Saturday felt very different considering that we didn’t have class that day. In the morning, most of us made our way down to the Bocca Della Verita, the “Mouth of Truth.” This was a very exciting tourist destination, as many waited in a long line just to get a picture with the thing! The legend of the Mouth of Truth is that a person, usually a prisoner, is told to put their hand in the mouth, and if they tell a lie, their hand would get bitten clean off! In reality it was either a fountain decoration or a manhole cover. In the church, the Santa Maria Cosmedin, the skull of St. Valentine is displayed.
We had a few hours for a break and to catch up with our work after that. When the break ended, we went to what is now downtown. Here we saw many fountains sculpted by Bernini and learned how fountains have sculpture that represents a river, and many fountains had large obelisks taken from the Egyptians. I always wondered what the Romans did with their pillaged goods. The Trevi Fountain, of course, was the most grandiose fountain, but unfortunately it was under reconstruction. This seems to be a theme in my travels… first the reflecting pool at DC, and now this! I find it to be fantastic though; I can start a collection of water-based landmarks drained! If you think about it we are quite lucky. Many people know what the reflecting pool or the Trevi Fountain looks like filled with water, but few get to see them the way we did! There was still a tiny pool of water to throw coins into, so I did that.
The Pantheon was not at all what I expected. Mass was going on, so we didn’t go inside, but that is besides the point. I never in all my life imagined the Pantheon to sit in the middle of bustling commercial streets! I always thought it to stand in a meadow somewhere, or on a hill, somewhere secluded. Out of the entire trip, this is by far the attraction that stands the most vastly different from what I imagined. We went to the Spanish Steps after this. They were simply stairs, having nothing to do with Spain save that it once led to a Spanish embassy. The building it leads to is no longer a Spanish embassy, so a proper title for the Spanish Steps should be the Steps.
My Favorite part of the day was when we went into a Filipino church. It wasn’t that distinguished, but it appealed to me as someone of Filipino descent. The supposed skull of St. Matthew was there, but then again there were two other churches with claimed the same thing.
