Chris & Kelly's Travel Adventures

Lets call today a wrap up day.  We took a part of our unscheduled day to visit a list of churches that we had not found time to do so.

We cannot call this day a complete success as two churches high on our agenda (Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, and Santa Maria della Vittoria) are closed for cleaning and renovations...so no can do :(  Sopra Minerva is a gothic structure with vivid blue ceilings w/gilded stars and red ribbing, and della Vittoria has a Bernini statue called "Ecstasy of St. Teresa", some of you will recognize this statue from Dan Brown's movie "Angels and Demons"...the statue having to do with fire. 

The lead photo is a figure of Moses from a Michelangelo wall structure in the last church we saw today.  St. Peter in Chains.

The 1st church we got to visit today was Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli.   The church (designed by Michelangelo) was built in the 16th century within the ruins of the roman baths of Diocletian, which is why the exterior looks so much older than the interior.  This is the first church that I've seen use pink and purple color in their stained glass windows.

Next up was Basilica Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore.  It is the largest of St. Mary's churches within Rome, and the title of Papale basically means the property is fully owned by The Vatican, so has a status similar to a foreign embassy.   This Basilica is so large it takes up an entire block and I had to take 2 separate photos to capture the front and the back!

Under the canopy of the main altar is a double staircase to a crypt that is said to hold some remains (wooden shards) of the original nativity.  As this is Vatican property, its size should come as no surprise, nor that the interior is lavish with paintings, sculptures, stained glass and frescoes. 

Every day I try to find a nice place for us to eat lunch or dinner on our specific route for the day.  Usually something happens that ruins those plans.  So day after day we find ourselves exhausted and hungry and have to pick a restaurant at random.  While there have been a few tourist traps, we have stumbled on more than a few gems.

Today was no exception, another gem to add to our list.  We tried their bruscetta sampler with pomodoro (tomato), black olive, asparagus, black truffle and artichoke.  Surprisingly our favorite was the asparagus and the artichoke while the black truffle was bland.  We chose a ravioli stuffed with ricotta and spinach in a ginger/lemon/pecorino sauce for our primi and chicken in a 4 cheese sauce for our secondi.  Everything was exceptional.

Fueled with good food (+espresso) we faced a hellacious set of stairs between us and the last church of the day...Basilica di San Pietro in Vincoli, which enshrines the chains that held the apostle Peter captive.  (St. Peter was jailed several times throughout his life and he was eventually crucified upside down.)

Side note- while waiting for the church to open, we noticed an adjacent building which turned out be Sapienza Universita di Roma.

For us, the most interesting aspect of the church was a wall sculpture by Michelangelo that was supposed to be the tomb of Pope Julius II.  It contains the figure of Moses and was supposed to contain over 40 other figures.  Michelangelo was not allowed to finish because Bramante (a jealous contemporary who was working on St. Peter's Basilica and envious over Michelangelo's commission for the tomb) convinced Pope Julius II to have Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel.  Bramante incorrectly assumed that Michelangelo's painting skills were not equal to his sculpture skills.  Guess who got the last laugh?!?