Mishap Sunday, III: Two Churches

At length we did get to see two churches we had wanted to see in the Trastevere neighborhood, St. Mary's and St. Cecilia's. Both involved considerable confusion, getting lost, discovering that even neighborhood residents had never heard of these churches, etc.

St. Mary of Trastevere, right on the Piazza della Trastevere;
as usual, not the first, not even the first Christian, church on
this ground, the earlier ones going back to the third century;
tradition suggests this was the first purpose-built Christian
church built in Rome (previously, the faithful met in houses)
and also the first to be dedicated to Mary ("Mother of God"
it says in the crypt)

Domenichino's Assumption of Mary, in the ceiling

The building materials came from either the Baths of
Caraculla or the Temple of Isis on the Janiculum; some
sources say that faces of Isis and other Egyptian deities
were hammered off as late as 1870; anyhow, note that few
of the capitals match

Nice painting all around the altar, life of Mary 

Very, very nice 13th century mosaic in the dome and
elsewhere

It's a very dark old building; yet we and
others noted spotlights coming on in the
altar area now and then, we scurrying about
with our cameras to get a shot; then I
noticed this little machine, which, for 50
centavos, turns on the lights for one minute;
inserting a coin, and in my most authoritative
stage whisper, I said "Let there be light!"

Natural light is still best

More wandering in Trastevere; St. Cecilia's

is probably no more than 6 blocks from St.

Mary's, but it took us an hour and half to

get there (such were the quality of our maps,

our map-reading skills; sense of direction;
advice given by half a dozen residents; etc.)

St. Cecelia's, another very old church, 5th century

It's attraction is the very striking sculpture of the saint

herself by Maderno, 1600; the pose, tradition tells us, is
exactly that of how her body was found in the catacombs;
she was martyred, decapitated, along with her husband,
St. Valerian; the church is said to be built over their house

Closer up

Getting to see the scultpure closer up meant sitting, at the
back of the church, through another entire mass or vespers
or whatever, looking pious, flipping through the real estate
magazine someone had helpfully left behind; that's two
masses in one day; anyhow, this one was was helped along
by the presence and participation of a touring choir, from
Germany, we guessed, here performing a little encore after
the service

St. Cecilia's also had very nice mosaic, including this dome

What's the square blue halo? you ask; it is how persons

living at the time of the art work's creation are depicted and

honored; in this case, the blue halo guy obviously gave

the church or financed its building; he's handing a little

model of it to St. Cecilia or some other goddess

We retraced our steps, more directly, found the bus to Termini, and were back at the campground half an hour later. Thus ended the day--20,000 steps on the pedometer--but a reminder that even a bad day touring is a pretty good day!

Mishap Sunday, II: Trastevere

We left St. Peter's Square and headed down Via Conciliazione--built after Italy and the Vatican finally had made nice in the 20th century (thank you, Prime Minister Mussolini)--in search of a bus back to the metro and our campground. Defeated. But, despite or because of some bad advice/directions, we never did find the bus stop, and so continued on to the Tiber. At this point, Vicki became determined to rehabilitate at least part of the day, by visiting the Villa Farnese and its Rafaels.

So this time of year, Via Conciliazione is decked out in bronze sculptures of the 
way and stations of the Cross; and with Crucifixion re-enactors 

Roman soldier Crucifixion re-enactors

Possibly would rather be somewhere else; maybe a Viking ship or Wagnerian opera

Castle San Angelo; originally Hadrian's Tomb; later a hide- out for besieged popes;
soon to be the Vatican City Hard Rock Cafe...

Photo-shoot on the Tiber

Ditto

Tiber nearly at flood

Roman pizza, sold by the slice/kilo; a very, very, very, very distant second to 
Neapolitan; more mishap

=

Sans guidebook (we had carried only the pages for the 
Vatican Museums) we headed on to the Villa Farnese, 
planning to see the Rafaels there

Chiuso domenica e festivi; duh...; still hoping to save 
some of the day, we headed on further, into the Medieval 
warren/former Jewish ghetto of Trastevere

Street scene in Trastevere

Ditto

Mishap Sunday, I: At The Vatican

The Vatican Museums have free admission on the fourth Sunday of every month, so we had the bright idea of going in to see them, at least for a reconnaissance. It was the first act of a day-long comedy of errors.

The Museums open at 9 and we got there by 9:15, only to find there was a line...

Wrapping around the walls of Vatican City

And on, and on

And on, until its terminus, more than a kilometer later, just outside St. Peter's Square

None shall pass, quoth the Swiss Guard

In Bernini's colonnade, 4 massive columns deep all around, the 
grandest of all such structures, I think

So at this point, just about that far from the great church, we decide maybe we'll
 just visit St. Peter's instead of the Museums

Outside, by one of the fountains in St. Peter's Square, some younger persons 
practice transubstantiation with their brewskis

Inside, one of the most famous of all masterpieces, behind a 
glass wall and twenty feet away

We wandered about the great nave for a while, and then there was music and 
a procession; and mass began; "oh, right, it's Sunday"

One of the guards told us we could enter the holiest bit when mass was over, 
maybe 45 minutes, so we sat in the chapel of Pope John XXIII (that's him), 
contemplating relevant things and trying to look pious

This is about as close as we got; another guard, 45 minutes later, told us there 
would be masses and other religious events all the rest of the day, but that we 
could see the nave, the treasury, etc.

The great Michaelangelo dome

Operators are standing by...OK, by this point I was feeling more than my usual 
cynical/impish self

Mine's bigger than yours department: the central aisle is paved in these markers 
showing where other major (big) cathedrals would fit; alas, there are probably Baptist

and evangelical monstrosities in Texas that could swallow St. Peter's whole; sic transit, 

Gloria

One of my favorite images of St. Peter's; even a hardened cynic has to be awed 
by all the history, majesty, art, and architecture

So as we step out the door, we are astonished to see St. Peter's Square absolutely 
filled with people, banners and signs, cheering someone who is speaking to them; 
at first I figured it was a political rally, or they were watching futbol on the big 
screen, or maybe it was even Father Guido Sarducci...

But no, it was His Holiness, Himself, delivering His Sunday message; a bit of 
a thrill even for us, indeed redeeming all of the day's mishaps, so far...

An Evening in Rome

We spent our first afternoon in Rome setting up camp and relaxing. I took the bus and metro into the city center to find a Wind store and to get our Wind internet USB working. No satisfaction there. I'll certainly post again about Wind if it doesn't get fixed. In the meantime, if you're contemplating cell or mobile internet service in Italy, I'd certainly recommend Tim or even Vodaphone--anything but Wind.

Most of my birthday, apart from the veal and pasta (and cherry tomatoes and mozarella and pecorino cheese, etc.) dish Vicki fixed for lunch, I spent catching up on the blog--using the campground wifi. Then, later in the afternoon, we went into town to do an evening stroll, from the Campo di Fiora to the Spanish Steps and Spagna metro station. With a minor detour for gelato.

In the flower market

The Giordano Bruno monument in the center

of the Campo di Fiora; Bruno was among the

earliest Renaissance critics of the excesses of

the Church; was tried and burned at the stake

in this square; over very strong Vatican

objection, the city of Rome built this

monument and placed it ensuring that Bruno's

critical gaze would always fall on the Popes;

from the 19th century, the Vatican has not 

always been as popular in Italy as one might

imagine 

Bernini's Four Rivers

After all these years, still my favorite building, the

Pantheon

Gelato detour

A very famous column, Hadrian's, I think, or

possibly Marcus Aurelius'--we'll visit again

by day

The Trevi Fountain

Spanish Steps

And accompanying boat fountain

Nach Rome!

So from Caserta, we drove on, spending the night at a huge rest area on the autostrada, finally arriving in Rome on Friday morning. Our first goal was to find a suitable place to store the camper for our return to the States in April. This we did, on the first try, near the Laurentina metro station, on the Eternal City's south side. Vicki achieved another screaming deal, not only storing the rig but allowing us to camp on site for the next ten days, with wonderfully simple and quick transportation to the great city center.

Driving by Monte Cassino--"never was so much suffered by

so many for so little"--parodying the author of the campaign
in Italy in WWII