The Aventine Hill is one of the most peaceful places within the Roman walls of this crazy city.
At the top stands the Basilica of Santa Sabina with a lovely patio (a garden inside the walls of the monastery) which can be seen only through a small window.
From the top one can overlook the Trastevere on the other side of the river.
Nor far from the top there is a monastery of the Knights of Malta who lend only a keyhole in the convent’s gate to watch through the very distant dome of St. Peter's . Reportedly, we should avoid a malicious gardener who on the other side of the gate puts a stick into the hole to harm the voyeur’s eye!
Going down the hill we find a well-kept cemetery for foreigners who are non-Catholic. There are those who loved Rome or had personal relationships with the city: John Keats, Shelley Bysshe - English Romantic poets, Joseph Severn – a painter and Keats’s partner and Goethe’s son Julius.
Numerous cats are permanent residents (living) of this cemetery, living only on tourist’s mercy.
We also visited the tomb of Richard Krautheimer - the great German art historian who loved Rome. For our Olaf he is a great authority and idol. As Krauthaeimer , Olaf would like to have an epitaph on his tomb - a citizen of Rome.
In Trastevere we entered the Santa Cecilia church, the patron saint of musicians, who suffered martyrdom in the year 230. Under the altar there is a beautiful sculpture representing the sacred in an unusual position - reportedly in the position her body was found in the year 830! By sculptor Stefan Maderna.
Subsequently, in the church of St. Francis there is a sculpture by Bernini - Blessed Lodovica Albertoni in death ecstasy. Such death must be delightful!
After returning to the city we go for coffee at the market square of Campo dei Fiori where we see only garbage collection after the trading day.
At one of the corner wall there is a table with a poem by Czeslaw Milosz (in Italian), resounding the Campo .
On our way home tired, tired at the end of the day we stopped at the most famous ice cream parlour "Giolitti" for a portion of this delicacy.
