Day Three: Our visit to Piazza del Populo

This was a short metro ride from our hotel. The prominent structures that struck us immediately was the monument above
and the two churches. We visited the one on the right which is Santa Maria dei Micol.
its interior was beautiful. Information on the church. The obelisk is one of the many that dot the city of Rome.
The real reason we wanted to visit this square was this hard to find church, Cerasi Chapel, S. Maria del Popolo.
It had a very interesting small pipe organ in one of the upper lofts, but this was not the reason we wanted to find the church.
As you can see from the pictures to the right and below, the interior of the church was imposing and very beautiful. We do not know who did the painting in the side chapel.
But, the real reason for our interest is seen below. In a side chapel are two famous paintings by Merisi da Caravaggio in the 1600's. He has the reputation of being both a major painter and a murderer. From JT205, "Short, ugly and irascible, Caravaggio cut a swathe the length of the Italian peninsula and beyond." There is much more on the painter in Judy's book.
The Crucifixion of St. Peter The Conversion of St. Paul
Should this be called, "The Decapitation of a Saint?" We found it amusing that a confession booth was built right over the head of the image of the poor chap buried below.
We decided to walk through a nice, cool park.
We discovered we were walking on Washington Street.
The Washington Monument, this wasn't. Not wanting to get lost
or walk too far, we found the J8 bus went back to the train terminal and very near our hotel. End of morning.
This is the cool sign on the upper level of the new train terminal.
And this is one of the lower mall shopping areas. New in 2000.
For our last afternoon in Rome, we decided to take the B metro one stop beyond the Colosseum and walk up on the other side of Circus Maximus on the back side of the Roman Forum to Capitoline Hill. Indeed, we had not had enough of "2000 year old rocks". The pictures above and below are of the Forum area from across Circus Maximus.
Our walk took us on Via d. Cerchi where we saw this church and this old arch, both unidentified. Nothing is open before 3 PM.
Up, up and up. Could this be a remains of an aqueduct? Finally, we got a very good view of the Roman Forum.


This impressive building is Senators' Palace, Capitoline Hill. "Although designed by Michelangelo for Paul III, The buildings ... were not completed until 1600." (JT 164)
 
This Bronze equestrian statue is of the roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (then thought to be either Constantine or Antonius Pius) and was transferred here from St. John Lateran.
Michelangelo was against this because he wanted one of his statues to adorn the site. Mike didn't win them all!
Senators' Palace
Our walk took us to essentially the same place we had started
our Roman Forum walk. Remember this "rostrum" on the right of this splended arch?
But here, were were considerably higher up.
Another obelisk just before we plunge into the city to our home.
 
I noticed this plaque on the little, unimpressive basilica on my left, and asked Elaine, "Are you up to one more basilica?" "Sure," she said, and we went in and took the nice interior shot of this little place. After we got back to the hotel and Elaine checked the Judy Testa book, we noticed that this was the third church in our neighborhood which was dedicated to lady saints of the Roman Catholic church.
We are eating our last meal in Italy at a very small restaurant across the street from our hotel. it has been a fantastic trip, one which we will remember for many years to come. We hope you all enjoyed this travelogue. We certainly enjoyed reliving the experience through our pictures.
The picture to the left was taken by a passerby while were were walking down Panisperna toward S. Maria Maggiere. (Below.) All we had to do was bare left on Urbana straight to our hotel.
Basilica Di S. Pudenziana
The predominant church dedicated to the predominant lady Mary, mother of Jesus, was S. Maria Maggiere. But Sisters Pressaida and Pudenziana were sainted very early in the Roman Christian era before the rise of the Mary era, and now the Church doesn't even admit to the existence of the other two ladies. But their basilicas still exist, even though they are overshadowed, even in this neighborhood, by the major lady, Mary.
 

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