Second Day in Rome - Sunday, October 13

Sunday, 13 October

First the good news.. our cases were delivered this evening. I had gone on line to Alitalia Baggage Assistance and learned that our cases had crossed the Atlantic and that delivery arrangements were being made. Of, course... we had spend the early evening at The Gap picking out a few things to tide us over for another day or two. 

This was an "up and at 'em" day. Literally. The morning exchnage went something like this:

Susan: Bruce, wake up.

Me: huh.

Susan: Its 9:30 am

Me: What!!!!

Susan: what time do we have to be at the Borghese Gallery?

Me: 10:30.

Well, when you don't have your luggage, there's not much you can do to really get ready to meet the day, so we had a quick breakfast in the hotel (included in our room rate) It was OK except the bacon was still oinking... bt it was a buffet, so I stayed away from the bacon.

Nice walk in the Borghese Park up to the Borghese Gallery, once the private, house, mansion, villa, PALACE -Cardinal Borghese... no vow of poverty for this guy, but that vow applies only for monastics.

For the art history major - Susan... some wonderful artwork.. by some of the masters...Also some classical Roman sculptures. What really impressed me was the building itself... the walls and the ceilings all amazing works of art.. that only a 17th century wealthy cardinal could afford. We spent just under 2 hours at the Galleria, and were thankful for the excellent audio guide.

I was there, too!

Then back to the hotel and on to some more touring this amazing city, which included the Trevi ( 3 coins in the) Fountain. Note millions of tourists on a Sunday... well, not millions. 

Stopped in a little cafe for pizza and something to drink.... going through a lot of water and diet coke... because it is very warm in the hot Italian sun.

Then walked over to The Pantheon... built about 2000 years ago, and STILL in use... now as a Roman Catholic church. It was a Roman temple, so its use has not changed much. This building is in the middle of one of the many public piazzas. 

The Pantheon was just one of the churches we visited today.... These 2 clergy did NOT GO to church today, but we did spend a few moments in prayer in several of the beautiful and large churches we visited this afternoon.

Monday, 14 October

To pick up where I left off last night... a long night, since we are still not used to the time cahnge and all that goes with jet lag.

We visited a number of churches yesterday... beautiful, ornate, large churches with very high ceilings, most in the baroque style. Sculptures by Bernini... paintings by Caravaggio... in one the tomb of St. Catherine of Sienna. The ceilings of these churches are magnificent: beautiful paintings. Some photos follow:

    Below: Photographs from inside of the church of Sta. Maria Sopra Minerva (one of the rare gothic churches in Rome.)  This is just down the street from the Pantheon.

    above: the tomb of St. Catherine of Siena 

above: The Risen Christ by Michelangelo

OK... that was a sampling of the interiors of the churches where we were allowed to take photos (no flash).

one of these churches was on the Piazza Navonna, a large plaza with 3 beautiful fountains by Bernini. There was an art fair going on.  So, we stopped there for a good 1/2 hour and sat outside at one of the many cafes... for gelato (Susan) and espresso (Bruce)

Other scenes from the Piazza Navonna:

We needed to save time for shopping for clothes assuming we would be one more day with suitcases, so we headed back to the main shopping area, but on the way passed by the following famous Egyptian Obelisk

Then on to The Gap...then back to the hotel and dinner and exhaustion.