Rome - Campo de' Fiori, Gesu, Minerva, Tiber Island, and Trastevere

We wandered to Campo de' Fiori which is Rome's most colorful spot. They have markets in the morning with all kinds of fun things - produce, pasta, olive oil, etc. Unfortunately when we got there they were starting to pack up and then it started to rain a little. 

My pasta loving daughter!

We were close to the Church of the Gesu so we decided to go there. This is the mother church of the Jesuit order. This church served as a model for Jesuit churches all over the world, especially in the Americas. In 1551 St. Ignatius of Loyola founded the Jesuits. Now that we have a Jesuit Pope, I wonder if this church will gain popularity among pilgrims. I did not know this until later but St. Ignatius lived right next door to this church for 17 years. You can actually tour his rooms from the original building and see some of his original furniture. It was in these rooms where St. Ignatius died in Rome. 

Gesu Church 

part of St. Francis Xavier's right arm

Looking at the main altar

Chapel and tomb of St. Ignatius of Loyola

Behind the Pantheon is another church called Santa Maria sopra Minerva which means Saint Mary above Minerva. The church name comes from the first Christian church structure on the site. It was built directly over the ruins of a temple dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Minerva. The church and the convent next door served as the headquarters for the Dominican Order. There are many people buried in this church but probably the most well known for us is, St. Catherine of Siena (but just her body, her head is in Siena). There is a room behind the sacristy and that is where St. Catherine died. 

Minerva Church

Looking down the nave at the Main Altar

St. Catherine's body behind the main alter

We walked over to Tiber Island which I don't ever remember going to in previous visits. Its an island in the middle of the Tiber River. This island was once the seat of the ancient temple of Asclepius and later a hospital. The island is associated with medicine and healing. Just in case you wanted to know a few fun facts!

Crossing over the bridge to Tiber Island

St. Bartholomew's Church. We were hoping this would be open because it contains some
relics of St Bartholomew but it was closed. L was very happy because by this point
she was saying, "no more churches...please!".

Crossing over the bridge on the other side

We walked over to the Trastevere neighborhood to find a place for dinner. 

Trastevere is more like a medieval village. It has a great night scene with lots of restaurants. This is actually where we had our 5th anniversary dinner with friends and family. But we could not remember which restaurant it was...I just remembered we had a long table and we ate inside since it was October. 

Church of Santa Maria is one of the oldest churches in Rome and was built in the 4th century when
Christianity was legalized. This is the first church in Rome to be dedicated to the
Virgin Mary. Again...it was closed and we could not get inside. 

We all had a nice dinner outside

After dinner the sky was starting to get dark and we heard thunder. We tried to hurry to get back out of the neighborhood towards the river...but we got lost! It was raining and thundering...the children panicked a little and all started crying. Then we had to calm them down before we started walking again. I told Joe I thought we should just hop in a cab back to the apartment, since we were not that far away. But Joe said, "he was pretty sure the storm was moving away from us"...those are his famous and classic words for the whole trip! Just like in Paris Joe said lets walk...we will be fine. It started raining so hard and the thunder was loud! Im pretty sure we basically just walked through the whole storm! We got to St. Peter's and took shelter for awhile under a building. The Easter Vigil mass was going on and you could see it on the screens outside of St. Peters. 

St. Peter's in the rain

The rain did not let up very much so we just walked the rest of the way to the apartment. Luckily L was sheltered mostly under the stroller. When we got back we literally were all SOAKED...good thing the storm was going away from us! 

We all slept well that night!