Day 37 - Rome, Italy

Today's focus: Art in Rome

We made a morning visit to the church Santa Maria della Vittoria to see Bernini's sculpture The Ecstasy of St. Teresa. Bernini is a Baroque sculptor and architect whose work is all over the city - when in doubt, just guess that it's a Bernini, and you probably have a 75% chance of being right. Then we trekked across the city to the Vatican. Brian was amazed by the size of St. Peter's Square (designed by Bernini and studded with his sculptures).

Thankfully I talked Brian out of getting the audioguide for the Vatican Museums (we had podcasts for the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica). We hit all the major works in the museum, including my favorite, The School of Athens by Raphael. Here's a pic of Brian posing like Plato.

Even though it was my third time seeing it, the Sistine Chapel still gave me chills. It was absolutely amazing to just sit in there for an hour, learn about Michelangelo's work, and soak it all in (no pics allowed unfortunately).

St. Peter's Basilica is also awe-inspiring with its huge length of two football fields and dome designed by Michelangelo (it is by far the largest church in the world). Tons of Renaissance and Baroque art decorates the church, including Michelangelo's Pieta and Bernini's Baldacchino. By coincidence we arrived right around 5pm, just in time for daily mass (conducted in Latin and Italian).

We made our way back to Rome by way of the Castel Sant' Angelo, originally a mausoleum for and designed by Hadrian and later used as a papal fort and prison, and then strolled across the Tiber on the Ponte Sant'Angelo (more Bernini statues). For dinner, I had the Roman specialty Bucatini al'Amatriciana - yum!

We finished the day by making a special trip back to the Trevi Fountain for some very special gelato. While we took in views of the fountain, we sampled what is claimed to be the best gelato in Rome (they only serve it in paper cups so as not to contaminate the flavors)!