Caravaggios!

At the beginning of our trip - sort of as a joke, I said to M - "Let's see ALL the Caravaggios in Rome!" There aren't that many, you see, and it's rare to see them travel.  There aren't any in Chicago (there's a lovely little one in Indianapolis, which I wrote a paper about in undergrad...) , but there's a bit over a dozen in Rome.  I think we saw all but one.  

Not 5 minutes from our Roman apartment - there were two - IN SITU - at the Santa Maria del Popolo.  The Conversion of St. Paul, which is too beautiful for words, one of my favorites, and The Martyrdom of St. Peter, which is so painful I can barely look at it.  

Imagine, you spend most of your live, walking around, NOT seeing Caravaggios very often, and then, WHAM, there are two.

Walk about 20 minutes or so to San Luigi dei Francesi, and guess what you're going to see?  BOOM.  Three more Caravaggios.  The Calling of St. Matthew (below), the Inspiration of St. Matthew, and, wait for it... the Martyrdom of St. Matthew.  

Matthew's the one saying "Who? Me?"