Back-To-Back Swings and Misses

Hey, here's the time to NOT go to churches in Rome. . .during church services (unless you are Catholic and speak Italian, then it's all good).  

It's understandable that they don't want you walking around gawking during services, but it also means we whiffed on two back-to-back church visits after visiting Largo Argentina.

The first visit was to Santa Maria Maggiore, which is in what is known as "Pilgrim's Rome" (at least to Rick Steves).  We had stayed across the piazza from the church during our 2007 family visit to Italy.  I remember being impressed by the church.

Maria really want to go into the church that shares her first name (that's tongue in cheek -- it seems half the churches in Rome are named Santa Maria Something Something.  

Built in AD 432, after the Visigoths sacked Rome (the city was sacked as many times as a Giants quarterback), and shortly before the emperors gave up being emperor, the church is famous for its fifth-century mosiacs.  

It also is said to have fragments from the manger of Jesus in Bethlehem.  While we could see the mosaics high up in the nave near the ceiling, we could not get to the area below via steps near the altar, because with service going on, we weren't allowed there.  

I'm not complaining.  I fully understand, but that does not mean it was not disappointing to not get to see the fragments.

(Editor: Three "nots" in one sentence?  Let's see you diagram that sentence!  Writer: I have NOT diagrammed a sentence since elementary school or middle school.  Editor: After reading that sentence in the previous paragraph, I believe you!)

There were important works of art that we couldn't see either.  But, what we could see best were the mosaics in the Nave.  Since Maria was letting me use her camera (which is the same one I had until I left it in the cab!), I was able to zoom in and see the mosaics.  We also couldn't get to see Bernini's tomb, which is near the manager fragments.

The service ended as an impressive array of bishops, priests, and maybe even a cardinal processed out, looking very Catholic (Editor: Well, they ARE Catholic, so that's not a surprise).  Alas, they didn't immediately take down the barriers to the main parts of the church, so we left.

Outside, the bells of the church started ringing, so I took a video (separate post below) showing the church, and the obelisk.  Give it a listen with the sound up -- the bells will transport you back in time.

From there, we headed to the nearby Baths of Diocletian/Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli.  Yup, Diocletian is the same Roman emperor who, after he split the emperor's job, retired to Split and built his palace.  We went there earlier this year. 

Rick Steves' refers to the Baths of Diocletian as the "granddaddy" of Roman public baths.  Built around AD 300 and covering 30 acres, the baths could cleanse 3,000 Romans at a time (margin of error +/-9).  

The former main hall can still be visited, because some guy named Michelangelo helped transform it into the Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli in the 1560s.  So we went into the church, and, yes, there was a service going on, we could not out the former baths/current church.  

After lunch, we went to Via XX Settembre for what Rick Steves calls the "Baroque Surprises Stroll -- a brief half mile walk that features five Baroque churches and five fountains.

Also, the Baroque churches were all closed for Sunday afternoon, including the Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, which includes what some call Bernini's best-known statue, St. Teresa in Ecstasy.

The Fountain of Moses was both impressive and working!  This public fountain brought clean, fresh water to the neighborhood in the late 1580s.  And, from that fountain, water (brought in by a 15 miles long aqueduct) was also distributed to dozens of other nearby fountains. 

A fellow by name of Domenico Fontana ("Fountain") sculpted Moses in celebration of his ability to bring forth water in the desert.  (This stuff isn't just random, you know?)  The columns are recycled from ancient ruins, and lions spitting water is pretty darn cool.

We saw what is considered the first Baroque facade (1603) on one church, and then a round church (built in 1598), because it used one of the corner towers of the Baths of Diocletian -- and it is blocks away from the central hall (which reminds us just how big the baths are!).

We passed the Italian Ministry of Defense, which is smaller than the Pentagon by just a bit, on our way to the Quattro Fontane, which has four fountains on the four corners of an intersection.  All but one were working.  

Back in the day the fountains served as refreshment stops as pilgrims came into the city.  The fountains depict river gods relaxing in the shade.  These were also designed by Domenico Fontana as well.  

(I will never be able to give my name to something as impressive as fountains, but maybe, just maybe, there will a move to call funny, interesting travel blogs as "Bolgers" instead of "blogs."  Or not.)

It wasn't our most satisfying afternoon, but it just means we need to go back to Rome for four days or so to see the myriad of places we didn't get to, or were closed, or were under renovation.  All in good time, all in good time.