It's so wonderful to have the time to really explore Rome instead of trying to overload a short trip! Today, after finishing our midterms, my roommate and I went on what I'm calling a "Church Crawl," the art-lover's equivalent of a pub crawl, to scope out a few churches right around school. As we're always drained after class and tend to be lugging around textbooks, we headed home to drop off our books and rest, then headed out, refreshed and in church-friendly attire (many churches in Rome will deny you entrance or make you wear a scarf to cover your shoulders if you fail to meet their dress codes).
Our first destination? Santa Agnese, a stunning Baroque church by Borromini bordering Piazza Navona (a five minute walk from school). Covered in gold and massive marble Corinthian columns, the church also has very colorful scenes inside it's huge dome. We saw a group of nuns come in and pray (not, somehow, singing "How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?" ....).
Next up? San Luigi dei Francesci, where one of the chapels has three large Caravaggio paintings in all their glorious vibrant color. The most famous of the three, "The Calling of Saint Matthew," was my personal favorite and the motive for the visit, but the other two were also interesting and definitely worth note.
Last on our trip was a church we stumbled upon by accident on our way to San Luigi, San Agostino. To our delight, there was a Raphael painting on one of the walls, a chapel designed by Bernini, and another Caravaggio in one of the chapels. I had just remarked to my roommate, Lily, that it looked like his style when I checked the information in front of it and, sure enough, there was a reason for such strong resemblance. :P
Quite an afternoon! And, of course, we made it back in time for dinner which should be any minute now (we usually eat at 8:30). Our signora is such an amazing cook! Can't wait! Ciao!
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