Rome, Angels, and Demons (May 9 and 10)

Rome has plenty of museums, but by Saturday May 9 we had visited all of them that we wanted to, so we set out to give ourselves an “Angels and Demons” tour, in advance of seeing the movie. Our first stop was the Castel San Angelo on the Tiber. This was relatively uncrowded and provided some great views of Rome. From there we walked back to St. Peter’s Square to look for the markers of the winds near the base of the obelisk. (By the way, all 16 of the markers have names for the winds, not just the one, as shown in the movie.) We had to go “‘cross Rome” for the next marker, the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria. We took in the Bernini sculpture St. Theresa in Ecstacy, along with other tourists who appeared to have the same agenda. From there it was NW to Santa Maria del Popolo and the pyramidal markers in the Chigi Chapel. The altarpiece was covered up so we couldn’t see that angel. By then it had been a long enough day and we returned to our hotel room.

After Mass on Sunday we walked to the Piazza Novanna and the Fountain of the Four Rivers. That concluded our A&D tour. Before returning to our hotel room we stopped for a sit-down and some refreshment near the church of San Salvatore in Lauro. This church held in esteem a priest who was a founder of Opus Dei, and had some funerary obelisks in a side chapel. We’ll have to wait for a different novel to work those in.