Today we visited the Basilica of Santa Sabina as the Aventine. It is an extremely early basilica, which is simply decorated unlike the more gaudy Santa Maria Maggione. The wooden door of the basilica is the original door built around 430. The wooden panels on the door depict Bible scenes, the most famous is one depicting Christ's crucifixion. Next we stopped at Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, a church dedicated to Saint Cecilia, a 2nd century Roman martyr. When we first entered the church a nun took us upstairs to see the fresco of the "Last Judgment" by Pietro Cavallini. This medieval painting demonstrates how Italian painting changed from the Byzantine era. Afterwards we went downstairs and saw the marble effigy of St. Cecilia by Stefano Maderno.
Afterwards we visited the Basilica of Our Lady of Trastevere or Santa Maria, one of the oldest churches in Rome. The church keeps a relic of Saint Apollonia as well as a portion if the holy sponge.
Our last stop for the afternoon was the Tempietto, a small commemorative martyrium built by Bramante in the courtyard of San Pietro in Montorio. The work is viewed as a masterpiece of high renaissance architecture.
Later Thursday night the whole Fordham program headed to the Baths of Caracalla to watch the opera Tosca. The venue was really cool and the opera was good too although it was in Italian so I couldn't understand most of it. (I had read a summary online before though so I had so I had an idea of what was going on.)
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