Rampchic, I just saw this thread and was going to post about how I have enjoyed Sunday's in Rome..and you just posted the same thing! Sunday afternoon in the Borghese Gardens is so relaxing and it sure is fun to see the Italian families enjoying their time also. And, a drink or two at Harry's Bar sidewalk tables (I always have had Camparis) was the second suggestion I was going to make. Happyinnewyork, enjoy your visit to Italy and just take your time. Stop and relax and people watch when you need to do so. That is part of the great fun of being in Italy!

Could posters please remember that Mass in any church is a religious meeting, not an opportunity to gape at free art or for free concert music. Churches are for the local people to practice their religion. If you want concert music you should pay for it in the appropriate concert hall. Don't expect the local population to tune up to meet your expectations. I have just returned from 5 weeks in the north of Italy and was appalled at the number of people who walk into churches and treat them as free art galleries and fail to put even a centime into the collection box for the "upkeep" of these great art works besides of course failing to wear suitable attire or behave in a quiet and respectful manner. In Verona, a person who was wearing a sleeveless garment was given an appropriate disposable shawl to place around her. A few steps out of the attendant's sight, she whipped it off and "disposed" of it under a bench! I should have had the presence of mind to go up to her, remove the shawl from under the bench and smile and tell her that she had dropped her article of clothing!
The bigger the church the greater the tourist's inappropriate behaviour.

With respect to the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj:
a) The gallery arrangement of paintings hung close to and above one another is not due to ineptitude but to a conscious decision to keep the gallery as it was originally hung (the Pitti Palace gallery is similar in style);
b) Nor àre "Italians" to be held responsible: The current head of the family is half British.