Italy - Day Eight - The Wandering Author

Italy

Day Eight – 10 April 2016

Steps: 24,919

Oh man, is the bed ever comfortable! I slept like a log and was down to breakfast for 7:30. It’s a short walk to the Piazza del Popolo and at the north end of the square is the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo.

On the steps, I met up with the group doing the Angels and Demons tour of Rome conducted by City Wonders.

Our guide is Roberto and right away you know you’re going to enjoy the day.

He starts off by saying the tour has been running for ten years and is done in cooperation with the Vatican and Dan Brown, who gets a commission from the sale of the tour. He also says the tour is according to the book, not the movie, which, of course, leaves out so much.

That being said, you really don’t have to have read the book to enjoy this tour.

We start at the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo.

It started as a chapel in 1099, built by Pope Paschal II. Legend had it that the site of the chapel was haunted by Nero’s ghost in the form of black crows, so the Pope cut down the trees that was home to the crows and built the chapel to purify the area. For this reason, it is original and not, like many Roman churches, built on top of a pagan temple. The trees were poplars, so the church was originally called Santa Maria of the Poplar Trees. It was eventually corrupted into Popolo or “of the people.”

The chapel was expanded in 1235 under Pope Gregory IX and reconstructed again in the late 15^th century. From 1655-60, Bernini modified the façade to update the architecture to a Baroque style. Today the church houses a number of works by artists such as Raphael, Bernini, Carabaggio, Blardi and Donato Bramante.

The church has ten chapels which are not chapels in the sense of being a small church. Ninety percent of these chapels were tombs built for the wealthy and affluent. The rest were built for saints. Some were designed by some of the great Italian artists including Rafael and Bernini. The remains are kept under the chapel and are accessed through a demon’s hole – essentially a man hole with a decorated cover.

The book has Robert and Vittoria discovering the cardinal who was killed using the element Earth, finding him under the Agostini Chigi chapel which was designed by Raphael in 1513 with Bernini adding the sculptures of Habakkuk and the Angel and Daniel and the Lion.

In the book, the angel pulling Habakkuk’s hair is supposed to be pointing to the next stop on the Path of Illumination.

In reality, the angel is pointing to the Daniel statue on the other side of the chapel.

The story goes that Habakkuk was having a picnic under a tree and heard the voice of god telling him to take the meal to Daniel in the lion’s den. When he didn’t, an angel picked him up by the hair and dropped him in the lion’s den where he shared a meal with Daniel.

Roberto expanded on this by telling us that the Chigi’s influence continues for more than a century when one descendant, Alex VII, becomes pope and the Chigi family crest of six hills with a star on top can be seen throughout the Vatican. Just look up at the top of the first column’s in St. Peter’s Square. This is the symbol on the demon’s hole in the church.

Another interesting tidbit is that this crest bears a bit of a similarity to another well known symbol – the Eye of Providence. It’s still on the US dollar. Did it morph into it over time?

Roberto gave us a few minutes to look around and from here, we took a bus to the next stop on the Path of Illumination – the Vatican.

I discussed the history of the Vatican yesterday, but Roberto expanded with an explanation as to how the site was chosen. I noted how Nero had chosen the site of the former Etruscan ruins to build his circus and when Peter came to Rome to openly preach Christianity, he was jailed and then crucified and likely buried in this area.

Roberto asked what was special about how he was crucified and no one could answer.

Heck, I’m an atheist and I know.

He asked to be crucified upsidedown so that he would not emulate Jesus. He didn’t feel himself worthy of the same death.

With the Council of Nicea, they would choose Lateran as the seat of the Pope then it would move to France where, after seven popes, it was forced to return to Italy or risk losing its assets there. When it returned, they decided to move the seat to the location of Peter’s tomb. Peter was considered the first pope, but like the eleven popes that followed, he never knew he was the pope. They were all decreed so afterwards to create a line of popes back to the apostles.

So, with this in mind, creating the seat of the pope on the site where the first pope died seemed proper.

And some will also point to the line in the bible where Jesus says that “upon this rock, build my church.”

Now, Peter – a name that itself translates into rock in some languages – was taken to be that rock and building there would be a literal interpretation. Problem is that Peter’s name was not Peter. It was Simon.

Details, details.

But in Aramaic, the language he spoke, the name given to him by Jesus, Cephas, did mean rock.

So, in essence, Catholics can thank Nero for the location of the Vatican.

Saint Peter’s Square is our destination as Robert and Vittorio are directed here by the angel. Here they come across another cardinal with his lungs punctured. This is the element of air.

They find him at the base of the obelisk in the centre of the square and around the obelisk are a number of plaques in the ground that give names to the winds that blow from the sixteen directions. In the book, we are led to believe there was only one – west. The other fifteen are conveniently left out.

Roberto gives us time to go through security and enter the square to check out the base of the obelisk.

From here, we head to the next point on the Path of Illumination as the compass point chosen by Dan Brown points our heroes west to the Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria.

This church also started as a chapel in 1605 but after the defeat of the reformation in Bohemia, the church was rededicated to the Virgin Mary. To continue the theme of victory, Turkish standards from the siege of Vienna in 1683 hang in the church.

The church is home to one of Bernini’s finest works and apparently, his favorite – the Ecstasy of St. Teresa.

Now, I know what you and millions of readers are thinking, but the work is not what you think.

Or is it?

Saint Teresa was born in 1515 and was the third of three girls. Her father married off the first two daughters but when her turn came, he didn’t have the money for her dowry, so he sent her to a convent. At first, she was miserable in the confines of the convent as she was a free spirit with a great imagination and desire to learn and travel.

Hmmm. I like her already.

Before long, however, she realized her position as a nun enabled her to get an education usually denied to the common folk, so she dove into this. She learned to read and learned several languages. She wrote poetry and then moved on to heavier topics like writing the histories of saints and martyrs and in the end, published more than sixty books. She developed a wish to help people and in her forties, she founded the order of the barefoot nuns, better known as the Discalced Carmelites. She died in 1582.

However, one book that she didn’t publish while she was alive was her diary, and when it was discovered, they read of the visions she used to have – whether daydreams or nightmares is unclear. One recurring event is her in a field where the angels come down and start stabbing her and this is the excerpt:

“I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the iron’s point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart, and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to leave me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it.”

These are what Teresa called her “ecstasies.”

That was her term, not ours.

What you take from it, however, is yours.

The big question is how do you create a statue for a saint so surrounded by this innuendo at a time when the Pompeii frescoes would have given people strokes.

When Bernini was asked to create a sculpture by cardinal Cornaro, he refused at first as he didn’t think it was appropriate for a church but he was convinced and created a model. The cardinal loved it.

So do we.

In the church, Robert and Vittorio discover the cardinal who dies at the hands of fire, and from here, the angel points them to the next point on the Path of Illumination – Piazza Navona.

And Robert Langdon had a much easier time getting there than we did. The Rome marathon was ongoing and the streets were all barred off with metal fencing. The bus could only take us so far and we had to walk the rest of the way.

That wasn’t the problem.

Crossing the streets were.

We had to look for the crossing points. In one case, the officials had created islands where they would let people cross to the island and once it was filled, they’d bar us off and change the flow of the runners to the lane we just crossed and then let us cross the rest of the way across the other lane.

Pretty ingenious.

However, not all the crossings were that well organized. At another street, we had to dash across in between the runners. The officer told me to go and I crossed well in front of this woman who shouted at me “really?”

As I easily passed in front of her, I shouted back, “yes, really!”

You hold a marathon in one of the most visited cities in the world, you take your chances.

We did get an unexpected treat on the way – The Pantheon.

This was built as a temple to all pagan gods and is now a church. It is visited in the book but not officially on the tour so we didn’t go in. I had already planned to visit it later in the day.

We went down deserted roads and crowded laneways and eventually got to our destination.

The Piazza Navona started as a public space set aside for a city market. During the reign of Pope Innocent X from 1644 to 1655, the piazza was transformed into one of the finest examples of Baroque architecture and art featuring works by Bernini, Borromini, Rainaldi and others. Bernini’s Fountain of the Four Rivers is the centrepiece of the piazza.

The obelisk at the top of the fountain is the only one of Roman origin and the hieroglyphics carved into it are meaningless to anyone who reads hieroglyphics.

At one end is the 1501 statue of Pasquino on which Romans could leave criticisms or other social commentary attached to the statue.

Like a 16^th century Twitter account.

Here, Robert faced the villain as he dumped the fourth cardinal into the fountain. In the movie, the cardinal survives. In the book, he does not.

From here, Robert determines the lair of the Illuminati is the Castel Sant’Angelo which is also known as the Mausoleum of Hadrian or Hadrian’s Mole.

It was originally built by the Roman Emperor Hadrian for himself between 134 and 139 CE. His ashes were interred in the cylindrical structure a year after he died in 138 CE. Other emperors would be interred there until 217 CE, all the ashes kept in the Treasury Room deep inside the structure.

The building was converted to a military fort in 401 and the urns with their contents were emptied by the Visigoths when they sacked Rome in 410. Much of the other contents of the building were also lost but some items that survived were moved to the Vatican.

The name of the structure was changed in 590 when people claimed to have seen the Archangel Michael appear on top of the mausoleum, sheathing his sword to indicate the end of the plague. A statue was later added celebrating this moment.

The building was converted into a castle in the 14^th century and Pope Nicholas III connected the castle to St. Peter’s Basilica by the fortified corridor called the Passetto di Borgo.

The seven hundred metre long escape route is often mistaken for an aqueduct.

The castle served as a haven for Pope Clement VII during the German’s sacking of Rome in 1527. Pope Paul III added a comfortable apartment to the castle so that he could relax in luxury should he have to flee the Vatican. The castle grounds were also used as a prison for the Papal State and executions were carried out in an inner courtyard.

The castle was decommissioned in 1901 and is now a museum.

And a great place to get an amazing view of Rome.

Roberto directs us towards the Castel and says it will take five minute or fifty, depending on what the marathon has in store for us. We make better time and seem to have found the western end of the marathon route. We cross the bridge with the statues that represent the twelve stations of the cross.

Looking at the Castel, you can see how Rome was built in layers, like a lasagna. You can see the original rough stone of Hadrian’s Mausoleum and the more modern brick above.

Inside, Roberto shows us a model of the original structure which kind of looked like a birthday cake. The walls around us have a lot of holes in them and he said they are from the spikes used to hold the marble in place.

The route to the top is a ramp and we stop at the transition point between the old and the new to see where Hadrian’s urn was located. The Egyptian inspired urn is now in St. Peter’s Basilica and is now being used as a baptismal font.

No one knows what happened to Hadrian’s ashes but it’s possible they were under us.

We move up to where we stop in the library of the pope. There were books here but they were moved to the Vatican when the church relinquished control of all their properties outside the Vatican.

Here, we learn about the Great Castration.

Or if you read the book, Robert refers to it when he notes his disgust at the statues with the improvised fig leaves. He’s asked if he is anti-Catholic and Robert replies that he is not. He is anti-vandalism.

Apparently, at one point, the Pope decided that depictions of the nude form were not proper and went about removing the genitals of all the statues throughout the Vatican. The Great Castration continued into other papacies.

So, what happened to all….ummm….members?

Roberto tells us that they found a private treasure room in the Castel (or should I say “treasure room of privates?”) where they found the pope’s private collection (okay, okay…collection of privates).

He said they found them in a chest in the room. And as we went to view it, he reminded us that it was not the big chest in behind. The collection of privates was found in the smaller one in the center.

I asked if the room was for “member’s only?”

So, after we stopped laughing and wiped our eyes, he said the Vatican is checking into the possibility of reattaching the collection of privates to their original owners.

Oh wait…no, we haven’t stopped laughing yet.

Somehow we got on the topic of how they were going to achieve this. We visualize two nuns picking through the chest of privates and checking to see if each one fit a particular statue and then carrying on until they found one that did.

We figured it would be a career for the two nuns chosen.

Oh, my ribs hurt. It’s a wonder we could climb the last few steps to the top of the Castel.

One last question involved the Illuminati. Was it real? In reality, while the name Illuminati refers to a number of groups, the best known is the Bavarian Illuminati which was founded in 1776 to oppose religious influence over public life and the state. They, along with other secret societies, were outlawed but continued underground and some say they were responsible for the French Revolution. Others wonder if they were taken in by the Masons.

Roberto finished the tour at the top of the Castel and we gave him a round of applause.

It was a fabulous way to see some of Rome’s hidden treasures and topped off with a fabulous view of the city. I stuck around to take a few pics and said hello to Mr. Gull. Wonder if he followed me from Sorrento.

Then I headed back across the bridge. I walked along the river as far as Tiber Island then turned north, back to Piazza Navona and the Pantheon.

I went inside (all churches are free to enter in Rome). The inside is astonishing given how long ago it was built.

The hole in the top was left because they had not figured out how to close up a dome at that point.

Incredible.

From here, I headed to the Vittorio Emmanuel Monument and found the marathon was over so that I could cross streets and take pics from places that would otherwise be impossible like he middle of the massive intersection in front of the monument.

Italians absolutely hate the monument. I think it’s magnificent.

I followed the signs to the Trevi Fountain and it was very crowded.

Last time I was there, I just walked up to it, tossed the coin over my shoulder and carried on. This time, it was a death defying feat to get a picture. I slowly made my way down to the fountain’s edge, saw a guy finishing up with his photos and as he moved away, I took his spot. I started to compose my shot when two girls sat on the edge next to me, one of them pushing me to the side as she sat and their photographer kept saying excuse me. I turned sideways for a moment to let him take his pic and he did, so I went back to taking mine. Next thing I knew, he was tugging on my sleeve saying excuse me, excuse me. At the same moment, another kid sat on the fountain on the other side of me and the parent shoved my arm and said something about photo to me.

My head just popped. I turned and looked at them both and said some colourful terms, telling them they’d have to wait their turn just as I did.

It was unbelievable. I’ve been to a lot of hustle and bustle photo spots but this one was atrocious. If it wasn’t the rude people at the fountain’s edge, it was the selfie stick nuts expecting you not to get in their shot or stopping to set up in the middle of the steps, bringing the crowd to a halt or holding it in the space people are walking through and hitting us in the head and then getting mad at us!

I had to leave before I turned into one of the savages there. I didn’t throw a coin in this time. Not sure my bank account wants me to come back a third time.

I headed up to the Spanish Steps to find they were under renovation.

This would be about the only time you’ll see the steps empty.

I went back to Piazza del Popolo to look for the bubble guy and took a few pics. I was half expecting the kid’s parents to ask why I was taking pics of their kids, but none seemed concerned.

Try that at a playground in New York or LA.