Santa Maria della Pace

I rode into centro to meet Nancy's group in front of Santa Maria della Pace. This is a small church tucked into a tiny piazza, but it's full of treasures. The church was commissioned in 1482 by Pope Sixtus IV. He dedicated the church in honor of the Maddona. Back in the day, there were pictures of the Madonna hung all over Rome, on street corners, in piazzas -- there were over 2000 of them. She was considered the protector of the people. Legend has it that a drunken man, pierced a picture of the Madonna in this particular piazza with his sword, and the painting bled. To counter the bad luck, the Pope announced he would have a church built in her honor if she brought him victory in the war against the Ottomans.

One of the things that makes this church unique is the combination of the Baroque exterior with the Renaissance interior. In 1656, Pope Alexander the VII had the exterior restored and altered by Pietro da Cortona. Today, you see the tributes to the two Popes (Sixtus the IV and Alexander the VII) who were both members of the Chigi family on the facade.

Inside the crown jewel is a fresco of the Four Sybils by Rafael (1514) which adorns the Chigi family funerary chapel. But there are also fascinating and diverse funerary chapels for other important families such as the Cesi and the Ponzetti. The Cesi chapel contains an interesting sarcophagus for Federico Cesi who founded the the first scientific academy called the Accademia dei Lincei (Academy of Lynxes). He is sculpted resting on top of a pile of books. The Ponzetti family funerary chapel has a wonderful Renaissance fresco by Badassarre Peruzzi. The church is only open three days a week for two hours at a time -- there is no one to care for it outside these hours...so it mostly gets the tourists in the know. Apparently, the Bramante designed cloister is wonderful but it was closed today.

Afterwards, we walked around the neighborhood which is just between Piazza Navona and the river. It was the Courtesan neighborhood of 15th and early 16th century. The most well known courtesan, Fiamatta owned a house there -- given to her by Cesare Borgia, son of the Borgia Pope, Alexander VI. During his reign Papal corruption and nepotism was brought to new heights. Not only did Fiamatta receive gifts of property from Cardinals, she also received a dowry upon turning 14 from the Vatican. Clearly, Fiamatta must have been truly beautiful; it was unusual for a courtesan to own real estate, but Fiamatta did well for herself. In fact, she is the only courtesan to ever have a piazza in Rome named after her -- Piazza Fiamatta.

Down the alleyway, around the corner from Santa Maria della Pace, Nancy pointed out the oldest continually inhabited house in Rome -- from the 11th century ( and it looked it). We also viewed palazzos that had been recently cleaned by the city of Rome where the ancient decorative frescoes could once again be seen. The alley-ways and streets in this area are so narrow, it is difficult to notice the painted buildings because you can't gain any perspective -- you really have to crane your neck and look up. At the end of the tour, we visited the cloister of a church that is also the home to the Mastroianni collection of contemporary sculpture. It was an interesting morning.

I rode home through the Villa Borghese...always such a pleasure for me, but especially on these beautiful spring days in Rome. Josh and I had lunch at home. He picked the kids up from school while I went to the grocery store. Morris was kind enough yesterday to make chicken curry for us to have for dinner tonight. So I just had to prepare some rice and vegetables and it was easy for me to feed the kids early, before the girls had to go the pool. Avery came home just in time for dinner -- he'd had soccer after school today.

I took the girls to swimming so I could use the hour for a quick round of exercise at the gym. Afterwards, Olivia and I did our routine in the "area relax" of the locker room: shower, sauna, steam -- although today we skipped the steam. My favorite part is when we both lie down in the sauna and then Olivia asks me to tell her about my day. Then, she tells me about her day! I'm so glad I have a girl that I can "hang" with -- at least for now.