I wanted to go into Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza which is only open from 9-11 am on Sundays. The church belongs to the Sapienza University and until relatively recently was never open to the public. One of the popes from the 1960s—I can’t remember, John or Paul (but not George or Ringo) convinced the university head to permit the public in, which he did, but only for two hours a week. I guess it’s better than not letting the public in. I read during WWII, the courtyard was a meeting place for resistance fighters as it is pretty impossible to see into the courtyard from the ground level when the courtyard doors are closed.

The apartment is almost 2 kilometres away so it was a fair walk and the temperature according to my phone was 3 degrees Celsius. I layered up.

I stayed for the two hours and did some sketching as I find it is a good way to make you focus on details. Like Santa Maria della Pace, there are Chigi family mountains, the cylindrical shapes with the rounded tops are mountains with a star on top. They are on either side of the drum as you look from outside and are in the lantern seen from inside. I had never noticed that in my other visits.

There are scholarly works on the symbolism in Borromini’s architecture—many to do with learning or wisdom such as the stars are called star of Solomon, but there are too many for me to describe here.

I wrote about Borromini in 2019: https://wp.me/pDiy2-2Yx

I recently also learned that the shape of the floor plan and exterior is a stylized bee, a reference to the Barberini family.

The other patron, Pope Innocent X, has his family crest of the lily included in the interior and the other family symbol, the dove, I found on the outside.The details, once you start looking for them, are so rich, I’m sure I missed elements after trying to observe for two hours.

There was no presepe in Sant’Ivo. There’s no room for one in the tiny interior.

From Sant’Ivo I headed towards Santa Maria del Popolo on a reconnoiter to check if it was closed as indicated by Google searches. When I got there, mass was just ending. The church is open BUT the Chigi Chapel which was partly designed by Raphael and has 2 Bernini statues is roped off and you can barely see into part of it and the Cerasi Chapel with Caravaggio’s St Peter and St Paul is completely inaccessible even from view because of scaffolding and wrap. There is, however, a presepe.

I tried going into Santa Maria dei Miracoli, known as the artists’ church, which is across Piazza del Popolo, but mass was being conducted both before noon and after.

The city Christmas tree is in Piazza del Popolo but I forgot to take a photo as I was distracted by what looked like a Golden Retriever convention. There were more than 30 dogs and puppies milling together.

I walked down Via del Corso, along with a lot of other people as the street is closed to cars (but not scooters or bicycles). Likely a Sunday closing thing.

The area at the bottom of the Spanish Steps was busy but I’ve seen bigger crowds.

The City of Rome’s presepe—bereft of any figures. It’s large. Maybe there will be live people and animals later.

After returning to the apartment to fix my phone, ditch my coat and start laundry, I headed out again to do some Christmas shopping.

By 5pm the area at the bottom of the Spanish Steps and all the shopping streets were heaving with people—too many to stop and take a photo as I was getting squished. Here’s the Dior sponsored Christmas tree on the Steps (notice my skill in avoiding everyone taking selfies):

Some of the hanging ornaments are perfume bottle shaped.

I tried a different restaurant around the corner, which had much the same menu as last night, but good wines by the glass. This will probably not be especially useful to know once Scott arrives—as he’s not an only one glass of wine type. (He doesn’t read this—I can say what I want.)