Tuesday Morning, May 20th

This morning we met at the classroom at 10am and discussed The Pantheon and Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, which is a beautiful church that is located about two blocks from our class space. The church was constructed in the 13th century and features a wide array of Gothic art. The inside of this large church houses about 8-10 smaller "chapels", which are located on the sides of the church. I personally find it funny that in some of the smaller side chapels you must insert a euro to turn the lights on in order to see it better/take better pictures. I would have taken some pictures today, but I got all the way here and realized that I switched to a 200mm lens, which is to big to shoot in these small, dark places. Both inside and outside the church are works by Bernini, who is one of Italy's great artists. This church is also where, in 1380, St. Catherine of Siena died. She is buried here in a tomb, which you can still see today. After that we ventured back over to The Pantheon, which is right next door to this church. The Pantheon impresses me each and every time I see it. It was originally a Roman temple to all the gods, but was converted to a church through time. The oculus, or the whole in top of the dome, is still open and when it rains outside, it rains inside. The most interesting part of The Pantheon is the tomb of Raphael, who was another great artist of a long ago time. Today in the Pantheon there were "guards" who were watching the tombs of Italian Kings, and asking tourists to sign a book with their name and home country. Of course I signed it in hopes of being a small part of history. We are now sitting in studio, writing our blogs and booking weekend trips, as it thunderstorms very bad outside. Hopefully we can play some more bingo tonight!