After classes, I walked around this area looking into shops. At the west end of the street that the school is on, you see this—Castel Sant’Angelo. Never been inside and probably won’t go this trip.

Nearby is Santa Maria della Pace, designed by Bramante. Donatello Bramante was a leading High Renaissance architect, the leading architect in Renaissance Rome. His basic design forms St. Peter’s. Santa Maria della Pace exhibits the Renaissance ideal of balance as the church is a central plan.

I want to come back here because the cloister, chiostro, in Italian, has a Raphael fresco that you can observe at leisure from a cafe.

A short block (insofar as anything resembles a block in the Centro Storico part of Rome) from the school is this interior courtyard with a huge fountain. Google maps describes this as Piazza Taverna. No idea what it is. The sign says it’s private so did not invite exploring.

The after class event was a walk to Ara Pacis and the Mausoleum of Augustus. Eleanora, who is teaching my art history lessons, gave a great background explanation of who Augustus was and what the Ara Pacis is—a temple.

The short explanation is that it is an open top temple to the goddess Pax (peace), but was a piece of propaganda for Augustus, the first emperor, after the “dictator” Julius Caesar, showing abundance and prosperity under his reign and promoting his dynasty and succession.

The building around it, by the architect Richard Meier, is basically to preserve the structure.

Across the street is the Mausoleum of Augustus. The other ancient Roman mausoleum in Rome is Sant’Angelo, which was Hadrian’s mausoleum but Augustus’ fell into serious disrepair because it was basically ignored for hundreds of years.

When we first saw it in 2007, you could walk right up to the excavation. It’s now fenced and being worked on—I didn’t quite follow what is happening to it as it was all being explained in Italian.

Near by is the church of San Girolamo dei Croati. The interior is undergoing some serious renovation and reeks of paint or similar smelling chemicals. I left quickly because it smelled so strongly. Others did not seemed to be bothered.

The exterior looks Renaissance.