The church tour

Buon giorno, Mama!

Friday is a module day, and another early start for me. Margaret Haverstic and I are leading a group to the Galleria Borghese, a very nice art museum in Rome. They have strict admission limits, and we had to reserve tickets several days ago, not only for the day we wanted, but for a particular two-hour time slot as well. The Borghese only allows 200 people in at a time, and when your two hours is up, they empty the gallery for the next 200 people. We reserved for the 9 a.m. time slot, which meant our group left the hotel at 7:30 to allow for travel time and picking up the tickets in advance of the entry.

It was a beautiful morning, Mama, and we enjoyed our metro ride and short walk to the Borghese. Our module was on Gian Lorenzo Bernini, a noted sculpter whose artwork is all over Rome. On the way to the gallery, we passed his Triton Fountain.

Once we got inside, I understand why they limit the number of people in the gallery. It is small, and it would be difficult to move around were there too many people there. The plus side is that the small rooms allowed us to get quite close to the artwork in ways we couldn’t at some museums. Of course, they still have the guards and docents to make sure you’re not going to touch anything.

The Bernini’s were awesome! His sculptures look so lifelike. Yes, Michelangelo’s David in Florence is an amazing piece of work, but I really think my favorite sculpture I’ve seen is Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne, where Daphne is turning into a tree just as Apollo catches her. One of our students, Alyssa, was almost moved to tears by it. Nice to see that art can still have such a powerful effect on young people.

After the gallery, we visited Santa Maria della Vittoria to see Bernini’s St. Theresa in Ecstasy. Again, it’s a small church with priceless art on display. I think I should talk to Pastor Ralph about upgrading the art work in the Methodist Church. It certainly is inspiring to see these pieces in church. Wonder if we’ve got the budget for a Michelangelo or Bernini? Guess we’d need to have a few bake sales to make that one happen.

After our module was through, Margaret and I and a couple of other folks went to visit some other cool sites. Let me tell you, Mama, traveling in Rome with an art history professor will certainly give you an education. I learned much more than I would have had I been out seeing this stuff on my own. I have to share with you, too, that Margaret is really enjoying the trip. Every so often on the street she bursts out with, “We’re in Italy!” I love seeing the faculty having as good a time as the students. I know I’m having a great week.

We saw a church called San Giovanni in Laterano, the oldest “official” Christian church established in Rome. All of the Popes were crowned here until 1870. Lots of cool artwork and I bought some prayer cards for my Catholic friends while there. After that, we saw the Holy Steps, la scala sancta, which are supposed to be the steps Jesus climbed to be tried by Pilate. Some benefactor brought them from the Holy Land in the 5th Century and had them placed in this building. You are not allowed to let your feet touch the steps because they are sacred. The only way to go up is on your knees one at a time stopping to say a prayer on each of the 28 steps. There were several people making their way up while we were there.

Margaret had quite a “to do” list she wanted to check off for the day, but by this time it was already after 1:30, and I was really hungry. I was able to convince her to stop so I could eat something. We stopped at a pizzeria, and I had a margharita; no, not the drink, it’s a type of pizza with tomato sauce and cheese. A little different than American pizza, but really good. The crust especially was very good. One thing these Europeans know how to make is breads. It was about the size of a medium pizza here, and as hungry as I was, I had no trouble eating the whole thing and washing it down with a Coke. After that, I was ready to hit the cobbled roads again.

We went to San Clemente, a 12th Century church. What makes it interesting is they discovered that it is built on top of a 4th Century church, which was also built on top of a 1st Century Mithric temple. It’s all been excavated and you can climb down to see the old church and the Roman temple as well.

We arrived at 3 p.m., opening time, and arrived just before Angela Firkus’ module group got there. That was pretty cool, because we could follow them around and get all the explanations from a history professor. There were probably a dozen students in that module, and they thought this was pretty neat too. Every so often, one would find me and say, “Steve, there’s a spring on the bottom level.” Or “Steve, have you seen the crypt?” They were having fun exploring and wanted to share their discoveries.

I would have liked to explore some more myself, but Margaret reminded our little group that we had to leave to get to the Forum before the gates closed at 4 p.m. We literally were the last ones through as they closed the doors behind us and wouldn’t allow any others into the ticket office.

The forum is huge. Lots of ancient ruins to wander through and too many photos to take. Later that day, I bought a book with photos of the ruins and plastic overlays that went over them so you could see what the Forum looked like back in the Roman times. I can’t imagine how long it took to build all these big temples back before there were cranes and trucks and bulldozers and power tools.

After the Forum it was a quick trip to St. Peter in Chains church (San Pietro in Vincoli) to see Michelangelo’s statue of Moses. Way cool. Tomorrow we get to go to the Vatican and we’ll see the Sistine Chapel. I’m amazed at how much work Michelangelo did in his lifetime. Did you know he’d completed both David and the Pieta before he was 30 years old? I can’t even finish remodeling my house!

Had dinner that night with Sherry, Scott, Theresa, and Judi. I’ve been picking out things on the menu I don’t recognize and trying them. Tonight was buccatini in a spicy sauce with chili peppers, onions, and tomatoes. Buccatini is like a fat spaghetti noodle, except it’s hollow like a straw. The challenge is eating it. It’s too fat to twirl around your fork, but you can’t slurp it up because you just suck air through the noodle. I’m sure the Italians were laughing at me as I tried to figure out how to eat it. However, it was too good to leave sitting on the plate and I managed to get all of it in my mouth eventually.

I’m tired today after all the walking, but the food goes a long way to making me feel better. I can’t believe tomorrow is our last day. Where has the week gone?

Alla prossima (until next time),
Your loving son,