Day 2: Roman Churches

 Sunday

8 September 2013

We started off the second day of Rome by going to the LDS Chapel nearest us (nearest means an hour long metro ride/uphill walk) to attend a small Italian ward. We had to bring extra bread for the sacrament because we more than doubled the size of the Bra ward. They had headsets available for the English translation of the meeting, but I liked to listen to the Italian. I don’t remember much from the visit because it was so long ago and I had trouble paying attention while I was there because it was really hot. I do remember that a man performed “I Need Thee Every Hour” as a special musical number and sang in both Italian and English. It was very pretty. I also remember that the chorister sounded like a trained Opera singer, and had a very impressive voice.

 

Me and Kristin in front of the Italian sign for the Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-day Saints

After our church meetings we went to see some Baroque churches in Rome (Santa Maria Vittorio, San Carlo Quattro Fontane, Il Gésu, San Luigi dei Francesi, and Sant’Agostion). There really isn’t anything like the feeling of walking into a grand and majestic chapel, and after looking at my pictures I can tell you that they don’t do most of the places any justice. I’ll put some pictures up of the ones I was most impressed by/interested in, and try to capture with words just how incredible they were.

Pretty sure this was the Santa Maria Vittorio. As you can see, the inside chapel is very ornate with interesting frescos and architecture to look at everywhere you turn.

This was outside the San Carlo Fontane. Believe it or not, this sculpture doubles as a public water fountain! There's little spouts of water on the left and right of this man where you can put your water bottles underneath to drink from. Basically all of the water fountains in Rome are part of ancient sculptures. This is the only one I have a picture of, but trust me, there are a lot more out there. The water is really cold and really good!

My favorite church was the Il Gésu. From the outside, it doesn't look very impressive. But once you get inside there's an overwhelming amount of beauty in the paintings and architecture. They even had music playing when we were there. Our art history professor was telling us that the building was designed to be symbolic of the differences between the human body and soul. The outside is plain, but the inside, or the soul, is complex and breathtakingly beautiful. I felt so incredible and enlightened when I was in the Il Gésu, more than I was in any of the other Baroque churches, and those blew my mind so this one was especially amazing. 

Part of the ceiling of the Il Gésu. It looks the same as almost any picture of a church fresco, but in person it is really special. I took some video inside that I might put into a montage with other moments from Italy. Hopefully that captures it a little bit better.

After we saw all the churches we tried to go inside the Pantheon, but it was closed for the day so I went with a group to get dinner. We went to a restaurant near the Pantheon that was like something you see in movies about Italy. It was on a cobblestone street with twinkly lights over an awning and the nightlife was just getting going. I ordered a classic margarita pizza and split it with someone. The pizza was as amazing as you would expect pizza in Italy to be. (In fact pretty much everything in Italy that I ate was good. The only thing that was weird/annoying to me was the fact that water isn't a complimentary beverage. You have to specifically ask for tap if you don't want to get charged. And they don't bring you more water if you drink it all. And sometimes they won't give you tap because they want you to pay for bottled water). After the pizza we got some gelato, a practice that would become pretty standard over the next week. The second day of Rome was much better than the first, and if I ever go back I am definitely going to go to some of the churches I saw.

Hooray for Italian pizza!