All roads lead to ... ROME!

We saved Rome for last. 

All I can say is ... there is so much there! And I just about stopped taking photos. 

It was kind of over whelming. I was so busy looking and reading. Most of the photos below are taken from Wikipedia. I'll let you know which photos are actually mine.

So, we saw all the big, important and famous sites like the colosseum.

We climbed to the very, very top of the Basilica in the Vatican for the best view of the city. It was clear that day and not too, too crowded. Very wonderful.

The Vatican Museum is open, I think, one evening a month. It just happened to be during our visit. Fewer tickets are sold for these evening viewings, so we were lucky and got to see the Sistine Chapel with a smaller crowd and hence got to stay inside longer to get a good long look at that amazing ceiling. The walls are nothing to sneeze at, too.

What really surprise me though was the size of the museum not including the chapel. We spent about 2 1/2 hours looking at everything else before arriving at the famous chapel. And I felt like I was rushing past everything.  This is a place I want to see again.

But, Rome is filled with so many beautiful churches on almost every block. We stepped inside as many as we could. Here are two I want to show you.  This is St. Ignatius, a baroque style church finished in 1650. You can see how magnificent it is with a dome above the alter, like most churches of this style ... BUT ...

It is a faux dome!  It is really a flat circular ceiling with a tromp l'oeil interior dome painted when the building project ran out of money.  It amazes me that they couldn't afford a dome, since they seemed to be able to afford everything else.

Such a funny feature in such a gorgeous church.

This is the interior of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. We had to go here since she is the patron saint of music and I studied music so long and so seriously  Also, in my Catholic days, she was my patron saint when I was confirmed.

​This church is older, founded in the 5th Century. The church that is now standing was built in 822 and then parts were rebuild and added to in the 18th Century. Things are SO OLD in Italy!

I wanted to show this church because I love this mosaic behind the alter. First I found it refreshing to look at after so much florid and ornate Renaissance and Baroque art. The more simple and clean lines appealed to me. It shows Jesus in the middle with an assortment of saints. But take a good look at the one on the left. Take a look at his halo. This is Pope Saint Paschal I and he got a square halo because he was alive at the time this mosaic was made.

I never knew that tradition.  

ps, I took this photo!

This is not a church. It is the inside of the Borghese Gallery housed in the Villa Borghese built in 1644. Read this Wikipedia page for the history.

It has a huge and wonderful collection of great paintings and sculptures and another surprise fashion exhibit. In almost every room were gowns designed by the contemporary Italian designer, Azzedine Alaïa 

The garments were cleverly set in each room, sometimes blending in and just looking like part of the permanent collection.

It took me a while to make my way through this gallery.

Now, a couple random comments. 

I don't think I've ever eaten so much wonderful food as I did on this trip. I'm really in love with Italian food. The pasta and pizza are great, but there is so much more than that to love. 

They have really bad breakfasts though, just a cup of espresso and, if you are lucky, a croissant. A few times we were given packaged bad buns ... slightly stale. So, this sign cracked me up. They are trying to cater to tourists, but still not quite right.

I took this photo and the other 2 below, but that's it!
I did actually see everything else shown though.

I really wanted to see the famous Trevi Fountain before we left so I could throw a coin in it to make sure I will come back to Rome.  And LOOK! It was under repair. Completely fenced off with no water.  I threw a coin anyway. As many others much have done, since there were coins everywhere. I sure hope that money is given to a good cause.

Speaking of causes. The migrant/refugee problem is real in Europe.  This sign was posted just around the corner from the place we were staying. What a small world we live in.

So, I'm actually not finished with Italy. I bought a few cool things that I will blog about next week.

Have a lovely weekend. The leaves here are really pretty.