Holy Praying Pigeon's, Batman

Yup, everybody goes to Church on Sunday.  Some for worship, some for sightseeing, some for begging, some for food.  Two weeks ago you saw the dogs praying in Church, well at Santa Maria in Aracoeli the pigeons were praying and pecking around for some morsels on tombs.

Pigeon at S. Maria in Aracoeli

So Just how many steps are there to get into the Church of S. M. in Aracoeli??  Glad you asked, exactly 123, I counted as I climbed.  Several weeks ago there was a wedding there and I watched the whole wedding party climb, in the USA the Limo diver would have driven up the stairs.  Today there was a wedding to happen in the afternoon and the Church was very pretty.

123 steps to S.M. in Aracoeli

Interior ready for the wedding

 I thought American weddings were elaborate but the Italians definitely out-do us.  The Churches are covered in flowers, the pews and kneelers are covered in velvet drapes and the floors have red or white carpeting brought in, no plastic runners.  You see these moving trucks pulling up to the Churches and unloading stuff for the ceremony, imagine the costs!  Last week at the Sant' Ignazio I saw them putting up huge white drapes to frame the enormous front door of the Church!!

Floor stands line the aisle at S. M. in Aracoeli

Ok, I am a little ahead of myself here.  I started the day with Mass at the NAC, skipped Brunch and headed off to the flea market at Porta Portese but first stopped at Santa Cecilia Church in Trastevere where they were just unloading stuff for a wedding, the workers were taping down the carpet underlayment on the marble floor.  Here are some pictures from Santa Cecilia, a Benedictine Convent Church where St. Cecilia, and early Christian Martyr is buried, she is the Patroness of Church Musicians.

St. Cecilia Church

When her tomb was opened in the 1500's she was found to be incorrupt.  The artist who carved this tomb effigy also left a sworn testimony in the marble floor attesting that he was present at the opening of the tomb and what you see before you is what he witnessed.

St. Cecilia's tomb

 This is the apse mosaic in the Church.  In the early Christian mosaics you often find two types of halo's; one round and one square.  The round one indicates a saint in heaven, aka dead.  The square halo represents a living person of great holiness who was alive when the mosaic was installed, in this case Pope Paschal I who built the Church .  I have included this picture to show this interesting point from early Church history.

square halo around the head of Pope Paschal I

Pomegranate decoration on altar rail and door to speak to the cloistered nuns.

nice side altar oil painting of SS. Peter and Paul


After St. Cecilia's I continued on to the Porta Portese Flea Market held every Sunday from 6:30am to 2pm.  It is huge and very crowded, mostly handbags, clothes, shoes, electronic stuff, kitchen stuff, antiques, junk, plants, furniture and other assorted stuff.  Very crowded!

Porta Portese, entrance to the flea market is through the gate in the city wall.

crowded flea market

  Then I crossed the Tiber to the Gate the Emperor Augustus dedicated to his Sister, the Porta Augustina and the Theatro Marcello.

Porta Augustina

Theatro Marcello stripped of it's marble

section with marble cladding intact

Roman Ruin

After this I walked to the Church of S. Maria in Aracoeli which I have already shown you and then to the Vittoriano, called "The Wedding Cake" by the Italians due to it's size, ostentation and bright white color.  It now also serves as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Then I made my way to the Pantheon and on to the Piazza Novona.  Are your tired yet??????  Well I was by this time and stopped at a little Cafe that lets you sit and enjoy your coffee without a charge.  Yup, you read that correctly, in Italy if you choose to sit down there is usually a seat charge of around 5 euro's extra.  So a Cappuccino that costs one euro will set you back 6 euro.  So I ordered a cappuccino and a sfogliatelle.  The girl left the counter and came back with another woman who spoke English and asked to say what I wanted in English so I said (again) "sfogliatelle", to which she told the other woman in Italian, "sfogliatelle" which was comical.  The girl then knocked her head and said in Italian her brain was not working today!  OK, for those not of Italian descent that pastry looks like a scallop shell, the name means "sea shell" in English and it is buttery crisp shell encasing a cheese filling with citron.  It was heavenly.  After the respite I was off to a little Gelato place called 'Il Theatro' where I sampled a very small and expensive artisanal gelato, chocolate chip mint.  On my way to Gelato I passed a local artist who was selling canvas with Batman themes but in Italian, I found that comical so I took a picture and now you can interpret the title of this blog post!  Then made my climb back up the hill!

Sunday's in Rome bring lots of little surprises.  As I passed through a neighborhood not far from the Ara Pacis I came across a little band marching through the streets playing tunes.  Charming!  Sunday's can be very charming! And so my friends after 2 cornetti, 1 sfogliatelle, a cappuccino and a gelato, fortified I climbed the mountain back to the NAC.

Neighborhood marching band on parade