Giornale: S. Maria in Trastevere

Emily, Lauren, and I were determined to get our first solo excursion done. It had already been a few days since we’d arrived in Rome and the list of writing we had to do was looming over us. We set out to Trastevere, our destination being the Santa Maria in Trastevere, which we picked because of its close proximity to Tonnarello. The thought of pasta in my near future made my stomach growl as we neared the church. When we arrived at the entrance of the church after a long walk we were greeted by a sign telling us that we had to be in proper church dress. This sent us into a miniature panic as Lauren was wearing a short skirt and had no change of clothes. However, we had come too far to go back now, so Lauren decided to cross her fingers and enter the church.

When we walked in, we split apart allowing each other to have separate experiences. I gazed in wonder all around the church. My church was small growing up and I found the size of this church overwhelming. After seeing the Santa Maria in Aracoeli earlier that day, I realized that there were many similarities between the two churches. I immediately noticed that the columns that separated the nave and the aisles were not all the same. Just like the church in Aracoeli, they must have been spoliated from elsewhere. I noticed, however, that there were mainly ionic columns, with only a few corinthian mixed in. The columns that caught my eye the most were the two closest to the transept of the basilica. These were massive, corinthian, and peculiarly rectangular in shape rather than all of their cylindrical  friends. They must have been a newer addition to the church because they seemed less tarnished and more modern. I had never seen a column like that before and I found the mix of the classical corinthian style with the newer design quite strange.

From floor to ceiling, I could not deny that this church was magnificent. I made sure to take many pictures for my grandmother who is a hardcore catholic and a huge fan of the blessed mother. The flooring of the church was the same cosmati style that we had seen in Aracoeli and it wrapped elegantly around the pews. The ceiling was embellished heavily with gold and a particularly beautiful image of Mary was highlighted in the center. There was an inscription on the ceiling towards the back of the church in latin that I was attempting to decode, but I only got as far as the words “virgin mother” when the lights were shut off. A man started singing and I had a small panic when I realized that perhaps a service was starting. I did not want to be disrespectful and be looking around while this was going on so I started to look for Lauren and Emily. The church was surprisingly still well lit as the daylight streamed through, rather powerfully, from the windows behind the altar. The light illuminated the altar in an almost eerie way; it looked almost as if there were a fire behind it.

I found Emily also looking up at the altar and motioned to her silently that we should leave. But we couldn’t find Lauren anywhere. We circled the church and she had disappeared. With some dread I realized that she might have been kicked out due to her lack of appropriate church attire. Relieved, we eventually found her outside, but she had not been kicked out, she just wanted some air. Funnily enough, if she had not disappeared we would not have seen one of the most interesting things. Outside the church, on a side entrance there were purple and green balloons with a sign for a party. Little kids were going in and out and we could not tell if it was a birthday party or what it was. For some reason, the idea of a kid’s party in this grand basilica was very funny to me. I attended parties in my church all the time as a child, but I thought it to be so different from the church I had just seen. This experience in Santa Maria showed me that no matter how grand, a church is still a community and I think that is something that a lot of people lose sight of while studying the basilicas of Rome.

Trastevere, Rome
Friday, May 24th