Piazza Navona, Capuchin Crypt and Concert: Italy Part 7

We woke up in Venice to temps in the 70s after the rain in the night! I can't tell you how refreshing that was! At our BnB, Aquavenice, we were served juice, cappuccino, and cream-filled croissants right in our room. Perfect!

Before checking out and boarding our 10:00 train, we decided to walk down to a little patisserie we had seen the day before, Pasticceria La Donatella. We bought macarons and ogled at the many beautiful pastries. We took some more photos, then headed on back to Rome. Must admit, we got some fancy chocolate in the train station to enjoy on the way!

We arrived in Rome about 2:00 and got a taxi back to the hotel. As always, we grabbed a pastry from the breakfast room as we walked by. We freshened up a bit, made a call for reservations for dinner, and set out again.

Even though we chose Navona Colors Hotel partly for its proximity to Piazza Navona, one of the major squares in the city, we hadn't been there yet! So, we walked the 2 blocks and found it. The statue of the 4 river gods by Bernini is one of the best sculptures in the city. There are many restaurants on the square, and a few shops. We walked through an antique shop and a couple of other places, and then set out to walk toward our next scheduled thing, a tour of the Capuchin Crypt followed by a concert.

Photo by Dnalor_01 on Wikimedia Commons CC-BY-SA 3.0

This was definitely one of my favorite tours in Rome, the crypt of the "Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini. Below the church, there are a series of rooms containing the remains of over 3000 Capuchin monks whose bones decorate the walls. Nobody knows for sure how old they are because they were already old when they were brought to the crypt. I  kept thinking of the phrase "ars longa, vita brevis." Art is long; life is short. We couldn't take pictures in the crypt, so you'll have to go there to see it for yourself! It's not for small children - I would have been traumatized for months as a child by seeing all of the bones and skeletons - but for adults and teens, it's quite fascinating. Upstairs, there is a small museum that has a collection of things relating to the Capuchin order of monks which are an offshoot of the Franciscans established in the 1500s.  There is a beautiful painting that may be a Caravaggio - St. Francis in Meditation.

Schola Romana Ensemble

The tour through the crypt is not very long, and it was followed by a stunning concert of sacred choral music performed by members of the Schola Romana Ensemble in the church above the crypt. The concert included a small bit of chant, but mostly polyphonic works by Palestrina, Arcadelt, Victoria, Carissimi, and others. As I've mentioned before, I'm a professional classical musician. My specialty is early music and historically-informed performance. Take my word for it - this group is good. The concert was worth the price of admission. Tickets can be purchased ahead of time here.

We had made dinner reservations at one of the places right next to our hotel, Lagana. One day, I heard singing outside our hotel window, and I opened the casement and hung out to discover that someone was sitting at one of Lagana's tables doing a pretty good job on Fly Me To The Moon. Looked like just an impromptu performance, not a planned set up. (If anybody knows whether Michael Buble happened to be hanging out at Lagana in July, let me know!!) Nobody was singing when we went there to eat, but the food sang in its own right! When we stalled trying to make a decision for a starter, the waiter, who was also the owner, offered to bring us a sample of many things. We were unprepared for just how much we were going to get! Soon, our table was filled with plates of all sorts of antipasti - prosciutti, mozzarella, tomatoes, zucchini, I can't even remember it all. You could spent a happy evening at Lagana just eating antipasti and drinking wine. I also had the pasta amatriciana, which was very good.

This was a more relaxing day. We only walked 5.8 miles!

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Part 8