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Beats sitting at the train station
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[J] Before we caught our train out of Rome, we left our bags in Left Luggage at the station and hit a couple of churches that are nearby. The first was a mouthful: Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri (or St. Mary of the
Angels and the Martyrs in English). The basilica church was built over and around the Baths of Diocletian, the grandest public baths in Rome. It was designed by Michelangelo and was one of the last projects he worked on before he died.
The funny thing was that we weren't actually looking for the church. The map had listed it as the site of some ancient Roman baths, so we were thinking there might be some warn, steaming pools like we saw in Bath. We couldn't find any other entrance and so we decided to go into the church. If you look up "don't judge a book by its cover" in the dictionary of sayings, you'll find a picture of this place. The outside looked pretty bad. The front of the building is just rough, unfinished bricks. Given its external appearance, we weren't expecting much on the inside, but it was a nice surprise. The vaulted ceilings, decorated floor, and ornate chapels in the different apses all
added to the grand feel of the place.
I really liked the line on the floor. More accurately described as a sundial along the meridian line, it was designed by Francesco Bianchini and was completed in 1702. Bianchini was so respected for his astronomical work that there are craters on the moon and Mars that are named after him. Around 12:15 pm every day, light shines through a tiny hole way up on the wall and sends a circle of light onto the bronze line which is set in marble. I guess it would be useful nowadays if you didn't have a calendar and had lost complete track of what zodiac sign we were in. Some guy was running a measuring tape down the length of it (most likely for some science project) trying to ruin my pictures. I started yelling random numbers at him to screw up his measuring. Since my Italian is non-existent, I
shouted in Roman numerals (I made sure to yell IIII and not IV so he would know I meant business).
We thought we should keep the St Mary theme going for the day, so we headed over to the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore (St Mary Major in English). The major part comes from the fact it is the largest church in Rome dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and also because it is one of only four papal basilicas (meaning that it is often used by the pope). Supposedly, back in 352, Mary appeared to Pope Liberius in a dream and told him that it was going to snow in Rome in August. Wherever the snow fell, that was where he was to build a church in her honor. It snowed, he traced out the outline of the church in the snow, and the rest, as they say, is fiction- er, history. They
drop white rose petals from the ceiling on August 5th every year to celebrate the miracle of the snowfall.
The basilica is believed to house pieces of the original nativity crib as well. Hold up. Who exactly was it that thought to grab a piece of the manger? I can't exactly imagine one of the shepherds swiping a chunk of the baby bed after he was done worshiping Jesus. Did the inn keeper figure out Jesus was someone special and keep the manger in a protective case charging Bethlehem tourists to visit the famous birthplace (with the hill where the angels appeared to the shepherds as a package deal)? I aint buying it. It did house something a bit more believable, the tomb of Bernini. Man, I just figured out how much I liked the guy's work and now I find out he's dead.
(For map pin accuracy this blog post continues in the next entry...)
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| 25. | Beats sitting at the train station - Rome, Italy Apr 07, 2008 (  30 ) |
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