Santa Maria della Concezione and Villa Borghese

We started off the day waiting for the 63 by the AS Roma store to ride down to Santa Maria della Concezione aka the Bone Church, which is, according to Shawn, one of the creepiest places in Rome. The church holds the bones of former Capuchin Monks. These monks were recognizable by their brown robes and white hats and the word Cappuccino derives from this. As you enter the church, there is one long corridor partitioned into several chapels with a plaque over the doorway that says, “What you are, we used to be. What we are, you will soon be.” These chapels are decorated the bones of some 4,000 Capuchin friars and a few skeletons in respectable positions. There are “bone lamps” that hang down from the ceiling supported by wire. At the end of the corridor is the skeleton of a princess who wished to be remembered in the same way as these monks preserved on the ceiling.

From there we took the small bus over to Villa Borghese where Linda presented on the four Bernini statues in the museum. Her presentation centered around an argument made by art historian who argued that these Bernini statues were not meant to be viewed from only one angle but from many different angles with each view telling a piece of the story. We approached each of the statues: Aneas and Anchises, Rape of Persephone, Apollo and Daphne and David from behind and then rotated around until we had seen each angle and observed the differences of the views as the stories unfolded. After she finished her presentation we were able to wander around the museum to view the other great works that it housed including more busts by Bernini and works by Caravaggio.

We then headed off to Pizza Re for a group lunch. By then many of us were very hungry and the gigantic and delicious pizza really hit the spot! Here, Henry, Mark and I are showing off our Pizza Fortes which included tomato sauce, olives, ham, peppers and was spicy! After lunch, Lisa wanted to show us her creepiest spot in Rome, a doll shop with a room full of broken, dislocated and maimed dolls but unfortunately it was closed. From there we all parted ways, some of us to shop, get gelato, do homework or take a nap in preparation of Notte Bianca!

Several students in the group started off the night cooking and eating dinner at the boys’ apartment in Trastevere. From there we stopped by Piazza Farnese, Campo de’Fiori and Piazza Navona, all of which had many people but not quite the crowds that we were expecting to see that night. When we reached the Vittorio Emanuele monument, we knew that this was truly Notte Bianca. There were literally people everywhere and we had to fight our way to the top of the Capitoline Hill to for a concert, as you can see by the picture. Notte Bianca was definitely an experience worth having but I don’t if any of us would be up for it again in the near future.

Ciao,
anyie