Saint Louis. We visited because it has three beautiful and famous paintings by Caravaggio (1571-1610).
Next up was the Area Sacra dell'Argentina, which is three ruined ancient temples occupying a city block in the heart of Rome. It is also a cat sanctuary, and there were lots of 'em!
Very close to the Area Sacra is Il Gesu, a big Baroque church that is the main headquarters of the Jesuits. The Jesuit order, which emphasizes missionary work, was founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), and his tomb is a main attraction of the church. His rooms are next door and open to the public, but they were closed on the day we visited.
Then we headed back up the Capitoline Hill again, and this time visited the Capitoline Museums. They have a fantastic collection of mainly ancient art, displayed in beautiful Renaissance rooms.
From the Capitoline Hill we walked around the outside of the Roman Forum (you have to pay admission and enter from the other end in order to walk through), from where we had some nice views.
Right next to the Colosseum is the Arch of Constantine, the emperor whose head we saw in the museum. I really like the arch, and the light was very nice, so I took quite a lot of photos of it!
Then we turned around and trudged back the way we came, around the Palatine Hill and past the Circus Maximus, to head for home. But on the way we stopped at two more churches.
The first was Santa Maria in Cosmedin, which is most famous for the "Mouth of Truth" thing on its porch that was featured in the movie Roman Holiday. The porch is always packed with people standing in line to pose for photos with their hand in it, and this time was no different. But the church itself is what I was most interested in anyway - it's nice and old and atmospheric.
A new discovery this time was that you can visit a little crypt underneath the altar for 1 euro. It was very fun and interesting.
And finally, we stopped in San Nicola in Carcere, a church built among the ruins of three temples. Under the church are excavations of those temples, and we were able to explore them on our own (or guided if we'd wanted), for 3 or 6 euros each, I don't remember which. They are moderately interesting, but I mostly just took a few photos for work and we headed out. We were really dragging by then!
We found dinner at a random restaurant on the way home called 12 Apostoli, where we ate outside next to a flame heater. It was fun. The waiter was round, in his 50s, and quite the friendly casanova - he kissed each of our hands when we left.
The food was good, too. Sarah had spaghetti bolognese that was excellent, and I had a combo plate of ravioli and mushroom tagliatelle. The ravioli was fantastic but I didn't like the other dish much.
And finally, when we were almost home we stopped at Muji to buy the suitcase I think I mentioned earlier. Here it is, along with a bunny made from recycled yarn that I like very much.
Then we took turns in the Jacuzzi tub and slept like the dead!