Roman Holiday - Part II

We began Saturday by attending a Caravaggio exhibition at the Scuderie del Quirinale museum. I was not overly familiar with Caravaggio’s work though I’m pretty sure that I learned about him at some point during a class in high school or college. His background is quite interesting – after rising to become the most famous painter in Rome during the early 1600s, he fled the city in exile after killing a man during a game of tennis (yes…tennis) and was later murdered himself.

Overall, I really enjoyed the exhibition and Supper at Emmanus (above) was my favorite painting. The picture may not show it very well, but the artist’s ability to accurately paint depth and shadows was very impressive to see in person. There are numerous Caravaggio paintings in churches across Rome, so we added those to the list of to-dos.

After the exhibition we walked around for the next couple of hours, heading from church to church, plaza to plaza and fountain to fountain. The most memorable were the Pantheon (an amazing architectural work at nearly 1900 years old) and the Chiesa del Gesù, which had one of my favorite sculptures: The Triumph of Religion over the Infidels.

After a quick lunch (more pasta – this time ravioli with spinach and ricotta) we made our way across the Tiber river and headed towards the Vatican, where we had tickets for the Vatican Museum. Here are some pictures of the Castel Sant’Angelo and the Tiber river.

In order to avoid the main line for tickets, we had purchased ours in advance online. While waiting in the line for online ticketholders, however, Emilie realized that she had printed out the wrong confirmation – there was apparently a billing confirmation and another ticket-equivalent that had a bar code that need to be scanned by the guard at the entrance.

Needless to say, we weren’t very excited about the prospect of going to the end of the line for tickets (or buying a second pair, for that matter), which probably required at least an hour wait. To avoid this, my plan was simple – Emilie should initially try to use the confirmation that she had and then resort to tears if the guard didn’t let us in. Fortunately, we came up with a better solution in the ensuing minutes – pull up the confirmation email on Emilie’s iPhone and have the guard scan the image. And it worked.

Once inside the Vatican Museum, we headed to the main one-way path that takes you through all that there is to see. Here are some of the pictures taken along the way.

While there was a ton of interesting art ranging from paintings and frescos to tapestries and sculptures, the highlight for me was definitely the Sistine Chapel.

After the Vatican museum we headed to St. Peter’s Square in hope of going inside St. Peter’s Basilica. Unfortunately, it was closed in preparation for Easter services, so we would have to return on Sunday or Monday. The square itself was quite impressive, though, and it was interesting to see the Pope’s apartment – or at least the window of it (the far right window in the fourth picture).

We then headed to the Piazza di Spagna where we saw the Santa Maria del Popolo (which includes a sculpture by Bernini, some paintings by Caravaggio and Raphael’s Chigi chapel); the twin churches of Santa Maria del Miracoli and Santa Maria in Montesanto; Bernini’s Fontana della Baracaccia; as well as the Spanish Steps.

At this point it was nearing sunset, so we decided to search for a spot for some appetizers before dinner. We finally settled on a place whose name I wish I had written down. Perhaps it was simply due to the fact that we’d been walking non-stop for the past two days, but the mozzarella di bufala and the prosciutto di Parma were incredible. Here’s a picture…

After loitering for a couple of hours, we made the mistake of heading out in search of another place for dinner. Rather than staying put in a spot we knew would be very good (at a minimum) based on the appetizer, we decided to look for something even better. To make a long story short, we spent more time walking than eating and failed in our attempt to upgrade. A lesson learned, I guess.