Santa Maria Maggiore
This is the very front of the church. Very big and elaborate.
These are the angels that sit right under a stained glass window at the front of the church. They are everywhere, in every church and sometimes on a random corner. I love the angels.
The nave of the church was so beautiful. Above the columns, along the walls there were mosaics depicting what was thought to be either the most interesting or important stories. There was one with some of the disciples being called in from the sea. It was nice.
Santa Maria della Concezione
This church was by far one of the most interesting churches I have been to, ever. I wasn’t able to get pictures of what’s under the church but I was able to take some from upstairs. Before I get into explain this picture let me tell you that you have to visit this site because it explains the church way better than I can. There are a few pictures as well, and I wasn’t able to take these so enjoy. As for the upstairs, it was all very plain except for the fact that I was able to take a picture of myself in a mirror and it was more fun that I ever would have thought it would be. Che magnifico. When I was done entertaining myself, we left to go to the Trevi Fountain but that did not end up happening because we were sidetracked by clothes. 
This man was someone selling ties and he was the most adorable man ever. He didn’t want to take a picture because he said he looked “schifo” and I thought that was great. His name was Francesco, che bello uomo.
Santa Maria dell’Anima
I went to this church with one of my classes. We were looking at the different frescos and the phases of restoration. It was quite remarkable. One piece that really caught my eye was the Jesus piece because of 1) how it was displayed and 2) because of the different types of mediums used to express how Jesus might have actually looked on the cross.
Another thing that I really liked about this church was the Pietà. The most famous depiction of the Pietà is in Saint Peter’s Basilica but I really liked this one in comparison. The reason I like this one is because of the way that the head of Jesus falls. The one in St. Peter’s has his head going away from Mary. When I think about someone being cradled I see them laying their head on the holder. This looks very realistic.
This church was like so many other churches in Rome with the very elaborate altarpiece. Notice the vaulted ceilings, the use of gold leafing, the focal point of the fresco, and on either side a tomb of some official of the time.
This was by far my favorite piece of stained glass. For one, it is very intricate, with the detail design going around the outer frames acting as frames themselves. Then you have the Madonna and Child in the center, not an uncommon theme, but you hardly ever see it done as a stained glass piece. There are two people at their feet, indubitably the Apostles John and Peter, and two angels resting to their sides. They make the classic shape of a triangle and show perfect symmetry. All in all it is a stupendous piece.
The next few pictures are just things that amused me.
This was in the church and I thought it seemed so out of place just because it didn’t look old, it seemed like it belonged in Germany or Finland or some crap like that, and because it was random.
This is a depiction of a tomb. This was the first time that I had seen a skeleton sitting upright on a tomb and he looked so relaxed that it seemed worthy of me showing you.
I used to go to this place all the time. I stopped because the doorman at our school told me it was schifo and that there is a place ten times better down the street. But when I used to go there they were good and I loved their lemon more than anyone elses.
Chiesa del Gesu
We went to this church on another class visit. This is the view from the front of the church. If you look at the statues on either side, you can see that there is a person just below the feet of the statue. That person is an evil spirit trying to escape from hell and the statue is a Jesuit that is keeping that from happening. Also, and I don’t think you can see it in the picture, but just in front of the large door there is a homeless person sleeping. I thoroughly enjoyed this church because as I was going into this church a couple of old people were coming out and I stopped to hold the door for the two of them. I then helped the second woman down the stairs that stretched the entire front of the church and as I was about to walk away she said to me “Aguri”. I looked at her with a confused face and she said “È una brava ragazza.” I asked them if they needed anymore help and they said no, thanked me, and walked away. What the woman was saying was Luck to you, and then she said that I was a good girl. Che bella.
We weren’t really able to see the church because we went on Ash Wednesday and they were about to start mass but we did get to see the front of the church and we got to see the ceiling. It was so beautiful made with stucco and frescos. It felt like they were there in 3D even though, for the most part, they were not.
This picture baffles me every time. I know that its just a painting but I have no idea how they got it to look like they are coming to life and trying to flee a scene. I can sit and look at it for hours, seriously.
San Pietro Basilica
I have been to this church so many times and yet each time I find something new and feel something different. I try to only take pictures of the new things that I see but sometimes I take pictures of something that I have seen before yet I see it in a different light. Forgive me if you see a picture in here that I have showed you before or if I tell you about something that I have already said. As for this picture, I had never noticed this building that sits to the right of St. Peter’s if you are looking at the front of the basilica. It is the Pope’s apartment. Cool, right.
This is on the floor of the inside of the basilica. It is a marker that says how long the church is from one end to the other. Pal Rom is Roman Palms and it was their form of measuring back in the day. M stands for meters and below where it gives the measurements for the basilica it says “additis parietibus”, that means including the porch, which was an addition to the basilica and with that it made the length even longer. St. Peter’s is the longest basilica in the world and if you walk down the nave you will see in the very center a slew of other basilicas and how long they are in comparison to the St. Peter’s.
Michelangleo’s Pietà.
Another something new that I found. This is a mosaic of Peter holding the keys.
These are the angels going around the inside of Bramante’s/Michelangleo’s dome. The angles were painted in a test run before they were painted on the dome and what is left of the test ones can be found in a museum in Ariccia, Italy. We went there with our school.
Chiesa Nuova
When we got inside this church, I must admit that I did not pay very close attention to the instructor as we walked around. But I did however notice this wonderful organ. There was a set of pipes on each side of the altar. It was stupendous.
This was the “Jesus Piece” just above the altarpiece.
Golfone
This was a church turned museum. When this was a functioning church, it was run by what is called a confraternity. It just means brotherhood. But what made this church special was the procession of the passion that they reenacted. They performance was so realistic and gory that they were forbidden to do it. So what they did instead was they had the walls going around the entire church painted with the scenes of the passion. This is one of those scenes.
They guy that opened the museum for us told us that if we wanted to we would be allowed to play the very old organ. No one else was going to do it and our instructor had just tripped up the steps going to get the guy to turn it on so I felt someone had to do it. you know what that meant, Sara to the rescue. I sat there and pretended to know what the heck I was doing. It was a lot of fun.
The Lutheran
This was the original church of the Pope and I didn’t take my camera with me that day so I don’t have any pictures but just google it and you should find something. Something that I can tell you about it is there is a street that connects this old home for the Pope to the new home for the Pope and it is called the Papal Way. Also, the people of Rome don’t accept the Pope as being Pope until he is crowned in the Lutheran, or so a Roman told me.
Farnesi Church
I have no idea if this church is actually called the Farnesi Church but I do know that Cardinal Farnesi had some kind of affiliation with the church and he was also the one who commissioned Caravaggio to paint for one of the chapels in the church. This is a picture I took of one of the paintings in the chapel. This is Caravaggio’s St. Michael and the Angel. It is one of three paintings in this chapel done by Caravaggio. They other two are The Calling of St. Michael and The Martyr of St. Micahel. I love, love, love Caravaggio and if anyone has any interest in seeing these paintings, you just let me know and I’ll take you when you get to Rome.
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