Saturday was a pretty easy day for me, I had some group work to do in the morning and then in the afternoon I walked over to the Piazza del Popolo. I went specifically to check out Santa Maria del Popolo, which has 3 Caravaggio paintings. 2 of them are about Saint Paul, one is his crucifixion and the one below is called "The Conversion on the Way to Damascus."
Then I went to the Villa Borghese to sit and read, it was a beautiful day out, very fall like. There were a bunch of families at the park and a bunch of italian couples doing the only thing they do, which is makeout.
This morning I slept in a bit, and then headed over to a building in Trastevere which has just started to give a series of lectures on Dante's Inferno. Today's was just an introduction to the work, and so I just sat and listened to the Italian. I sketched the lecture room and then made a list of all the words I recognized. It was an interesting way to spend an hour. Next week someone will be reading Canto I, so I'm planning on going back and checking it out. The building itself is medieval looking and when you walk in the front door you end up in a courtyard.
After the lecture I went over to the Campidoglio, which is a plaza designed by Michelangelo, it is right beyond Vittorio Emmanuel and the Roman Forum. The plaza pavement is designed in the shape of an oval star. It was very crowded as usual, but I sat and sketched for about an hour. It was warm today and felt good to be in the sun.
I then walked out to my final Pilgrammage church, San Lorenzo outside the Walls. San Lorenzo from what I read is basically the patron saint of Rome and considered to be a very important early Christian Martyr. The church was constructed over his buriel site. The church has a school and a convent attached to it and is a rather large compound.
Next door is the Verano Cemetary, which may be one of the most beautiful places I've been too. I spent about an hour just walking around and sketching all the monuments. The majority of the grave markers I saw looked like miniature buildings. However I probably only covered about 1/4 of the cemetary at most.
nuns:218 priests:107
2 comments:
I don't know about your timeline here. In the first plaza picture it's 1215-ish, but then in the one at the church it looks like it's around 1125. Care to explain?
well the second clock is probably wrong, half of the clocks on clock towers don't work here. it was about 4:30 when I was at the church. 12:15ish is right for the plaza though.
Post a Comment