Exploding with Happiness!: More Churches, a Museum and Rafa!

One of our goals for our time in Rome was to attend the Italian Open tennis tournament, and in particular, to see Rafael Nadal play. So Sara and I set out this morning for the Foro Italico, where the matches are held, to see if we could buy tickets for Rafa’s evening match. The Foro Italico is in a huge complex of buildings that was built for the summer Olympics when Rome hosted the games back in 1960. The soccer stadium where the two local teams play is there, as well as a huge swimming pool and other stuff. Anyway, we found the ticket office, waited in line and were able to get tickets to the evening matches, including Rafa’s!

On our way to the Foro Italico and on our return, we fit in some sightseeing. It is impossible not to, as all of Rome is fascinating, but we stopped along the way to visit a couple of churches. The first was Santa Maria della Pace, which is close to our apartment and on the way to the taxi stand. It is a small Baroque church designed by Pietro da Cortona in what seems to be too tight a space. It is remarkable in the way the façade takes advantage of the space and extends forward almost like a theater stage. Inside is another beautiful dome, frescoes by Raphael and lots of other interesting artwork. One of the draws of this particular church is a cloister next door designed by Bramante, but we opted to continue on our way to try to get our tickets rather than seek it out.

On our cab ride back, our route took us through Piazza del Popolo in an area of the city we hadn’t yet visited. We decided to get out there and walk the rest of the way home. The 19^th century piazza is exceptionally beautiful, with an obelisk in the center, lots of space around it and two matching churches across the square from the Porta del Popolo, which was the main entrance to the city long ago for pilgrims coming from the north. Our primary sight-seeing goal here was the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, which is not one of the twin churches, but which is packed with important art – frescoes by Pinturicchio, design and sculptures by Bernini, and above all, a couple of famous paintings by Caravaggio – the Crucifixion of St. Peter and the Conversion of St. Paul, which are in the chapel to the left of the altar. They are magnificent, and it’s such a delight to see them in the space for which they were painted!

Our afternoon was fairly low-key. When Sara and I got back to the apartment, Evan was still out on another run along the Tiber. Imagine, such scenic exercise! He ran even farther this time and made use of some exercise equipment he found along the way before returning home. We fixed a big brunch and then relaxed for a while. I even did a load of wash and hung it out on our clothesline, Roman style.

Later in the afternoon, Steve, Sara and I went out to explore a little museum very close by. The Museo Barracco is a collection of Egyptian, Assyrian, Etruscan, Greek and Roman artifacts and sculptures collected by Giovanni Barracco in the 19^th century and housed in a 16^th century palazzo practically across the street from us. It has a very personal feel and reflects the collector’s taste. It is installed in roughly chronological order so it gives a good sense of progression and interrelationship among the various types of works. Also, the rooms contain large prints of old photos of the collection when it was displayed in the collector’s home, so that you can see how he had his artwork arranged and get a sense of how important it was to him.

After a quick pizza dinner, we all took a cab back to the Foro Italico for the main event of our day. The evening was a bit cool and breezy, so we wore as many layers as we had with us. It was still a little chilly, but so much fun! Rafa’s very worthy opponent was Gilles Simon. They battled for three sets (splitting the first two in tiebreakers) until Rafa finally edged out Simon. We could not have asked for more. Well, actually, as it turns out, we could have asked for a cab to be waiting to take us home. Cabs were scarce, but Sara knew where to go to try to find one. Eventually we did and got home safe and sound.