On Saturday, while walking near the Pantheon, I saw a SmartCar being covered with PostIt Notes. 
I approached the young man putting the papers on the car to find out what he was doing. His girl friend had a ticket on her car for illegal parking in the historic center. He was trying to soften the shock when she discovers that she has to pay a fine.
This 17th century fresco of St. Michael the Archangel is above the sanctuary on the left wall in the Oratory of Saint Francis Xavier del Caravita, close to the Pantheon and the Via del Corso in the center of Rome.
On Saturday I climbed up 124 "penitential" steps to reach the front door of the Church of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli. It is where the Temple of Juno once stood on the Capitoline Hill. In the 6th century there was a Byzantine monastery on the site. The Benedictines were here from the 9th to the 13th century and the Franciscans built the current building in the early 14th century. 
The Bambino receives letters from all over the world. There are baskets of them on both sides of his private altar. After a certain time they are burned, without being opened.
The statue was stolen in February 1994, and never recovered. Now a copy is on display in the church, housed in its own chapel by the sacristy. At midnight Mass on Christmas Eve the image is placed on a throne before the high altar and unveiled during the singing of the Gloria. Until Epiphany the jewel-encrusted Bambino resides among the firgures of the precipio in the left nave.
Here is a 16th century sculpture of the chubby Pope Leo X (1475-1521) located outside the chapel of the Bambino. (He is the pope who sold indulgences to finance the building of St. Peter's Basilica.)
This last week I had the occasion to visit the Roman Children's Hospital of Bambino Gesù. One of my students was being treated for a stomach infection.
Bambino Gesù was founded in 1869, as the first children’s Hospital in Italy, by the Salviati family, at a time when children were not given any special medical consideration and were often sharing beds with adult patients. Other families of the city joined in to support the hospital, allowing it to grow from 12 beds in the center of Rome to its current location on the Janiculum Hill.
In 1924 the Salviati family decided to donate Bambino Gesù to the Holy See to ensure the future of the hospital. New buildings were created with additional operating rooms and outpatient clinics. In the 1960's, with the help of donations from the American Catholic bishops, the hospital underwent substantial rennovation.
Today the hospital has 800 beds and has an international reputation for excellent treatment and children's health research.
Here are some architectural details of the hospital environment, including a terra cotta Madonna and Child at the entrance to the John Paul II Pavilion.
On Sunday I explored a relatively new (and small) park in Garbatella, several blocks from our apartment on the Via delle Sette Chiese. 
Inside the park are two locked entrances to the Catacombs of Commodilla, discovered in 1905. The site is not too far from the Via Ostiense and the Basilica San Paolo fuori la mura. I hope it will be possible to arrange a visit to these catacombs in the future.
This 4th century frescoe was dicovered in 1953 on the ceiling of an underground corner of the Catacombs of Commodilla. It is of Jesus the Alpha and Omega and is the earliest representation of Christ with a beard. Before this time Jesus was usually depicted as a young beardless man. (Image is from www.religionfacts.com.)
