It’s hard to believe another week has already flown by. In a little more than five weeks, we’ll be on our way back to Philadelphia leaving this eternal city behind us.
This week was Gwen’s spring break so Lary came into town to spend a “Roman Holiday” with her.
Much of their days were planned with visiting locations from the Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck film, which they also watched one evening. They have visited Ostia Antica, the ruins of the Roman seaport, as well as a day trip to Herculaneum in the shadows of Vesuvius.
I’ve been really digging into my long term photography project of photographing statues. I am finding the most interesting statues in churches, so far this week I’ve been in about ten churches. Thank goodness for Lightroom which helps me keep my photos organized since I tag them with keywords, for example the name of the church or other facts like the class for which it was taken.
Patty and I visited a couple churches last Saturday morning including Santa Maria delle Vittorio which has the Ecstasy of St Teresa by Bernini and across the street the church of San Bernardo which has a Pantheon-like dome including an oculus. On this past rainy Monday morning before classes, we visited three more: St. Prassede, which contained amazing 7th century mosaics, nearby St Pudenziana (Prassede’s sister) considered the oldest location of Christian worship in Rome and back to St. Peter in Chains to finally get a good look at Michelangelo’s Moses, as well as the wonderful depictions of death in that church.
Monday night all four of us went to the Santa Cecelia auditorium at the Parco Della Musica to hear Bach’s St Matthew Passion. I was not disappointed. The performance and the accoustics were amazing, although quite long. We had to walk part of the way home because the Metro stopped running by midnight.
This week the drawing class met at Santa Maria Sopra Minerva. I’ve decided this is probably my favorite church in Rome. It has it all: Gothic architecture, amazing statues, including one by Michelangelo, interesting sculpture, frescos, relics, even a lovely reclining skeleton of a Saint on display. I spent the class coffee break in the church taking more photos.
The photo class this week took photos at the Trevi Fountain. I got some nice abstract kind of shots before we headed to the museum to see a Helmut Newton exhibit. I’ve decided that I like his later work the best.
Thursday Patty took off on a spontaneous trip to Florence to meet up with Coriander and Mason. She rented a room through AirBnb and is very happy with her hostess and her quaint room.
Thursday before class I wanted to try to catch the Santa Cecelia Museum of Musical Instruments and I got all the way there before I remembered they were closed on Thursdays. So since Friday is a day off I thought I would go up there today instead. When I arrived there was a sign that the museum was closed for the “festivo” (holiday) until Tuesday. So I headed back to the area of Piazza del Popolo and started visiting more churches. I managed to get some good pictures in four churches today. Most of the churches had some form of adoration going on since it is Good Friday, so I had to be extra quiet and discreet, but that’s not a problem for me. I love my SLR and my only complaint is that I just wish the shutter wasn’t so loud when I’m in quiet churches.
Gwen has one more day of Roman Holiday with her dad. I’m starting on my final project for design class and Gwen is working on her archeology research paper. The end of the semester goes so fast with all the school work, but I’m still hoping we can continue seeing as much of Rome as we have.
Buona Pasqua! (Happy Easter!)