I felt for the people with ridiculous early times, but I had a civilized 11:20AM flight from Bari to Rome. I was most likely going to have to go back through Rome anyway to get from Bari to NYC, so had decided to spend the day and one last night there to take in some final sights before flying back home on Sunday.

Michele was above-and-beyond helpful in scheduling a taxi for every one of us to get to the airport or train station, and I met him downstairs in the hotel lobby for a final goodbye before hopping in the taxi he had booked to take me to the Bari airport.

Arriving at Termini Station, it was about a 12 minute walk to my hotel on Via Nazionale, a major shopping street and connection from the train station to the sights of Central Rome.

Hotel Artemide (named for Artemis, whose statue greets you at the door) was really pretty, the staff was extremely friendly, and my room was very comfortable – perfect for one last night in Italy.

I also picked it because it’s conveniently about a 3-minute walk from the Opera House where I’d be heading this evening.

A few minutes later, I found myself at the church I was looking for, home to Bernini’s 1652 masterpiece The Ecstasy of St. Teresa. The sculpture/altarpiece in the church’s Cornaro Chapel depicts the account of the mystic nun Teresa of Avila as she experienced religious ecstasy while having a vision of an angel with a flaming arrow piercing her heart. One of the coolest features of the sculpture is the use of a slightly hidden window to illuminate the art from above, making the gold plated stucco rays seem to glow.

Satisfied after my fill of visual artistry, I headed back to my hotel to shower and get dressed up for some musical artistry.

I am admittedly not a big opera person, but have sung a bunch of classical choral music over the years and have always loved the Italian Romantic period composers, particularly Puccini and Verdi. I had wanted to see the beautiful Teatro dell'Opera di Roma and when I looked to see what might be playing while I was there, I was in luck. I’m not that familiar with Vincenzo Bellini, but he was from the same ballpark period as the composers I love, and is famous for being the quintessential composer of the early 19th Century ‘bel canto’ (“beautiful singing”) period, so I knew I’d be in for a lot of soaring melodies and impressive vocal performances.

And so I bought a ticket to his La sonnambula (“the sleepwalker”). It’s a typically ludicrous opera story of a woman who sleepwalks and finds herself in the room of a man who is not her fiancé, of course chaos ensues, but the story is really secondary to the music. In doing a bit of pre-research to make sure I’d like this, I was also happy to see that La sonnambula contains a ton of big ensemble pieces, more my cup of tea than a lot of solos.

Excited to see what the evening had in store, I headed over to the opera house, an easy 5 minute walk from my hotel.

Subtitles have come a long way, and the opera house partners with the Lyra Live app that will show a live translation on your phone as you watch. I downloaded it and was fully planning to use it, but they ended up having English and Italian subtitles scrolling on a screen at the top of the stage which was easier.

Still, impressive.

And it turned out I really loved it! The ensemble pieces were definitely my favorite, but I thought the whole production was great, and this might have moved the needle a little bit in my appreciation of the art form.

Unfortunately, when I had been planning my evening, I looked up the running time of the whole opera and made a dinner reservation based on that. And as it turns out, that running time was inaccurate.

I was headed to a Michelin star restaurant, and while I had originally planned to dine solo, Kristen from the Flash Pack trip was also going to be in Rome that night and I was so happy that she was able to join me. But with the need to get to the restaurant on time, there was just no way I could stay for Act 2, which was such a bummer. It was already a late 8:45 dinner, so not sure I would’ve wanted to make it that much later anyway, but I felt so bad leaving, especially since I really was enjoying it!

I did eventually look up what happens in Act 2, to at least get some closure on the story.

After going back to the hotel to change out of my dress and into something less formal, I met Kristen back at the Piazza della Repubblica where I had been earlier in the day, and together we walked to the restaurant Moma, not far from where we had stayed in Rome at the beginning of the trip.

The restaurant is a more casual cafe during the day and turned into a Michelin star place at night, but surprisingly affordable for the level of food and service that they had. From the moment we got there the host and wait staff couldn’t have been more friendly and accommodating, and the food was excellent – some of the prettiest plating I’ve seen.