With Bonnie and Wendy in Rome, Sunday, 26 October 2014

With Bonnie and Wendy in Rome, Sunday, 26 October 2014

Of tombs and fortresses, saints, and kings.

The time has changed here, so I’ve missed church, and we decide to cross the Tiber. First, however, we need to partake of the pastries that I purchased the evening before at the pasticceria on Viccolo Savelli near the apartment that Anna and I lived in in 2000. Little boats filled with lemon crème and topped with fruiti di bosco, and apricot tarts make for a pleasant breakfast.

We head out for Castel St. Angelo on the opposite bank.  In spite of the many times that I have been in Rome, I’ve never been here – so this will be a treat.  It’s a lovely day, sunny but a bit cool.  The umbrella pines are waving in the light breeze and children are playing in the parks. I buy a cheap (5 Euro) scarf just to head off the coolness.  The Castel is (or rather was) the tomb of Hadrian – a circular hunk of masonry surmounted by an earthen barrow that had been planted with concentric circles of cypress and surmounted by a room for the remains of Hadrian and his family.  Mario Botta must have gotten his inspiration here.

On top of that there were medieval and renaissance accretions, and the bulk of the masonry was pierced by a diagonal walkway that moves through the room that was used as the actual tomb. 

  

Used by popes as a defensive fort on the Tiber, other defensive surrounds were added later.

Some of the defensive towers were added by the Borgia pope, and some rooms have been restored to give you and idea of how the complex functioned.  A walk along the parapet give you wonderful views of Rome, and a nice restaurant was there to give us liquid sustenance.  We also run into two guys who ate next to us last evening at Fattoincassa. They are from Australia, and we exchange pointers and restaurant recommendations.  Very nice. 

From the parapet you can see the covered walkway that winds from the Castel to the Vatican, a protective escape route for popes and entourage.

There are grand rooms inside which indicates its use, as the tutorial advises, as a “luxurious prison” for some persons of note.  At the top, underneath the towering statue of Michael are rooms devoted to the Italian Army along with a fascinating video of Il Duce trying to reproduce a Nuremburg type rally in front of the Palazzo Venizia in Rome.

From here we decide to go over to Saint Peter’s, which given that it is now Sunday afternoon, is probably not a good idea.  It isn’t. The line into the Basilica stretches around the greater part of the Bernini Colonnade, so we dump the idea.  We notice, however, movement coming out of the great church (which reminds me of the entrance of Ptolemy in the movie Cleopatra in 1963.  (You can see what I mean by clicking on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umyyBo4rXGQ, and go to 4:20 or so).

A large image with men and women dressed in purple escorting it out of the church enters the main piazza. They are from Peru, and are delighted to be here. It puts us on the divide between our austere Protestantism, and what seems to be Dionysian delight in images and processions.  I am entranced. 

Wendy and Bonnie go off to view the colonnade, and I wait for them. The entire Bernini surround has been cleaned over the last few years - and it gleams in the sun. We drop by the museum shop where I see a few Patarino porcelains.  I talk with the salesperson about them, and appreciate the gift given so many years ago by A. R. Kretzmann that now adorns our house.

We go back, find a restaurant, and have a delightful dinner – and then bed.