Friday, May 18, 2007

Cultural Week Day 3

Today we ventured into the neighborhood of Piazza Navonna. The weather was great out, a nice breeze, and lots of sun.

These street vendors were sent packing by this cop. The street vendors are mainly from Morocco or Algeria and sell all sorts of cheap (often useless) stuff.



Then we went into the church of Sant' Agnese in Agone. This church was built in the 17th century on the site where St. Agnes was martyred, the circus of Domitian.


Inside is this beautiful altar with this huge relief carved in marble.


There is also the incorrupt skull of St. Agnes in this church. It is contained in this reliquary where it has remained incorrupt since her martyrdom in 304.


There is also this large statue of St. Sebastian surrounded by columns of green marble.


Here's the dome of the church. It's completely covered in frescoes, many of which are impossible to discern. You just spin around on your heels looking around and around the dome.


Here's Domitian's obelisk in Piazza Navonna. It's a copy of an Egyptian one, not the original.


Mom stopped at this fountain, the Fontana delle Api, which was built by Bernini in the 17th century. The bees are the symbol of the Barberini family, which is why there are several bees on the fountain. Mom (as many of you know) loves bees, so we had to stop.


Here's Augustin getting a drink from the fountain.


On the way home mom stopped by a fruit stand and got these limes. The thing is, it's hard to find limes here in Rome, so she decided to get the whole case. She's going to freeze them and then she can make Margaritas with them in the future. C'mon over and have one!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

well you did it again, glad to see you had some "color" in it this time, did you buy any souveniers from them.? now the limes were just great, I see your mom is "thinking ahaed" great for here, and the bees, I thought at first glance they were ant's since she likes them too. AJ you knocked another gret photo op out of the park, you are doing great with the blog I know everyone enjoys looking at the pictures and reading your comments. Thanks for reading mine at mid-night last night Love GP

Ginger Cakes said...

I love it!! Frozen limes! You can muddle them in a glass and just add tequila... it'll be awesome! Pucker up!!!

The history lesson was good, too, Anthony. ;-)

Aggie said...

Ditto everything Erika said.
And I know Mary will ditto me.