Day 5- The National Museum and More Churches

Today we went to some more churches. We started out at the Church of Santa Prassede, which is another Title church named after one of two sisters that was martyred (for what a title church is see blog from Day 1). The most important thing about this church was that it has the base of the column that Jesus was supposedly whipped on. It was brought to Rome from the holy land when St. Helen, Constantine's mother, travelled there (she brought back a lot of stuff!) Interestingly, the mosaic in the apse above the altar looks similar to the one of Saints Cosma and Damiano from the Roman Forum. The differences are that the Saints are women and the one who is presenting the church and the deacon are different (see blog from Day 2). Also in the mosaic has a phoenix in the same spot as the other church. The mosaic is dated back to the 6th century and could have been by the same artist.

From that church we went to the Church of Santa Suzanna which is the American Catholic Church. Here we met for our second ecumenical dialect with Father Greg. If I have not mentioned it before, the Vatican assigns certain catholic churches to different countries which then have to supply the priest to the parish. This church is also a title church. It was named after Suzanna, a martyr who chose a vow of chastity and was murdered for it. Father Greg was very funny and had a lot of great things to tell us about the society in Rome and how difficult it is to marry and divorce in this country. He also discussed some of his relations with the Vatican and other American and English speaking churches.

From there we made a short stop at the Church of Santa Maria della Vitoria and saw Bernini's Ecstasy of St. Theresa. Funny story: the statue is not at eye level but placed up in order to sort of obscure St. Theresa's face because she is in the middle of a revelation and it looks as if she is in the middle of an orgasm (not my words…)

After that we went to Santa Maria degli Angeli which was built into the baths of Diocletian. This church was huge!!! The columns are from the original baths and go to the original floor so the "bases" of the column are fake because the column goes deep into the floor. This church was really cool because it had on display a pendulum based after Galileo and a lot of history on the subject (probably temporary). It also had a permanent meridian line that has a demonstration of a sun dial at noon everyday. We were there at the perfect timing. (A little old nun who did not speak any English dragged me over to show me the demonstration… I later found the information about it). Also right by the entrance there is a different kind of sun dial in a stained glass ceiling. Pretty cool!

From there we went to lunch and then headed to the National Museum. In the upper level there were a whole bunch of frescos and mosaics and in the basement there was a large exhibit of coins! So cool!! (Other than that I was kind of bored there…)

The second to last stop was Santa Prudenziana which is the sister church to Santa Prassede. This is also a title church. The only significant history about this church was that Peter and Paul may have stopped there and Peter may have administered the sacraments there. It also has some 4th century mosaics.

Then we headed back to Santa Maria Maggorie (from Day 1) and saw the manger piece which we did not see before. We also saw Bernini's tomb which was very humble (the Latin made it sound like that was the intention). We also walked around in the lower level museum but there was not much to see that was of any significance (Although the arm bones of 2 of the gospels writers were down there… or at least that is what they claim… I highly doubt it).

For dinner and fun me and a friend walked out the Piazza Navona, had some pizza and went on a search for a bar called La Botticella (recommended to me by a friend). We did find it and realized that it is on the International Steelers Bars Tour. This place is pretty famous for Steelers fans (too bad I had never heard of it… Go Favre!). It was an American-ish bar that is popular for American students studying abroad. We met the bartender Giovanni and had a wonderful time! Hopefully we will stop by Sunday evening so I can catch some of the Vikings game!