La Bocca della Verita!

aka The Mouth of Truth. dun dun dun.... Sounds so dramatic. This name comes from Roman legend that if you tell a lie while putting your hand in its mouth, you would lose your hand! I guess the statue would 'bite' it off? Either way, this relic is outside of a church east of Trastevere and is in Ancient Rome. The church is called Santa Maria in Cosmedin, which means Our Lady of Beauty.

I kept my hand :)

Next we were off to see St Paul outside the walls, named for its placement outside the walls of Rome. Our professor recommended for us to visit this church and said he liked it better than St. Peter's! That's setting some high expectations there because St Peter's is grand in every sense of the word.

Well the thing about this church is that it was huge! I mean really! We had to walk around it to find the entrance so we really got a good idea of how expansive it was. Since it was outside the main hub of Rome, it was a lot quieter with less tourists and had a peaceful sense about it.

The garden/courtyard area was very nice and the palm trees reminded me of the missions back home. Inside of the church, it was very open, almost empty feeling compared to the gilded splendor of St Peter's and all the tourists that flock there daily. The main altar had an interesting half dome shape behind it and the mosaic and fresco decor had a very Byzantine flavor to it.

The beautiful engraved doors.

detailed ceiling of the colonnade

Next up was a trip was up north on the metro to the Borghese park. This large, green expanse is right next to the school where we had class and we wanted to check it out.

Turns out it was quite a large park with a lovely lake in the middle! With rowboats and everything! It was so beautiful and unexpected.

Also there were turtles hanging out in the shallows! They had the right idea hanging out in the water where it was cool. Their little heads poking up to take an occasional breath were so cute.

this was on an island in the middle of the lake

All in all, it was a very productive day and we even saw some cute miniature horses/ponies resting in the shade!