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).
Baroque interior of San Luigi dei Francesi
The three Caravaggios are in a small side chapel, which is dedicated to Saint Matthew. I'm no art expert, especially not Renaissance art, but I thought these were really something. The light is beautiful and there is so much drama in the scenes. Good stuff. The central painting shows Matthew in his role as gospel author, being inspired by his symbol, the winged man or angel.
The one on the left shows the calling of Matthew. Jesus stands barefoot in the doorway on the right (accompanied by another disciple who looks like Peter), pointing at him. On the left, Matthew (a tax collector) sits comfortably in his finery and gestures as if to say, "Who me?"
The painting on the right shows the martyrdom of Matthew. The apostle, now an older man, is knocked on the ground and menaced by a Roman, while an angel reaches down to hand him a palm frond - the symbol of martyrdom in Christian art.
San Luigi is near Piazza Navona, one of the more famous plazas of Rome. It is shaped like a long horseshoe with two fountains, and is very nice.
Fountain, with another Egyptian obelisk.
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.
Exterior of Il Gesu
Interior
Tomb of St. Ignatius
Mirror provided to look at the opulent ceiling without craning one's neck
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.
Exterior
My very favorite thing in the museum, and the main reason I re-visited: pieces of the ancient colossal statue of the Emperor Constantine (272-337 AD), who I studied quite a lot at Oxford. His statue originally stood inside a large civic building in the Forum, which is just below the Capitoline Hill.
And here's a colossal foot, which is located nearby - I'm not sure if it belongs to Constantine or someone else. But I like it.
Also of interest is this nice sunny gallery, which features some ancient bronzes. The man on the horse is Emperor Marcus Aurelius - a copy of this statue stands in the main plaza on Capitoline Hill (see photo above). The original, seen here, dates from 176 CE.
A really nice ancient Roman mosaic with teeny-tiny tesserae (the little colored tiles).
And this is a pretty great sculpture of Medusa, made by the Renaissance artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini, c. 1640.
View of some domes of Rome from the museum's panoramic terrace, which also has a cafeteria-style restaurant - we split a turkey and cheese panini. The dome of St. Peter's Basilica, designed by Michelangelo in 1546, is on the far left.
Another view from the terrace - this one includes the short concrete dome of the Pantheon (126 CE), in the center.
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.
Then we walked around the Palatine Hill, which is adjacent to the Forum and has more ancient ruins...
...and through the Circus Maximus, where chariot races were held (Palatine Hill visible on the left)...
...and around the other side of the Palatine Hill, which was lovely and green...
...through an ancient brick arch...
...to the Colosseum. We planned to visit the inside of the Colosseum, which I've never done and Sarah really wanted to do. Alas, it was closed already! It closes at 4:30pm in the winter, and last entry is at 3:30. It was 3:40 when we arrived. Oy vey. More research is always better. But at least we were able to take some photos of the exterior.
There's us in the foreground!
Side view with moon
All the lucky folks who made it in before closing
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.
Exterior (note all the people crowding around the fence to see the Mouth of Truth
Interior
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.
Marble stairs leading down
View inside
Interesting niches on the sides - a little crooked!
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!
Bones!
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!
