Rome 2019
In May and June 2019 I lived for six weeks in Rome in an apartment in Via Ripetta, on the corner of Piazza del Popolo.
May 27, 2019
Via Ripetta, my street in Rome is part of the so-called arrows: the three main streets of Rome, all of which start at Piazza del Popolo, the entrance to the city. The distance between the streets is only a few tens of meters in the beginning. Via Ripetta, is the quietest. In the middle is the Via del Corso, Rome’s most important shopping street. In addition you will find Via Babuino, Rome’s smartest street with all the major designer and fashion stores: Armani, Kenzo and so on.
My street passes the Mausoleum of Augustus. On the left I can see the Pantheon, the Spanish steps, the Trevi fountain and Piazza Navona. I could easily spend a whole vacation in my street alone. I ignore the just mentioned highlights. It is crowded with tourists there and that applies to the entire medieval city center.
There are a lot of interesting buildings, churches, museums and the like that the tourists with a timetable don’t go to. For example, on the Piazza del Popolo is the Santa Maria del Popolo church, where I regularly walk in to watch a beautiful Caravaggio. For example in the morning at nine o’clock when nobody is there yet. Good morning Caravaggio!
This afternoon I discovered at the end of my street (15 minutes walk) the church San Luigi dei Francesi, the French church of Rome. Left in the back in a niche there are no less than three beautiful Caravaggio’s. Just in a church. I was watching it together with about ten people.
I remember that one Caravaggio was recently shown in Utrecht. People travelled there from all over the Netherlands.
Fifty meters away is the San Andrea della Valle with beautiful ceiling paintings. In the Santa Maria del Vittorio I found the -probably- most important sculpture of Bernini: The ecstasy of Santa Teresa.
Rome. San Luigi dei Francesci. Three Caravaggio paintings.
