Shopping in Rome

We decided to go into Rome today to do some shopping, in the same area Alex and I had been in yesterday. So everyone came along this time, saw the sights Alex and I saw yesterday, and then we saw some new sights and went shopping.

The first sight we saw was the church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli, in Piazza del Popolo. This is one of the famous twin churches in Rome. There are two almost identical churches on either side of a street that make a pretty picture. However I couldn't get a picture of both because of the police parade. (More on that later.) Anyways, here's the church. It has the distinctive feature of being completely round inside.


This is the interior. A very interesting interior. Very somber, with lots of black granite, grey marble, and muted colors.


Nevertheless, the high altar was truly beautiful.


As I mentioned above, I couldn't get a picture of both churches because Piazza del Popolo was cordoned off for the celebration of the Police Force's 155th anniversary. Here is part of the parade. (The band.)


These guys are much cooler than the band. Fully automatic 9 millimeters, ski masks, flak jackets....mmhhmm.... :) They also had the underwater rescue team, complete in scuba gear, the ski team, complete with skis, and the canine unit.


Oh and these guys were even cooler. The CAV!

So after the parade we went shopping down the various streets. Here's mom checking out some of the leather goods.


Then we bought some fresh ravioli from a pasta shop.


We had left home at 9 am, and didn't get home until 5 pm. As you can see, as we climb the street to the metro station, Augustin was a little tired :)

Shock Troops

Everyone else had some errands to do today, so Alex and I decided to go into town to "feel out" an area we have been wanting to visit. It's quite easy to get to; we took the metro to the Flaminio stop, got out, walked one street over and there we were on Via del Corso. It turns out that they were preparing for the 155th anniversary of the Police Force (which takes place tomorrow) and we got to see this car. Yep, that's a Lamborghini police car.


What we came to see was the Ara Pacis, an altar built by the Emperor Augustus between 13 and 9 BC. It was intended to celebrate the Pax Romana or Roman Peace which came as a result of the Emperor's rule. This is a picture of the Emperor's family tree.


The Ara Pacis was located on the Campus Martius, the floodplane of the Tiber river. The Campus Martius was where the Roman army used to drill, train, and perform all their military maneuvers. Unfortunately, over the centuries the Ara Pacis was covered with about 12 feet of silt from the river. They had quite a job excavating it. Because the ground covering it was marshy, and mostly silt, they could not get the excavating equipment near enough the ground to hoist the Ara Pacis up. They ended up sinking pipes into the ground, 55 of them, 7 meters long. Then they pumped liquid carbon dioxide into the pipes. As the carbon dioxide evaporated, it froze the ground to -40 degrees solidifying it, and allowing them to excavate the Ara Pacis. It was in relatively good condition, however several of the panels were broken and some pieces were missing. Today the Ara Pacis has been reconstructed, and plaster casts have been fitted in the gaps left by the missing parts. Here is a shot of the Ara Pacis as it appears today. This is a model in the museum downstairs.


This is a frontal shot of the same part of the real thing.


This is inside the Ara Pacis, showing the altar that animals would be sacrificed on to the pagan gods.


If you noticed on the panels above there are many vines and flowers decorating the Ara Pacis. So far over 70 different species of flora have been identified as being sculpted on the panels. This picture shows just 4 of them. Look at the picture of the sculpture, then the picture of the real-life plant. Isn't it amazing?


Another shot of the back of the Ara Pacis with me standing in front of it.


After we left the Ara Pacis we went to the church of Sant' Ambrogio e San Carlo. This beautiful Baroque church was built in 1699 in honor of the two great saints from Milan, St. Charles and St. Ambrose.


Inside the church is this magnificent statue of Judith holding the severed head of Holofernes.


I'm fascinated with ceilings and this one is an incredible one :) This church is famous for its frescoes; in fact we got an entire book just on the frescoes. I think they give the Sistine Chapel a run for its money.


Also in this church is this HUGE painting of St. Olav, a Norwegian king who converted to Christianity.


Behind the main altar is the incorrupt heart of St. Charles Borromeo. It was donated to the church in 1614 by his cousin.


This church also had an amazing pulpit. Look at the variety of marble used to construct it!

Another full day

Today we spent walking around Rome. It was a beautiful day out, and not hot at all. Our first stop was the Piazza Barberini where there is a lovely fountain of four dolphins holding up a seashell which Triton is sitting in. However today, the fountain was drained, and the men were busy sweeping up the coins that people throw in.


We came upon the Oratory of the Blessed Sacrament church on our way to our next stop and stopped in. Here is a shot of the choir loft and organ. The ceiling was great!


And this is a really great fresco of David on the right hand side of the altar, done in 1854.


Then we stopped in a Sicilian pastry shop and everyone got cannoli. Here is mom with hers.


And here is Philomena in front of another fountain with hers.


Behind the fountain is Trajan's column. It's amazing, and probably my favorite column in Rome. I believe there's info on it in another entry, so do a search for it if you're interested!


Then we stopped for lunch. Here is a picture of everyone laughing because Alex accidentally squirted lemon in the eye of the guy at the next table over.


Next we went to the church of Sant' Ignazio. It is a beautiful Baroque church built in 1626. This is a shot of the main altar, and the frescoes behind it, by Pozzo.


This is a picture of a side altar. Note the twisting green marble columns, with the bronze accenting. Below the altar is the tomb of St. John Berchmans.


This is the ceiling of the church. All the frescoes were done by Pozzo. It's not a great shot, but if you look in the back, you can see what looks like a dome. However it is not a dome. It is merely a painting of a dome, with an illusionist perspective. It is believed that the creators of the church didn't have enough money to build a dome, so they had one painted on. The "dome" is black however, because it was painted on canvas which has blackened over time. Currently there is talk of restoring it. If you go here, to this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ignazio.jpg you can see a better picture of it and imagine it in full color. Amazing isn't it?


This is a closeup of the tomb. There is another one on the other side of the church with the body of St. Aloysius Gonzaga. The tombs are made out of Lapiz Lazuli, a precious stone mainly found in Afghanistan. (Do an Ebay search on it to find out how expensive it is.)

Andrew's Confirmation

Following are some pictures of Andrew's Confirmation on Sunday. Mr. Pare` (his sponsor) couldn't be here so Pietro stood in as proxy.

This is the Roman sunrise the morning of the big day.


His Excellency Bishop Alphonso de Galarreta, during the sermon.


And here is Andrew getting confirmed, even though you can't quite see him. Left to right, Don Davide, HE de Galarreta, Don Adriano. In the foreground is Don Fausto.


A picture of Andrew and Pietro after the ceremony.


The hall before the banquet which was held after the ceremony.

Ready for guests!

OK folks, we are ready for you to come visit! We even have a van to take you around in, see? Hehehee. This is Pietro who is a bus driver for tourists, and this is his (company's) van. He came by the other day to show it to us and took us for a spin. It even has a microphone which you can see me using.



Another picture of all the kids and Pietro in the van.

Orvieto

Today was a national holiday so we decided to take a day trip to Orvieto. We met some good friends named Erminio and Tommasina, who mom and dad had actually met 20+ years ago when they were first here. Orvieto is a great little mountain town about an hour and a half north of Rome. It was originally an Etruscan settlement, then a Roman colony, then a medieval village, one of the papal states and finally a modern town. So as you can imagine, there is a lot of history. One of the main things we came to see was the Eucharistic miracle that is in the cathedral, so read more about that below.

Anyways, this is mom browsing one of the pottery shops. I couldn't even count the pottery shops, there were so many of them.


Orvieto also has a nice outdoor market. This is mom, and Tommasina trying a hat on Philomena. (They ended up getting it.)


There were also these candles, handmade. Aren't they pretty?


We went up to the top of the medieval palace. This is a shot of me up top.


This one-man-band was marching through the streets, so I had to take a picture. It's crazy what you see over here. You'd never see this back in the states. I mean, what makes this guy randomly decide to go outside and march around? He was kicking his feet, which would beat the drum, rattling his shaker, and grinding his organ. Definitely an experience.


They also had many food stalls with local and Italian specialties. This stall was selling truffles. They had some dips you could sample which were very good, but 25.00 a jar. Ouch!


Then we stopped for lunch. We ate lunch in the park which over looks the valley below. Here is Alex on the wall.

Here is everyone laughing about something, I'm not sure what. The fellow in the center is Erminio.

Then we walked back through the town to the cathedral. Here is a typical Orvieto street.


This is the cathedral. It's amazing that such a tiny town has such an incredible edifice. It's one of the most beautiful Gothic cathedrals in the world. The cathedral is striped white marble and black basalt, and dates back to the 14th century.


Here is a shot of the facade. All the images on the facade are mosaics. Incredible, no?

This is a picture of the mosaics going up one of the columns. The precision of the spiral columns is incredible.

This is the interior of the duomo.

This is the corporal that is the main reason we came to Orvieto.

In 1263 a German priest, Peter of Prague, stopped at Bolsena while on a pilgrimage to Rome. He is described as being a pious priest, but one who found it difficult to believe that Christ was actually present in the consecrated Host. While celebrating Holy Mass above the tomb of St. Christina (located in the church named for this martyr), he had barely spoken the words of Consecration when blood started to seep from the consecrated Host and trickle over his hands onto the altar and the corporal. You can read the complete story by clicking the following link. http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/mir/bolsena.html

This is the corporal with the blood stains on it. (Not a great picture). They form an image that is similar to that of the face of Christ on the shroud of Turin.

After we left the cathedral we went outside to the "Pozzo" or well. The well is an amazing feat of architecture. It was dug to provide for the castle in time of seige, and is 62 meters deep. However it contains two spiral staircases that go down to the bottom, and yet do not intersect! This was done so that donkeys could go down the steps (which are really more like ramps) without bumping into eachother. You enter the well from one side, and descend to the bottom. You cross the water, which puts you on the other side of the well, and ascend to the top using a DIFFERENT stair case. It really is amazing, being inside the structure, so deep in the ground. Here is a picture of the well from the outside.

This is a picture looking down. Note the windows carved into the rock. And if you look at the veeeery bottom you can see the little bridge, and the water.

This is when we were about 1/3rd down, looking up to the surface.

A shot of us on the steps. Look how nice the way down is! Nice and large...but imagine how much rock they had to remove.