In my top 10

One of the best things about being in Rome for more than a few days is that there is time to just SOAK IN all the amazing art and architecture.  Meandering, not rushing through the streets.  Peaking into places 10 times when no one else is there.  It is just wonderful.  What a gift.  Sometimes I just have to pinch myself to know that it is not a dream.  If I could redo all my studies and be 19 again, I think I would be an architecture student or an art historian.  My brain can't hold it all now, hence my need for lots of books of information on what I am looking at, but I sure do love the looking!!!  (Of course, I would therefore already be fluent in Italian already, having studied architecture in Italy for so long...alas, this language is killing me.  What a mess with Spanish!)

Anyway, back to churches.  Santa Maria della Pace.  So lovely.  Almost never open.  But I walk past it at least twice a day and admire the gorgeous Baroque facade.

St Ivo della Sapienza is hard to even get a peak inside of especially in the Winter.  But during the summer, there are concerts and Voila!, open doors.  The courtyard is the best part in my humble opinion.  Another Baroque beauty designed by Borromini.  

I don't (yet) have a picture of my last new fav.  It is called San Lorenzo in Lucina. We walk by it often (itis near Giolitti's :-) but I never went in until this visit.  Now we visit often.  I just love the the portico outside and the amazing main altar and art around it.