Anniversary Day

There’s a line in the movie Roman Holiday (a movie I’ve mentioned on a couple of occasions but you can’t help think about it when you’re in Rome – rent it!) at the end when a member of the press corps asks the beautiful princess (Audrey Hepburn) what her favorite town in Europe was. She begins to give the politically correct answer that all of the towns were beautiful, and then she catches Gregory Pec's eyes in the crowd and gazes into them (who wouldn’t?) and says, “Rome. My favorite city is Rome.”

Having the ability and great pleasure of spending my 16^th wedding anniversary in this beautiful and extraordinarily romantic city was something I’ll never forget.

We didn’t get as early a start to the day as we had hoped, so by the time we got to St. Peter’s Square, the line to get into the great church was extremely long and it was extremely hot. So we elected to bag that idea, and instead walked (keeping on the shaded side as much as possible) to the Piazza Navone. I shopped a bit, and then we met Father David for lunch. As Bill and I sat waiting in the Piazza Navone, we listened to a man sing opera. Sitting there, looking at one of the beautiful fountains in the piazza, and listening to the man sing beautiful arias caused Bill to note that it felt a lot different than Denver.

We walked around a bit looking for a restaurant that satisfied all of us both by menu and by price. Having lived here for several years, David knows exactly what to look for to make that decision. He didn’t fail us this time either. We found a restaurant several blocks off the Piazza Navone that served wonderful pizza, which Bill enjoyed, as well is interesting and yummy pasta dishes. I had something I had wanted to try for some time – fettucine tonno (fettucine with tuna). It is an extremely simple dish to make, consisting only of tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, and a can of tuna packed in olive oil. It was unbelievably delicious. I now have a meal to add to my repertoire on Fridays when we can’t eat meat. It’s not just tuna casserole anymore!

The restaurant was one that catered to locals, which is something good to look for anywhere in Italy. It means cheaper and better tasting food. The table next to us was made up of about six men, all wearing the same uniform that indicated to me that they might be telephone or cable installers or something like that. It was fun to watch them because they enjoyed their meal so much, eating a variety of pastas and drinking wine and finishing up with lemincello and grappa. Remember that in Italy (and much of Europe), their business would be closed until 3:30 or 4, so it isn’t uncommon to have a very relaxed lunch like that.

By time we finished eating and shopping, it was 3:30 and the churches were beginning to reopen. We visited Gesu Church, which is the Jesuit church in Rome. The church was built in the classic Baroque style, and is sumptuous and colorful. It houses the body of the Jesuit’s founder St. Ignatius Loyola.

Then we popped over to the Church of St. Louis, King of France to see work by the painter Caravaggio. Caravaggio’s style revolutionized painting in the late 1400s and early 1500s because it was so different from what the people had been used to. I loved this painting. On the right, you can just barely see Jesus pointing to Matthew, the tax collector. On the left, you see Matthew pointing at himself, as if saying, “What, me?” As you will recall, after that, Matthew stood up and walked away from his money and prestige to join Jesus.

We finished our day of touring at a church, Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, which houses a number of passion relics. The relics include one of the beams from the cross of the good thief who died next to Jesus, and to whom Jesus said, “Even this day, you will be with me in Paradise.” Also in the church is the finger of St. Thomas, the apostle who doubted the others when they told him they had seen Jesus after the resurrection, and who needed to place his finger into Jesus’ wounds to believe. The collection also includes thorns from the original crown of thorns. Most amazing is the piece from the true cross of Jesus that was on top and had the inscription Jesus, King of the Jews.

In another room they had an exact replica of the Shroud of Turin, which is the shroud that it is believed was placed over Jesus in the tomb and bears His image. The thing that most impacted me emotionally was a crucifix that someone made using the image on the Shroud of Turin, thereby exactly duplicating the way that He was crucified. The body on the cross was twisted, with the arms clearly broken, and the body was covered in blood. The crucifix was very moving and startling and brought me to tears.

We came home and relaxed a bit, and then we caught the underground back into town.

The first time we were in Rome, back in 1997 or 1998, we ate dinner at a restaurant called Hostaria Romana. I have never forgotten that restaurant, first because the food is good, and second because we had such a good time. So that is where I wanted to have my anniversary dinner if it was still in existence.

Bill did some research and found a restaurant with the same name in the area where he recalled the restaurant being located. We weren’t sure it was the same, but when we came up upon it, sure enough, it was the same restaurant, and even had the same waiters! The restaurant was packed, but they kindly fit us in by seating us at a table with two Americans who were just finishing up. They were a mother and daughter from North Carolina traveling together in honor of the daughter just graduating from high school. We enjoyed talking with them, and particularly enjoyed how the waiters reacted to the daughter, who was very pretty. Italian waiters, what can you say? They reacted the same way to my niece when we were there a few years ago with her. We had them take a picture of the four of us. Dedie and Erin are the ones who aren’t us.

I had mentioned that it was our wedding anniversary, so at the end they brought us tiramisu with a candle in it and two glasses of prosecco. What a nice way to end our anniversary day.