FORTIETH DAY
WILL THE REAL SAINT PETER
PLEASE STAND UP
October 22, 2005
My cold is the real
thing. I have a runny nose, a sore
throat, and the beginnings of a deep and resonant cough. I didn’t quite catch on to it at first, but I
did get some antihistamines in early.
Last night when I couldn’t sleep because my throat was catching the drip
from my nose, I improvised and used Grappa as my cough medicine. It didn’t exactly work but at 90 Proof,
what’s the diff? Anyway, a real
sleepless night. Kim has a lighter
version of the same thing. We will not
give in and decide to visit two churches where we missed seeing what we went
for the first time. It is Saturday
morning and traffic in Rome is light. We
get to Santa Marie della Vittoria without incident and within minutes are
standing in front of Bernini’s “Ecstasy of St. Theresa”. It is claimed that this is Bernini’s greatest
work; the marble looks like fabric and St. Theresa’s expression of ecstasy is
genuinely amazing. The Holy Spirit in
the form of an angel stands over her ready to pierce her with a second
arrow. In a stroke of genius, Bernini
creates the setting as if it is in a theatre and the family who bought the
piece and the chapel for the church is in the boxes watching. I would guess they liked it too. The church is marvelously baroque and ornate,
a great 20 minute adventure where you could spend more time. Our next stop was another Santa Maria church,
Santa Maria del Popolo. This is the
third time we have tried to visit this church.
Timing is everything and we get in to see the two famous chapels, one
designed by Raphael and the other by Pinturicchio both of which were built for
famous Italian noble families. In
addition, the church has Caravaggio’s St. Peter being crucified as well as
another of his paintings. The St.
Peter’s scene is one of the most famous paintings ever conceived in Italy. It is a dramatic piece, but but wait. The way it is hung on the left wall of the
chapel you can’t get close enough to see it and it’s dark in the church. So, we content ourselves with the brilliant
chapels and take our leave.
It comes as sort of a
shock to me that St. Peter is right up there with Christ and the Virgin Mary in
this town. Peter is the guy who sold the
idea of Christ to the pagans; in our world he would be some kind of marketing
genius. He was also treated cruelly by
the Romans and was a real martyr for the church. It is believed that the early Christians took
him from the cross and buried him under what is now St Peters Church. He was crucified upside down at his own
request so that he might suffer even more for Jesus. Yesterday, we went on a tour of the
excavations under the Vatican. Our tour
guide was a young American Catholic who is studying at the North American
College. It is very prestigious to be
sent here from the US and he was an excellent guide. He answered many tough questions and the
scholars and classicists in our group really liked him. Our fellows are a demanding audience because
they have so much information already, but no one had been on this tour
underground through what is a necropolis.
To take this tour you must make an advance reservation and it costs 10
Euro. That is rather high here for
touring. It was very humid, stuffy and
close in the underworld and with my nose running like the Mississippi river not
very comfortable. It lasted about 2
hours in very confined spaces. Kim
didn’t say much, but she is doesn’t like it too close. Remember the pyramids, very tight. I ended up borrowing Kleenex from everyone
who had any and probably infected half of the group. In the end, I was almost
convinced on the evidence that, in fact, St Peter was buried under what is now
the main alter of the church. He is more
then 30 feet below it and what appears to be three other alters are stacked on
top of his gravesite. It doesn’t really
matter if you believe it or not, but out guide was very convincing. Our most
interesting walk and talk so far.
We have friends from
Sonoma coming tonight. We will meet at
the Academy for drinks. We have wanted
to go to a highly recommended restaurant called Piperno near the ghetto. Stan
and Paul, other friends from Sonoma, called it their favorite and we hope it is
good. I called to make a reservation and
the maitre’d told me they were full.
That happened once before so I begged and we got in. All in English. When the cop reprimanded me for going up the
one-way street the wrong way on the scooter, I simply said I don’t speak
Italian in English. I think I will stick
with it, but it is nice that Kimbo is doing so well with her Italian and can
carry me when necessary.
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