Grand Canal   We began our touring with a visit to St. Mark’s Basilica – built to house the body of Mark which was stole from Alexandria, Egypt in 829 C.E.  The consecration of the first church was in 832.  It burned, and the building we see today was begun …

Canal in Venice, Italy   This morning we visited the Galleria Dell’Accademia and viewed some magnificent paintings.  One was Titian’s Pieta which was a rare subject for him.  Titian worked on paintings for a long time and returned again and again to them.  Another one was Tintoretto’s The Miracle of …

This morning we hopped on the Italo train from Venice to Rome – barreling down the tracks at 180 mph.  We made it to Rome in 3 1/2 hours.  Fabulous! Below is our first view of Rome: After checking into our hotel, we went to the famous Piazza Navona where …

Today our first stop was the Galleria Doria Pamphilj – which houses a fabulous art collection and which is likely the largest in Rome still in private ownership. Walking to the Galleria Doria Pamphilj: This is the first stop today on our way to the Galleria Doria Pamphilj. This is …

This morning we began with a visit to St. John Lateran – the first Christian church built by Constantine the Great in the 4th century.  In ancient times the site was occupied by the palace of the family of the Laterani.  The porticoed structure found in front of the palace …

Our first visit this morning – early – was to Santa Maria del Popolo – which has two Caravaggio paintings – one is The Crucifixion of St. Peter, and the other is Conversion on The Way to Damascus.   Both masterpieces draw the viewer into the space of the paintings as …

Our first stop today was to the Aventine Hill.  The entire group saw Santa Sabina Church with its crucifixion and other biblical narrative carvings. Then we looked through a key hole at the Knights of Malta door and saw an amazing view of the dome of St. Peter’s. Site seeing …

Today was our time to visit the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica. The Vatican: In high season, they move 21,000 people per hour through these gates.  It was quite a sight to behold. In the Vatican, we saw Raphael’s Transfiguration, Caravaggio’s The Deposition, and the …

This morning we visited the Colosseum, but first our guide had to race against other guides to get our tickets.  That was quite a something to behold. Here we are waiting outside the Colosseum to get ready to enter: We learned that no Christians were executed in the Colosseum, but …