Saturday, November 15. This morning Ruth and I went to the out door market that is close to my apartment. I like shopping there because the prices are really good. I have bought some cute skirts, jewelry and other things. Today I bought a pair of pants. Ruth got a nice winter coat.
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| The ceiling |
In the afternoon we went to Sanata Maria Degli Angeli Basilica. Built in a section of the Baths of Diocletian in AD 300 across from Piazza della Republica.
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| Kay, Ruth and I in front of Piazza della Republica
Two interesting pieces are first, the statue by Bernini of St. Teresa in Ecstasy. It is depicts Teresa's(a nun) dream of an angel piercing her with an arrow and as he released she felt a burning feeling inside her full of ecstasy and love of God. Strange, but a beautiful piece of art.
The second thing was, The Sun's Meridian Transit. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, Pope Clement (1649-1721) commissioned Francesco Bianchini to build a meridian line within the basilica to check the accuracy of the Gregorian reformation of the calendar (1582).
The sun shines through a small hole in the southern wall to cast its light on the meridian line each day.
 
In Europe the Julian calendar was in use since the 4th century. The spring equinox was set to the date 21 March in the year 325 by the council of Nicea. By the year 1582, the spring equinox was occurring on March 11. Pope Gregory XIII ordered that 10 days would be removed from the calendar so that the spring equinox would return to March 21. It as decided that the days October 5-14 of the year 1582 would be skipped during the transformation from the Julian to Gregorian calendar.
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