St. Elizabeth of Cayce: Rome Trip - July 8: The Day of Seven Churches

My notes for this day (a Sunday) are fairly skimpy. I kept track of where we were on an index card I had in the camera bag/purse. I'll let Izzy add nifty art & historical detail, either here, or in the comments. Churches we were able to enter are numbered, in the order we entered them.

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Up @ 9:30 - to (1) St. Mary Major for Sunday Mass. We hadn't remembered to check Mass times, but assumed there would be something at 11 AM.

Sisters on the way to Sunday Mass
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Locating the site for S. Maria Maggiore
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S. Maria Maggiore
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S. Maria Maggiore, Holy Doors

We saw the end of the 10 AM sung Latin Mass** and then stayed for the 11 AM Mass in Italian, which was not nearly as full. It was odd being in Mass with so many tourists wandering around. There was a noisy, active ~4 year old in the seat ahead of us. Her parents made no attempt to rein her in.

On the way home we stopped for groceries at SMA. Izzy found nearly a quart of basil for €1,19! I managed to find a plastic grocery bag with a hole in the bottom while trying to help bag our groceries. It was very amusing to someone...

Random lunch at the apartment (breakfast for Izzy) — yogurt with granola and Caprese salad (Izzy also had espresso and napoleon).

Out for afternoon excursion to various churches (after subway and bus rides).

Seen on our afternoon excursion
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Wedding Cake
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Old and "new" walls

—Santa Maria Sopra Minerva (closed 1st time, much to the consternation of the tour guide re-reading his schedule and quickly adapting his spiel.)

Santa Maria sopra Minerva
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Bernini's Elephant
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— (2) Pantheon (big crowd). Tour book says to visit this one during a rain storm - lightning storm is even better. It was pretty impressive on a sunny day, without the pyrotechnics.

Outside of the Pantheon
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Entrepreneur outside Pantheon
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Light through Dome
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Light through Pantheon Dome
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A bit blurry, but here we are

—St. Ivo (closed - better pic here) & Sant'Eustachio (stag head)

St. Ivo
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Sant'Eustachio (AKA, the Jagermeister church)

—Piazza Navona (the Four Rivers Fountain, which Izzy really looked forward to seeing, was closed and in a big construction box. Lots of pictures were taken in the piazza.)

Entrepreneur in Piazza Navona
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Fountain in Piazza Navona
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Four Rivers Fountain

— (3) St. Agnese in Agone (we waited for it to open; the first person through the gate was a beggar. I've learned since that the presence of a beggar at the doorway is how you can be sure a church is open.)

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Saint Agnes

— (4) Sant’Ignazio (tromp l’oiel ceiling)

Sant'Ignazio: Wide angle view of facade
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Across the street, geting ready to take more pics
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Sant'Ignazio: Famous trompe l’oiel ceiling
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Sant'Ignazio: detail of trompe l’oiel ceiling
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Sant'Ignazio: Handcrafted images of churches worldwide - Ut unum Sint.

— (5) il Gesu.

il Gesu facade
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il Gesu, detail of dome
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il Gesu, no tacky tourists, please...

—Largo di Torre Argentina (We took many pix of the cat sanctuary; Izzy hopped over the rail to retrieve my hat when it blew in - breaking the law for me!)

Largo di Torre Argentina: ancient ruins near Pompey's theater, where Julius Ceasar was killed. Now a major cat sanctuary.
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Protected cat
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Look what the gods have deigned to give us!

Walked back past/through Piazza Navona.

SPQR reduced to municipal signage.

—back to (6) Santa Maria Sopra Minerva (sat through half of Italian Mass until able to tour - but only briefly, as they were closing the church.) No pix.

—back to Repubblica area, saw (7) Santa Maria degli Angeli (built over Roman baths.)

Santa Maria degli Angeli, fountain outside
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Santa Maria degli Angeli, John the Baptist
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Santa Maria degli Angeli

We sat through the end of Spanish Mass (people enthusiastically clapping in the final song), but had no ability to tour (lights outs pretty quickly.) I'm told this one should be visited near high noon to see the sunlight falling on the calendar meridian line.

Back to apartment for pasta dinner; tortellini with pesto plus extra basil and chopped mozzarella cheese. Re-read Georgina Mason's commentary on all the places we'd been and the places we planned to see tomorrow.

**Note for later: I realized just this week that the Bishop's miter we'd seen presiding at the Latin Mass was being worn by Bernard Cardinal Law.

Flickr sets for today: