The rain which had been forecast off and on started sporadically the day before but by Saturday morning rain was steadily coming down.

January 6 is Epiphany, a holiday in Italy and the end of the Christmas and New Year holiday season. Epiphany is when the three wise men were to have brought gifts to baby Jesus. In Italy, it is also when the witch Befana brings children treats, or if they have been bad, coal. Sounds familiar.

We slowly got ourselves going in the morning as we were reluctant to got out in the rain. By the time we ventured forth, it had stopped.

We stopped in an Irish pub for lunch and more importantly, the many tv screens showing English FA Cup matches as well as Italian Serie A calico (soccer). From there we went to the Doria Pamphilj gallery. I had not been since 2016 and they have now opened a bar and restaurant on the ground floor.

The gallery is organized in the style of pre-20th century houses in which the owners wanted to display their art collection. So the walls are covered ceiling to wainscotting level.

It makes it impossible to see the paintings by the ceiling especially with the added lighting. Luckily much of the art stuck up high on the wall is not of the highest quality. There are claims to have Titians, Raphaels, Veroneses which are questionable. At best they are copies and the arrangement of some of these suggest the curators of the collection know the origins are dubious. But they do have a great collection of Caravaggios.

Some questionable Raphaels but this one should be authentic.

This Titian was being studied and conserved.

After we looked into Il Gesu but I forgot to take any photos.

Scott and Sidney did post-Christmas shopping.

For dinner, we returned to La Moretta, where we lunched on our first afternoon in the third apartment. This time we ate inside.

Daily specials are on the blackboard.