Ecstasy on the Round

     Almost the first restaurant we came across, dello Studente, was the one where we ended up eating. I say ended up since we merely ambled over after filling our water bottles because everyone was saying how the professors liked it. After we were seated, of course, we noticed that Curley and Spinner were sitting at the table just a few down from us. There were ten of us at the table: myself, Anna, Mariana, Sarah D., Chris, Kristen, Sarah B., Mark, Ally, and Elyssa.
I had Tagliatelle pasta with Bolognese sauce. It was quite delicious, but the conversation was better - probably because we talked about everything and nothing at the same time, just really getting to know each other better. Once lunch was over Sarah B. offered to take us to a small church she liked. Since it sounded interesting, Anna, Sarah D., Chris, Mariana, Ally, Kristen and I decided to follow her.
     We walked through a bit of residential space first as we wandered looking for gelato. Finally we found a small place and were able to buy some. I tried to stracciatella gelato for the first time - essentially it was chocolate chips in vanilla gelato - and it was divine. Even though some of it dripped on my camera (don't worry, the camera is fine) it was completely worth the mess it made. After we'd finished eating on the benches outside of the shop, we went up a few more blocks and stopped at the Ludus Magnus for a few moments. The Ludus Magnus is the ruins of a gladiator school which used to be connected to the Colosseum via an underground tunnel. The ruins were splayed out across grass below street level, so we all looked down and took some pictures. Some of the building shapes were still visible from the ruins, including part of a curved building and one that was triangular. After crossing a few more roads, including one that was a blind turn for the cars, and almost walking into a military camp, we found our way to the path of S. Stefan
o in Rotondo, or St. Stefan in the Round. The path up to the church was very rustic, a pebbled road and large arches on the front of the building. It was a peaceful sight, but the inside was completely different.
     We passed through a foyer first, where a man was sitting. He was checking to make sure everyone was covered appropriately for church. Then, we walked through the large doors into an entirely circular space. In the center, there was an altar and gray chairs that were eerily modern in comparison to the rest of the church. There were columns in a circle surrounding the altar and the center space. Immediately you could see the walls of the church were covered with frescos of saints. Before I looked more closely at them, however, I went into the chapel dedicated to Saints Primus and Felicianus. There was an altar dedicated to both saints made of marble and gold inside. Although it was expensively furnished, the altar was very simply designed: a box with front columns and a plaque of bronze. On the walls surrounding the chapel, martyrs were depicted during their deaths - such as the one man drinking melted lead and the other being burned alive. Contrastingly, in the middle of both walls there were images of being saved or spared. On the one side, two men knelt praying surrounded by lions, on the other side the same image was replaced with bears. In both images the animals appeared calm and in no way inclined to hurt the praying men - a stark difference from the surrounding martyrdoms.
     One of the things I found most interesting about St. Stefan in the Round was the literal layering of history within the building. There were sections of the building roped or glassed off that showed some of the natural decay of the materials. One section of the floor was railed off and I could see that it had collapsed in on itself. Despite its clear ruin, however, I could still see the floor pattern on the shards. Circular shapes and tiles noticeably stuck out from the larger pieces of flooring.
     The second thing I found particularly intriguing about the church was how all of the women were depicted in ecstasy. I use that word purposefully, since their faces brought to mind Theresa of Avila who is well known for her ecstasies. She is depicted in the famous "St. Theresa on Fire," an image of one of her ecstasies in marble. Compared to the male martyrs, the women seemed much more willing to suffer in the name of God. I found particularly horrifying some of the graphic depictions of the women being tortured, all while wearing pleased facial expressions. To be honest, as soon as I reached the one female portrait, which I will not describe since it is so disgusting to think about, that peaceful feeling I had when walking into the church had utterly disappeared. It absolutely baffles me that people would want to expose themselves to such violent imagery, but the church remains open for public services, and based on the number of chairs it is relatively popular for mass. That popularity did not extend to our group since I think most of us were extremely happy to leave the space and make our way back onto the streets of Rome.