Day 3 - Rome

           On our way to church this morning we stopped to get breakfast from the fruit stand on the street corner and detoured into Santa Maria degli Angeli on Piazza Repubblica to see the amazing sundial.

            We took a taxi out to the Nomentano suburb for church.  Lara didn’t fully realize it was the same branch she first served in until we were almost there.  Not much had changed physically about the church, it was still a small converted building in a quiet middle class neighborhood, but instead of the Nomentano and International branches meeting there, there were 2 wards from the Rome Stake that met there. 

Nomentano Branch 20 years later

Lara didn’t recognize a soul, but learned that a member of the bishopric was the son of the Salerno family, a couple she remembers from her first area, they even had hosted her for dinner.  The meeting was nice and meaningful.  The congregation was young and had many more families than were there 20 years ago.  The bishopric was young as was the High Counselor speaker.  We saw pictures of the Rome Temple and were grateful that these faithful saints would soon have the blessings of a temple within close proximity. 

            After several directions from the missionaries and a few people walking on the street, we found the new metro stop in the neighborhood and hurried back to Piazza del Popolo where we found pizza by the slice and a cannoli and raced up to the Museo Borghese to make our 1:00 appointment.  It was a much longer walk than we had anticipated and we were huffing and sweating when we finally arrived.  The Museo Borghese was one of 3 museums we needed advanced reservations for, and despite it’s priceless collection, the temperature control was terrible.  It was muggy and warm inside the museum.  We enjoyed some of the most exquisite statues of anywhere, Bernini’s David, Daphne, and others.We also enjoyed some paintings by Caravaggio and Titian.

Bernini's David

 

            By now the jet lag combined with church and the long walk through the Villa Borghese had caught up with us and we all needed a rest.  Thankfully the park was shaded with many trees and quiet grassy areas to sit.  We found a nice fountain surrounded by stone benches where no one else was and we sat, or laid, down on the stone in our Sunday clothes.  Most of us closed our eyes for several minutes trying to ward off the jet lag headache.  After our nap we knew a good gelato would solve everything.  We meandered through the park retracing our steps to Piazza Del Popolo. 

Overlooking Piazza Del Popolo

We found a nice gelato and took some pictures overlooking the Piazza and all of Rome.  It was a marvelous view of the Eternal City.

            On our way back to the metro we stopped at the Piazza Del Popolo and viewed the giant Egyptian Obelisk, one of many in Rome.  We also went inside Santa Maria Del Popolo and saw more Caravaggio paintings: the Crucifixion of Peter and the Conversion of Paul.

            After a quick wardrobe change out of Sunday clothes, or at least out of ties for the men, we visited a nearby church where the statue Saint Teresa in Ecstasy by Bernini is housed.  John had a friend that did a paper all about this statue and so we learned more than we would have by just looking at it.  The motion and feeling in Bernini’s statues are captivating.  After the statue we headed to a The National Museum of the History of Rome and the Galleria Nazionale D’arte Antica.  It was an enjoyable museum full of busts of ancient rulers and mosaics from Roman homes – that was Lara’s favorite part  It was quiet and not crowded.

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            For dinner tonight we decided to dine in the trendy neighborhood of Trastevere on the other side of the Tiber.  After walking around a bit and going in circles we found a nice little place.  We had no idea that finding a restaurant would be so difficult.  Our first attempt was laughable; we walked into a recommended restaurant and it was completely empty.  I asked for a table for 8 and he told me they were all full.  Not seeing anyone in the restaurant I asked him “if they were all full, where were all the people?”.  He straighted-faced looked at me and told me that every table had a reservation.  In Italy, a table reservation is for the entire evening as restaurants do not try and turn the tables every hour like in America.  Our final night cap after dinner was a stroll with gelato over looking the Tiber river. 

To tame the river the Romans built high retaining walls along the river throughout the city.  You hardly know the river is there until you’ve stumbled upon it.  After a short taxi ride home we collapsed into bed again, only to suffer from a second night a jet lag at 3:00 a.m.