The plan was to find the San Luigi dei Francesi church, near Piazza Navona and home to the French community of Rome, to see the Caravaggio paintings there. On the way we stopped for really good coffee at Sant Eustachio. Best we’ve had so far. The church was easy to find. They had a downloadable audio guide, but it would not load onto my phone for some reason. The ceiling was gorgeous:

But the star of the show was made obvious by the crowd around it, a small chapel on the left with three Caravaggio paintings depicting St. Matthew.

We left there to hang out for a little while at Piazza Navona, and try once again to appreciate the grand scope of those fountains. I am always trying to imagine the times and context of these works. I think the minds’ of the locals must have been blown by their sculptural glory.

We kept strolling and came to Campo dei Fiori, where we stayed years ago, when I realized our Slow Travel friend DMae was staying nearby. I texted her and we went up to her light-filled apartment for a little visit. Glad we did. DMae gave us directions to her favorite porchetta place and off we went. We both thought the sandwiches were excellent and we loved every bite. From there we found the shop called Lela where I had wanted to look at for an apron, but no luck there. We saw a Fatamorgana gelato shop and stopped in. Being so close to the river, we had to go onto the Ponte Sisto and look out for a while:

And finally we decided to head home, passing by the Largo Argentina on our way:

After being home for a little while we discovered our internet was out and did a bunch of texting with Gino, our landlord. I went out by myself to the Rinascente department store, in my continuing search for an apron. Just like American stores, all the clerks were talking to each other and paid no mind to the customers. Finally, I discovered the astounding fact that they only sell one apron there and it was decidedly not what I had in mind. The search continues. But, I did love feeling so independent walking my fast walk down the busy Roman street with the proverbial wind in my hair.

We had bought a premade artichoke lasagna at the pasta shop on Saturday, so we heated that up for dinner and drank some Prosecco. The internet was repaired; our feet were tired. Time for bed.