Editing Christina, Queen of Sweden (section)

=== Setting off to Rome ===
[[File:Christina barberini.jpg|thumb|left|Celebrations for Christina at [[Palazzo Barberini]] on 28 February 1656]]

The southbound journey through Italy was planned in detail by the [[Holy See|Vatican]] and included brilliant triumphs in Ferrara, Bologna, [[Faenza]] and Rimini. In [[Pesaro]], Christina became acquainted with the handsome brothers [[Santinelli]], who so impressed her with their poetry and adeptness of dancing that she took them into service, as well as a certain Gian Rinaldo Monaldeschi. <!--On 20 December she reached the Vatican, the last distance in a [[litter (vehicle)|sedan]] chair designed by [[Bernini]]. She was granted her own wing inside the Vatican, decorated by Bernini. When the pope spotted the inscription symbolizing the northern wind, ''Omne malum ab Aquilone'' (meaning "all evil comes from the North"), he ensured that it was rapidly covered with paint.--> The official entry into Rome took place on 20 December, in a sedan chair designed by [[Bernini]]<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fa7pI9NXeLsC&pg=PA359|title=The Life of Gian Lorenzo Bernini|first1=Domenico|last1=Bernini|first2=Gian Lorenzo|last2=Bernini|first3=Franco|last3=Mormando|date=10 July 2017|publisher=Penn State Press|access-date=10 July 2017|via=Google Books|isbn=978-0271037486}}</ref> through [[Porta Flaminia]], which today is known as [[Porta del Popolo]].{{efn|Bernini had decorated the gate with Christina's coat of arms (an ear of corn) beneath that of Pope Alexander (six mountains with a star above). Also today one can read the inscription ''Felici Faustoq Ingressui Anno Dom MDCLV'' ("to a happy and blessed entry in the year 1655").}} Christina met Bernini on the next day, she invited him to her apartment the same evening and they became lifelong friends. "Two days afterwards she was conducted to the Vatican Basilica, where the pope gave her confirmation. It was then that she received from the pope her second name of Alexandra, the feminine form of his own."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/People/Pope_Alexander_VII/Montor_bio*.html|title=Pope Alexander&nbsp;VII • Biographical Sketch by Montor|website=penelope.uchicago.edu|access-date=10 July 2017}}</ref> She was granted her own wing inside the Vatican, decorated by Bernini.

Christina's visit to Rome was the triumph of Pope [[Alexander VII]] and the occasion for splendid [[Baroque]] festivities. For several months, she was the only preoccupation of the Pope and his court. The nobles vied for her attention and treated her to a never-ending round of fireworks, [[jousts]], mock duels, acrobatics, and operas. On 31 January ''Vita Humana'' an opera by [[Marco Marazzoli]] was performed. At the [[Palazzo Barberini]], where she was welcomed on 28 February by a few hundred privileged spectators, she watched an amazing carousel in the courtyard.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j8qvCwAAQBAJ&q=28+February+1656+Rome&pg=PA58|title=The Early Baroque Era: From the late 16th century to the 1660s|first=Curtis|last=Price|date=9 November 1993|publisher=Springer|access-date=10 July 2017|via=Google Books|isbn=9781349112944}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://exhibitions.europeana.eu/exhibits/show/festa-in-roma/carnival/the-giostra-dei-caroselli-1656|title=Exhibitions|website=Europeana Exhibitions|access-date=10 July 2017}}</ref>