Sopra Minerva and Italian skincare

 Thinking about Pope Leo X yesterday made me want to visit his funerary monument at Santa Maria sopra Minerva.  This glorious church is near the Pantheon and somewhat easy to miss without the assistance of Google Maps.  Sopra Minerva is a stunning space and it is named so because it was built over the ruins of an ancient temple to the goddess Isis, erroneously attributed at the time to the goddess Minerva.  Very seldom in Rome to you get to enter a groovy, original Gothic (medieval) space because during the Baroque era, most churches were updated to that style.  But here it is.  Bask in the sumptuous Glory of vaulted ceilings and stary night skies:

Along with the tombs of plenty of famous people and artists, including Fra Angelico, are plenty of masterworks.  Michelangelo's Christ the Redeemer AND the tomb of St. Catherine of Siena:

Afterwards, much wandering around.  I decided to indulge in some Italian skincare products so I went to a shop dedicated to such.  Italian skincare tends to be botanical-based wonders.  This shop was so beautiful.  The shelves obviously organized according to skins types and needs.  Exquisite colored bottles of soft lilac, pinks, cornflower.  Ingredients like chamomile, lavender, rose oil, gillyflower.

I asked a woman for assistance.  She took a quick look at my face and neck and then led me over to a shelf where the bottle colors were a bit more dark, menacing and a bit foreboding.  She began to go over the merits of each product.  Now, my Italian isn't always accurate but I'm pretty sure I heard an ingredient list that included snake venom, bull's testicles, and the juice from a South American plant that has the ability to paralyze small rodents. 

Sold!!!  I bought it, bitches!  And I am very pleased with the results:

Ciao, ragazzi!