Sat 29th June
Today is
the feast of St Peter & St Paul and the bells are ringing out to celebrate.
We have
breakfast on the terrace today – scrambled eggs & tomatoes served with
fresh bread.
Chiesa di
Santi Apostoli is our first port of call. I remember this church from last year
as it has the most amazing chandeliers that appear to be hanging in space, much
like the candles in the dining hall at Hogwarts. For this reason we refer to
this church as the ‘Harry Potter’ church!
It also
houses the tomb of Clementine XIV by
Canova.
On to
Palazzo Doria Pamphilj where we have tickets for ‘Music at the time of
Caravaggio’. We love this palazzo. The Doria Pamphilj family still live here for part of the year & the audio tour is
narrated by Jonathan Pamphilj himself.
The gallery contains paintings by so
many famous artists it has to be seen to be believed, including the scarily
life like study of Pope Innocent X by Velasquez.
Today’s
tour concentrates on the Caravaggio paintings in the collection, including my
favourite – The Penitent Mary Magdelane’. Music is played on instruments from
the time as we move through the galleries, culminating in a short concert in
the Throne Room.
It was
really well done & I would thoroughly recommend it.
Lunch today
is at Enoteca Provinca Romana which specialises in food & wine from Lazio.
We share a platter of Salami & wash it down with glasses of Frascati.
Trajan’s
Markets are just around the corner. Again the displays here are so well done
with good explanations of the exhibits and each room having a reconstruction on
TV screens.
Walking down Via Biberatica you can imagine you are actually back in Imperial Rome.
The views
over the Forums are impressive too.
Back to the
apartment for a while before heading out once more to the Aventine. We hope to
see the church of Santa Sabine which has always been closed every time we make
a visit. As we near the church we see guests gathering for a wedding. Oh no –
are we to be foiled again? Fortunately we are able to slip in a side door to
view this very simply decorated but beautiful church.
We have the bonus of
seeing the bride arrive and share the moment before she walks up the aisle.
We move on
to the Orange Garden where, once more, we have drinks with a view.
The bride& groom appear and have their photographs taken in this lovely setting.
Down to the
river and we walk along until we reach Isola Tiburina. Part of the Roman summer
social scene involves restaurants & bars setting up along the river. Bacco al
Tevere, the restaurant of Umbrian chef
Salvatore Denaro is set up right next to the Ponte Rotto which is
glowing in the setting sun.
We start by sharing Salvatore’s signature panzanella then both had pasta to follow.
After dinner we took the bus to Via Tritone then walked up to Piazza Quirinale to watch the fireworks from Castel Sant’Angelo.
Gelato
tonight is from Fatamorgana. We race up the hill to reach the apartment before
it melts as we want sit on the terrace to enjoy it!
