A Trio Of Churches in Trastavere

Our main goal in Trastavere was to see three churches, a couple of which we had visited hurriedly way back in 2011. All three are of considerable antiquity--Trastavere was, among other things, the Jewish quarter, where Christianity would have first arisen--the St. Mary in Trastavere is on a site dating back among Christians to 112 AD. Anyhow, it was mostly the medieval mosaics, and a Bernini sculpture, apart from the antiquity, that attracted us.

St. Mary in Trastavere

On the porch

Love the way they sometimes post the old signs and messages

Interior

Here it's the mosaics, medieval, Byzantine

Jesus and mom, enthroned

Under the famous gospel writer Marcus, the prophet Isaiah

Apostles depicted as sheep

The interesting columns and capitals, said nowadays to have been taken from the
Baths of Caraculla; faces of Isis and Serapis were hammered off in the 19th century,
obscuring their real origin, the Temple of Isis and Serapis; conquerors nearly always
try to eradicate all traces of the competition, unless there were martyrs on the site

Interesting painting of Council of Trent 

Moving right along now--in 2011 we didn't have phones or Google Maps--the
Church of San Francesco di Ripa--notable for its many tombs and monuments,
but chiefly for...

Bernini's Ecstasy of the Blessed Lodovica Albertoni

Compare with the far superior Ecstasy of St. Theresa; it's a fair question, I think,
how Bernini got his models into this state

And finally, the Basilica of St. Cecilia

One of the most poignant of all religious sculptures, I think

Maderno's early 17th century sculpture of St. Cecilia, as her body was found in
1600

And more medieval/Byzantine mosaics

Jesus working on a new sekrit digital sign

Let's go bowling, Dude

Traversing Trastavere

On Sunday we did Trastavere, partly for the ambiance, partly to see some of the great churches there. We had visited in 2011, under less deliberate circumstances, and wanted to spend more time in one of Rome's older neighborhoods.

After a long bus ride, 702 to 766 or somesuch, we got off in
Trastevere at the sight of a huge brocante market, one of the
largest we have ever seen; we only did a few blocks of it,
being overwhelmed and late for lunch

Frame store

Went on for blocks and blocks, two, sometimes three aisles,
off-shoots into side streets

Some clothing but mostly collectibles

Ambiance

We ate at a place call Otello, where the roasted artichoke was
a revelation

But the saltimbocca and Chef Boyardee slop were not

Contemporary ambiance

On a random alley

More ambiance

Antiquity never very far

A contemporary water feature facing the little church

Mostly, ambiance means gelato; here, a newer chain, but
with very high quality and matchless variety and innovation
in flavors

Arch at the back of the store

More antiquity

And the Tiber meandering through the city; we took another bus
up the hill to Circo Massimo and the metro from there back
home

Scala Sancti, Or, Holy Stairs, Batman!

Among the sights in Rome I had wanted to see, but never quite made it to, were the Scala Sancti, the Holy Stairs, brought back from Jerusalem by St. Helen, Constantine's mom, during one of her Mediterranean cruises. In 326 AD, to be precise. These are the stairs leading up to Pontius Pilate's palace, which Jesus ascended in order to be judged. And then descended. This is Golden Legend stuff, one assumes, but still one of those things one has to see.... Anyhow, they are just across the piazza from SS Johns Lateran, and despite the ongoing deluge, I was determined to see them.

Ever since we walked past them in the darkness
of our last evening in Rome, November, 2013,
I had thought these were the Holy Stairs;
wrong! they are just some stairs leading up
to some sort of papal palace of yore; the true
Scala Sancti are on the other side of the
building, which we discovered only toward
the end of our outing

In the Holy Stairs building, pondering an
assortment of stairs

Ascendant selfie

The true official story of the Sancta Scala; like all the rest of
the relics, saints, demi-gods, etc., they are walking it back
a bit...

Looking down the upstairs

Pilgrims crawling up the substitute Holy Stairs

For extra credit, climb on your hands only

The rest of the story

Save the Stairs!

Photo of a photo of the real Holy Stairs, now
being renovated; good enough for me

Still in the Lateran area, across from our bus stop, a great old
octagonal building, reminiscent of baptistries we've seen in
other cities

Sure enough, in which more confirmations are going on

Maybe next time

And just up the street, a quadruple arch building...Rome's
wonders are limitless