The Leopard, an engrossing historical fiction book written in the 1950s about the Risorgimento (Italy's unification in the 1860s). I couldn't put the book down on the plane ride over, and it felt like a useful primer for the week ahead 🐆🍝
Beautiful carsickness
Story of a countryside dog 😭
Assisi, of St. Francis
A most immediate and satisfying reply
Holy matrimony, the main event: thank you Christine & Kayla for throwing a breathtaking wedding, thank you for giving us a reason to come to Italy, thank you for sharing your most heartfelt moments with us, thank you for the espresso martinis, thank you for the new friends, thank you for showing us what love looks like !!!!
P.S. learned what a bustle is (2nd photo on the right, top row)
(Supposedly) St. Valentine’s skull 💀
Prayer on Valentine's Day
In my heart, sir, love has been kindled for a creature you know and love.
Don't let me waste this wealth that you have placed in my heart.
Teach me that love is a gift and cannot mix with any selfishness, that love is pure and cannot be with any baseness, that love is fruitful and must, starting today, produce a new way of life in me and in who chose me.
Please, sir, for those who wait for me and think of me, for those who have put all their trust in me, for those who walk beside me, make us worthy of each other.
And through the intercession of Valentine's Day let our souls possess our bodies and reign in love from now on.
O glorious martyr Valentine, who through your intercession freed your devotees from the plague and other terrible diseases, free us, we beg you, from this pandemic.
Give our families the love of Jesus Christ so that they know how to give thanks to God in joy, find themselves in difficulty, forgive each other in weakness, support each other in the effort of the journey that leads to the eternal life of God from which everyone has come. Amen.
The palimpsest is palimpsesting
Mega palimpsest: the San Clemente Basilica
Top row: the bottom level of the archaeological excavation. a 1st-century building adapted for use by members of the cult of Mithras
Middle row: the original basilica of St. Clement (~400AD). On the left, a fresco of the Madonna and Child that was left almost perfectly preserved because a different fresco of Madonna and Child had been constructed in front of it.
Bottom row: the current, ground-level basilica of St. Clement constructed in the 12th century
Day flâneurs
Night flâneurs (jasmine, jasmine, and more jasmine)
A wonderful treat to see Roko 🍦 who answered allll of my questions on the history of Ancient Rome and today Rome (how did succession work with Ancient Rome’s emperors, how fascist is the current government, do we like Julius Caesar, etc.)
Left: Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius (Bernini), Right: An Allegory of Truth (Bernini; unfinished, check out the stone left over between the fingers)
Apollo and Daphne (Bernini)
David (Bernini) ---
Caravaggio
Who is this lady at the bottom of this painting? She is so familiar to me, and I'm not sure where I know her from: a Twitter AVI, a book cover/movie poster, a print in a good friend's home???*** (see addendum below)
Famous gladiators. The theta symbol is called the "theta nigrum" and indicates that this specific gladiator died.
The Raphael panel on the left was commissioned by a prominent Perugia family in honor of their son who had died (commemorated in red and green, holding Jesus). Cardinal Scipione Borghese stole it for the Galleria Borghese 🏴☠️. The painting on the right was inspired by the Mona Lisa, Portrait of Young Woman with Unicorn.
Villa Borghese & Gallery: the AP Art History 17-year old in me was freaking out to be in Bernini-land, Caravaggio-land, Raphael-land. Seeing in person is absolutely breathtaking.
On left: a camera depicted in the ceiling of the Vatican museum. On right: an example of precious lapis lazuli paint.
Vatican
My favorite souvenir
And that's a wrap!
arrivederci, Italia 🤌
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addendum June 4, 2023
A sacrifice made to Rome's cobblestone streets
I figured out where the naked lady came from; a postcard we received many months ago from our friend Saha! A successful way to embed an image into my psyche
