Monasteries and churches

sometimes you find yourself alone on a crisp saturday and you think, what to do what to do and then you realise oh! im in rome and i can google what to do! so i decided to explore the neighbourhood around my house, the part that i havent yet explored (its up the hill)

this is a monastery that makes its own wine and spirits of the holy kind! no jokes though, they have a little shop and sell all kinds of weird concoctions and balms

this is inside the church you are allowed into. its a very modern mosaic and only the figures are mosaiced. is mosaiced even a verb? sounds like something an italian would say with heavy pronunciation on the i and the d

of course i only roused myself at the latest possible but forced myself to leave before sunset (16:30?!!) so that i could photograph in the light and what a rewarding light there was. now this monastery is on a hill called i think the aventine hill and it is 2 blocks away from my house in a lush, absolutely still neighbourhood. where apparently only rich people stay and a high percentage of film stars

well i only saw tourists and it was quite a surprise because on my way up it was dead quiet and as i rounded the corner to my destination (a look through a keyhole that frames St peters basilica). there were a lot of tourists and tourist busses, all a little irritated because the door with said key hole was actually open! so instead of looking through the key hole you could see st peters framed by an archway of hedges. but people were so pissed off that they couldnt look through this keyhole like all the other millions of tourists and take another photo through the key hole like the millions of tourists do

that is the italian word for door. maybe the monks need reminding

this was an odd church. all pastel colours very wierd and looked a bit oriental the shapes of the patterns etc

i was tempted to steal a rose

view from one of the orange gardens of St Peters Basilica

all those tempting oranges just out of grazing reach!! such a waste

a bell tower

im a bit obsessed with patterns and tiles at the moment

monk man

this church is now my favorite church in rome. Santa Sabina. i think it is linked to another monastery (that would explain the eerie white men) but it has such a presence this church. the windows have what looks like decorative mud panes and let in a strange light. the simple altar painting in the half dome is impressive but this whole church feels understated yet solid like it has a living history, like its real its not just another gold palace in rome and its not modern and bare i dont quite know how to describe it but that it was awesome.

view from another orange garden

in summer these gardens will be perfect for lazy saturday afternoons and picnics, i cant wait! and they are so ridiculously close to my house! anyways so that was my churchy sunday afternoon