Our aimless wandering took us south of Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, the main east-west thoroughfare in the area, toward the Campo de'Fiori. The Campo de'Fiori is a square with a picturesque outdoor market. But only in the mornings - in the evenings, it's just a big, empty square. But some of the nearby shops displayed some appetizing wares. We managed to resist them, as dinnertime was approaching.


Back on the Corso we happened upon a large church we had not yet explored, called the Sant'Andrea della Valle church.

The Sant'Andrea della Valle church was built from 1590-1650 by the Theatines, an order dedicated to combating Protestantism through an austere lifestyle. The church was named for St. Andrew, as the land for the church was donated to the order by the Duchess of Amalfi, and St. Andrew is Amalfi's patron saint. The final plan for the church was the work of Carlo Maderno. The church has a dome which is the third largest in Rome, after the Pantheon and St. Peter's Basilica. The church is extensively decorated and has many side chapels. It is also the resting place of Pope Pius II and Pope Pius III.

When we'd gone out for a walk, we did so without much in the way of plans for photography, so we didn't have our best cameras with us. The following pictures were taken with a small point-and-shoot and a standard-def Flip Video camera, so the quality may not be as good as some of the others on this site. But they should convey the general idea.







After we'd finished looking around the church, we returned to the apartment to cook ourselves some dinner and to rest up for our final day in Rome, which we would be spending in the world's center of Catholicism: Vatican City.