Continuing our tour amongst the churches of Rome, looking for the most precious treasures of art, it is impossible, sometimes, to avoid queuing. To see the most beautiful Michelangelo's sculpture, "La Pietà" (made in 1499, when he was only 25years old!) you'll have to go inside St Peter that is more crowded than ever because of the Jubilee. But the beauty that you'll discover is worth a long wait...
Pietà - Michelangelo
To see another Michelangelo's masterpiece, the Sistine Chapel, even if it is just beside St Peter, you'll have to wait in another queue (and, this time, pay also a ticket that is better to book in advance), at the entrance of the Vatican Museums.
Cappella Sistina
But you can also find other Michelangelo's works in other churches with a much easier access. For example, in San Pietro in Vincoli, near the via Cavour, not far from the emperor Nero's Golden House (Domus Aurea) and the Colosseum, you'll see a impressive statue of Moses.
Mose' - Michelangelo
But, if you are in Vatican, you can first just cross the Tiber and walk towards the Pantheon and the Piazza della Minerva. Inside "Santa Maria sopra Minerva", there is another Michelangelo's sculpture, on the left side of the main altar, "Christ bearing the cross", that was completed later or, more precisely, "covered" with a bronze drapery. Like some Sistine Chapel nudes that were "dressed" after the Trent Council (1545- 1563)...
Christ Bearing The Cross - Michelangelo
In this beautiful gothic church (the only one in Rome!) built upon a Minerva's temple in the 13th century, you can also admire some marvellous frescoes by the Florentine painter Filippino Lippi (Filippo Lippi's son) in the Cappella Carafa ((the Assumption and the Annunciation are unforgettable), on the right side of the main altar. And, on the square in front of the church, Piazza della Minerva, the amusing little elephant that carries an obelisk is an unusual Bernini's work.
Annunciation - Filippino Lippi
Assumption - Filippino Lippi
Completely different from one of the most intense Bernini's sculpture, "The Ecstasy of St Teresa of Avila ", a baroque absolute masterpiece that you can admire in the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, via Venti Settembre, not far from the Termini train station. It is also not so far from San Pietro in Vincoli (the Michelangelo's Moses) and from Santa Maria Maggiore, the oldest of the four papal basilicas of Rome. You have to visit this beautiful basilica, especially if you like mosaics. And, in that case, you cannot ignore Santa Prassede, jus a few steps from Santa Maria, with her extraordinary byzantine mosaics from the 9th century.
But, all this is just a little part of the treasures enshrined in the... 900 churches of Rome.
But, all this is just a little part of the treasures enshrined in the... 900 churches of Rome.
The Ecstasy of St Teresa - Lorenzo Bernini
Santa Prassede
