Feast Day

Sat 29^th  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!