Our Roman Holiday pt. 2

Now that we are back in the States, I have some time to finish posting about our last days in Rome. We are already starting to miss Roma!

The Sunday before we left Rome, we spent the day around the Spanish Steps. We visited Sant'Andrea del Fratte, where two of Bernini's sculptures are. They are angels that were intended to be on the Ponte del'Angelo but the Pope thought that the sculptures were too good to be outside.

After visiting that church, we walked over to the Spanish Steps. Little George climbed up all the stairs with a little help from Mom. He was so excited about climbing all of those stairs and by the time we reached the top he was wiped out just in time for mass at Trinita del Monte.

Ironically, the last mass we went to in Rome was said in French since Trinita del Monti is the French parish in Rome.

We saw some more of Bernini's sculptures in Santa Maria del Popolo. This church is gorgeous! Caravaggio's Crucifixion of St. Peter, the Conversion on the Way to Damascus, and the Assumption of the Virgin of Mary are also in this church.

Then we headed into the Villa Borghese on our way to Villa Guilia. Giorgio loved seeing the dogs in the park and the ducks on the pond.

Villa Guilia has incredible gardens and we all enjoyed exploring them. The highlight for little George was splashing around in the fountain!

On Monday, we visited some churches near the Jewish Ghetto. First, we went to Santa Maria in Consolatione, which is at the foot of the Tarpeian Rock.

Then we went onto San Nicola in Carcere and Santa Maria in Campitelli.

We had our last lunch of Campo di Fiori pizza and ate in Piazza Farnese, where we have eaten lunch so many time during the semester. Boy do we miss that pizza!!

In the evening, we meet up with Brandon Macadaeg in front of the Vatican and went out to a very yummy, authentically Roman meal at Dino e Tony's. They did not have menus but simply just served you what ever the chef was cooking. Everything was delicious and they gave us so much food. We waddled out of there!

On Tuesday, we visited some of the sights on the Aventine hill:

Santi Bonifaco e Alesso, Piazza dei Cavelieri di Malta,...

If you look through the key hole in this door you can see the dome of St. Peter's. What great symbolism! It was a little foggy the morning we went so we did not have a really clear view but below is what we saw!

Sant' Anselmo, where they had a great gift shop of beer and chocolate made by local monks,...

and Santa Sabina.

This is the orange tree that St. Thomas Aquinas planted and used to sit under while he was at Santa Sabina.

From the garden behind Santa Sabina, there is a gorgeous view of Roma and St. Peter's!

From the Aventine, we went to St. Paul Outside the Walls. Finally, we made it to all four of the major basilicas!

We jammed as many sights into the last few days as possible. Phew, it was exhausting but boy did we see a lot!