Couple of quiet days

On Saturday and Sunday, Michael wasn’t feeling very well, so we took it fairly easy.  On Saturday morning we took the Metro to St. Peters Basilica again because Michael really wanted to climb to the top of the cupola. 

His biggest remembrance of this when we were here before were the slanting walls, so we had to get a photo there….

That is about all he had energy to do, so we took a quick swing thru the church and then started to head  back home again.   Instead we decided to find a coffee shop and have a bite to eat.  We were SO excited to find the exact same place that we ate with the kids back in 1998 AND we had the exact same HUGE donuts….

I emailed Jenny and asked if she remember them and her answer “ Of course I remember them.  I’m pretty sure they were my favorite part of Italy at the age of 10. Haha.”

Later that afternoon we ventured out to the Spanish Steps.  As before, they were covered with people…..

We hurried back to the apartment as it started to rain.  The rest of the day was spent relaxing with a quick jaunt down to our local restaurant for take out pizza…..gotta love being able to walk 20 feet out your door and pick up fresh pizza!!!!!

On Sunday Michael still wasn’t feeling well,so to get out of the apartment for a bit, I visited the National Museum of Rome.  It is a great museum that basically chronicles the rise and fall of Rome.  There are not many paintings but mostly statues.  Apparently, you were not supposed to use a flash, but I didn’t see a sign indicating that until I was over half way thru the museum so I ended up with some decent photos.

These were my favorites…..

This is “The Boxer” and was made with a wax form process.  His eye sockets would have originally held balls of ivory or glass.  There was a photo on the wall of the excavation process of this piece.  It looked like it was just a man sitting on a pile of rocks.

This is the classic “Discus Thrower” and is a copy of one of the original Greek statues. 

I was quite take with this woman….especially her hair. 

This was a HUGE display of Roman coins from the beginning to the present.   There were probably 40 cases like this one.  In itself the display was fairly boring, however each case had a lighted magnifying glass that you could move over the coin to be able to see it better.

These last two shots were displays of things found in some of the digs.  These are just typical things found around the Roman home…..

In the afternoon, Michael and I took a short walk to see the church of Santa Maria Degli Angeli.  It was a pretty church….

that was built on the ruins of a Roman bath.  The original design was done by  Michelangelo and he used the bases from the bath columns as the bases for the church columns.  

The church had an (unknown to us) connection with Galileo and there were numerous posters and other information about him posted through out the church.  There was a Meridian laid down the middle of the church floor and a tiny hole in one of the walls.  As the sun shines in the hole each day at noon, it shines on the floor indicating the time of year.  I would love to visit there at the correct time, but dont know exactly how to factor daylight savings in!!

I LOVED the statue of this angel….I figure that is how I will look when I get my wings…..

While returning to our apartment, we passed this church which is the inspiration for the title of my quilt “Bells, Baths and Bidets”.   For the complete story, click here.