For the student who asked where Galileo's trial was held!

I apologize for not remembering who asked me this question today, but I did at least remember that someone asked (hey, at my age, that's something!)  :)  Here are a few photos & info on the church, which is the Santa Maria sopra Minerva.  It is right next to the Pantheon.  The actual room was unavailable, but this is the building.  These are my own photos but I did not write the information at the bottom of this post.  Enjoy!

 This is the outside of the church.  Very plain.  That obleisk you see above the elephant is from Ancient Egypt and yes, it has hieroglyphics on it!  The elephant is also special - it was created by Bernini, a famous artist who worked almost exclusively for the church during his lifetime.  Have you read the book or seen the movie "Angels & Demons?"  He is the same Bernini they frequently talk about.

Notice how high those ceilings are - compare it to the pews.  They are normal size pews/benches/chairs!

Imagine my surprise to walk into a church in Rome a lot of people don't visit...and find out there's a Michelangelo there!  You can't imagine how shocked & excited I was, but that's one of the great things about churches & art in Rome - you never know what treasures you'll see!

If I remember correctly this is St. Victoria, but that's all I know.  I liked the creepy fake skeleton head propped up & smiling so I took a picture.  That shouldn't surprise you by now. :)

You know who else is (mostly) buried here?  St. Catherine of Siena, the patron saint of nurses (among other groups) & one of the two patron saints of Italy.  It also shouldn't surprise you that I do my homework about a location so I know what I want to see - but I didn't know about St. Catherine being (mostly) buried here before I saw her.  (By the way, the "mostly" is because her body is buried here...but her head is buried in Siena.  Yup, they cut off her head and buried it somewhere else.  This was pretty common back then when famous or important people died.  Kind of gross?  You decide!)

Here's some more information regarding Galileo & Santa Maria sopra Minerva:
The only Gothic church in Rome, the Basilica Santa Maria sopra Minerva is so named because it was built directly on the foundations of a temple to Minerva, the goddess of wisdom. The basilica that stands today was begun in 1280. Architectural changes and redecorations in the 1500s and 1900s stripped it of some of its magnificence, but it still includes an awe-inspiring collection of medieval and Renaissance tombs.

It was in the Dominican monastery adjoining the church that the astronomer Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was tried by the Inquisition for teaching that the Earth revolved around the Sun.