Molly McCormick’s Hits List of Rome:
Top 20 Architectural Sites in Rome:
- Pantheon
- The Vatican City (Notably Bernini’s Piazza)
- The Church of Al Quatri Fontani
- Parco Della Musica
- The Roman Forum
- Castle Sant’Angelo
- Villa Adriana
- Catacombs of San Callisto
- Montemartini Museum
- Jubilee Church
- Cerveteri
- EUR
- Via Leone XIII (Take the 870 Bus, to get the best view of the city)
- Sant’ Agnes a Agone
- Largo Argentina
- Sant’ Andrea al Quirinale
- Sant’ Ignazio di Loyola a Campo Marzio
- Villa Pamphili
- Grand Mosque
- Capitoline Museum (Especially the Tabulareum)
Top 10 Museums in Rome:
- Villa Borghese
- Capitoline Museum
- Vatican Museum
- Palazzo Della Expositione
- Montemartini Museum
- Barberini Museum
- Museum at Castle Sant Angelo
- Capuchin Crypts
- Museo Nationale
- Girabaldi Museum (Currently in the Monument to Victor Emmanuel II)
Top 10 Food Joints in Rome:
- Carlo Mentha Trattoria
- Ostia Pucci Restorante
- Super Pizza E…
- Vocipelli
- Café Quirino
- Pizza Simone
- Ristorante Chinoisese a Largo Argentina
- La Cisterna
- Botticelli’s Bar
- Rosso Bar
Top 10 Sculptures in Rome:
- Apollo and Daphne (Bernini)
- La Pieta (Michelangelo)
- Pluto and Persephone (Bernini)
- David ( Michelangelo)
- Laocoon (Unknown)
- David (Bernini)
- Venus Victrix (Canova)
- Sleeping Hermaphrodite (Unknown, Not the Canova one…that one sucks. Sorry.)
- The Boxer (Ancient Greek)
- St. Cecelia (Maderno)
Top 10 Paintings in Rome:
- Judith Slaying Holofernes (Caravaggio)
- The Last Judgment (Michelangelo)
- The Sistine Chapel…All of It ( mostly attributed to Michelangelo)
- The School of Athens (Raphael)
- La Fornarina (Raphael)
- The Glorification of The Reign of Urban VIII (Cortona)
- The Calling of St Matthew ( Caravaggio)
- The Conversion of Saul (Caravaggio)
- Triumph of St. Ignatius of Loyola (Pozzo)
- Maroon on Black (Mark Rothko, on loan from the Tate Modern, London)
Cities (Both Italian and Abroad)
- Rome
- Paris/Versailles
- Edinburgh
- Venice
- Glasgow
- London
- Munich
- Florence
- Cerveteri / Pompeii
- Tivoli
So right now I’m on the plane heading back home, well at least I was when I wrote this, but let’s not get into technicalities. I’m not going to lie, I cried a little bit on the bus this morning leaving from AUR heading to the airport. But it’s not my fault, the sun was coming up over the mountains and the morning fog was clearing over the city and part of me was crushed in the wake of its beauty.
I love Rome; I love every rock and every crevasse of that city. It can be so loud and so dirty, but it’s also the most amazing place in the world. I was one time reading a guidebook and it said, “Italy: probably the easiest place to fall in love with and the hardest to leave.” Completely true.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad to be going home, but part of me will always live in Italy. Whether it’s walking in the footsteps of the emperors at the Villa Adriana or getting chided by a nun on the #8 tram, Seeing Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne in person or eating a fried rice ball with mozzarella cheese in the middle, Rome has something for everything, and meant everything to me
The lists aforementioned and aforeseen were really really hard to make. There was so much that I loved that making a list, while fun and interesting for me personally, was completely pointless.
If you haven’t been to Rome, go. If you already been, go again. Now it’s time for me to fill out my customs card and eat this sandwich that has been staring me down for a good 15 minuets.
With my sincere regards,
Margaret “Molly” Elizabeth-Brendan-Joan McCormick
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