When in Rome

After our long day on Monday, we were determined to take it a bit easier on Tuesday.
We slept kind of late, and then had coffee and cereal in our apartment. It’s kind of fun to see and hear our neighbors awaken and ready themselves for the day. Our apartment is located in one building in a development of about five or six. Virtually all Romans live in some sort of apartment because there are no single-family homes here amidst the congestion. In the morning and in the evening, when either their windows are open or they are out on their patios or in the courtyard (their substitute for being out in a yard) you can see and hear everyone eating, laughing, talking with their friends, playing with the kids, or as last night, cheering on Italy’s soccer team (who was leading France 2-0 when I went to bed). The strong sense of community feels a lot different than neighborhoods back home.

We met David Troy at about noon at the Spanish Steps. He took us on a day of sightseeing. We visited the Pantheon, the Castel D’Angelo (the former mausoleum of the Emperor Hadrian and a former fortress for Popes hiding from some sort of trouble, now a museum), and ate a leisurely two-hour lunch at a wonderful pizzaria near the Piazza Navona that baked their pizzas in a wood-burning oven.

We did a lot of wandering around neighborhoods. David knows Rome extremely well, having lived here for quite a while. Since he has visited all of the tourist sights on numerous occasions, he now explores the back areas when he goes on Roman walks. It was fun to see some of the areas with which he is familiar. For example, we walked down one street where all of the stores sold priest and bishop vestments, chalices, enormously expensive monstranses of gold and silver, and all sorts of items for churches. We paused to look in the window of the business that has been designing the pope’s vestments practically forever, and Bill took this picture of David and me so that when David becomes pope, I can say I knew him when he was a mere priest studying canon law.

One thing that surprises me about Rome (and really Italy in general) is that you find magnificent works of art in these churches. For example, we stopped in the Church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, near the Pantheon. It is well-known only because there is a very famous statue carved by Bernini (an elephant) in the piazza in front of the church. Very little mention is made in guidebooks about the church itself. And yet, standing near the altar is a beautiful statue of Jesus holding the cross that was carved by Michelangelo. You would think that would be worth a mention.

We also visited one church that will certainly maintain its title in my mind as the most bizarre of our entire trip. I particularly thought of my stepmother, who, like me, is a fan of all things unusual. The crypt of the church is entirely decorated with the bones of the monks of the Church’s order. Apparently, the idea came from one particularly odd monk, who thought it would be a good way to remind people that we will some day die and go to our afterlife beyond. According to David, a number of years later, the church wanted to remove the display thinking it was too macabre, but the City of Rome refused to allow it because the display had by that time become a tourist attraction. The display was incredibly intricate, using bones from hundreds of monks – jawbones, hipbones, vertebrae, entire skeletons, all creating the church’s decorations. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures.

After leaving that church, Bill and I were tired and came home. We had a quiet night in our apartment reading, playing cards, and listening to our neighbors watch their beloved Italian soccer team beat the French.