Santa Maria in Trastevere

I know, another church! Three churches (plus lunch) by 2pm our second day. We could only spend until 2pm in Trastevere because we had reserved tickets for Caravaggio at 3 o'clock. (Which was unbelievable but I will get to that later.)

The handy thing with these bigger churches is they are open all day unlike a lot of the little ones that close for three hours in the middle of the day. Santa Maria also has a great piazza, some beautiful chapels, and incredible mosaics both outside and in, that remind me a little of Saint Mark's in Venice but Byzantine.

Oh yes, and a miracle apparently happened there. Oil sprouted out of the ground when Jesus was born so a few hundred years later a Pope decided to build a church there. I don't think they met "oil" as in "crude oil" but I could be wrong. I might have missed something.

Santa Maria in Trastevere

Founded in the 3rd century

Built in the 4th

Repaired and rededicated in the 5th (during 410 sack of Rome)

Restoration in the 8th and additions in the 9th

Totally rebuilt in the 12th and additional mosaics in the 13th

New Chapel in the 16th

Restored facade in the 17th

Busy, busy.

When we walked in we could hear music ...

voices singing into the rafters ... candles lit ...

natural sunlight streaming through the stained glass windows ...

like going back in time ...

like entering another world ...

Candlelight ...

It adds that

lovely

soft

magical glow to the world,

that I can never seem to get enough of.

I just love it.