Maria della Vittoria

Gironale tre

I headed to the train station with Glen and Steven to take the red line to Barberini. According to Google maps the church of Maria della Vittoria was located  a few blocks away from the Barberini train station. I am not the wittiest when it comes to maps and navigation, I usually let others lead because they seem to know where they are going. We looked at the map and started heading in the direction we thought would be the churches, but as we later learned we were walking the complete opposite way. We ended up walking 7 blocks the wrong direction. We learned we were walking towards the Trevi fountain. Instead of turning around though, we decided to visit the Trevi first. We knew it wasn’t working but I felt like I needed to get a glimpse before I left Rome. Plus, I heard there was a good gelato place by the Trevi, so if not for the Trevi, I had to do it for the gelato. We got to the Trevi fountain and it was completely wrapped up. I wasn’t able to see much of it but the good part was that I was able to walk over it. There was a line leading into the Trevi from up top. It allowed us to walk through and look down at the coins in the fountain and maneuver our head to see some parts of the fountain. Although I didn’t get to see the Trevi in all its glory I still felt cool because I get to say I walked over the Trevi. After we got off the line we headed for the gelato place. I knew the gelato place that was recommended to me was on the left side of the Trevi but there were two side by side. We went in to both to see which looked better and we settled on the one that had the most people. We figured if theirs a lot of people inside that means the gelato must be good. I was wrong. I was very disappointed in the gelato. It tasted like ice cream. I had coconut and fragola and both tasted like vanilla ice cream with a ting of fruit. I did not go to a gelateria for ice cream. I went in to get my super taste buds blown by the taste of pure fruit. As you can see, I was highly upset, and told myself I needed to get another gelato by the end of the day to un do this treachery. After this we headed back towards the train station. We decided to take a bus because we were cutting close with time.

We made it to the church with about 15 minutes to spate before it closed. I walked in and all I could say is “this church is tiny”. I mean I knew I was going to a small church but I did not expect it to be this small. I walked in and it was like I immediately hit the seats for the ceremony. There was not much space to walk around. There was one square line around the seats that you could follow to see the church. It actually made me feel like this was a true space of worship. It was intimate and not flashy or luxuries like other churches I was use to. There was even a priest in the corner in one of the praying spaces peacefully reading his bible. The only thing that ruined the intimacy of the space were the tourist, including me, around taking pictures.