ROME – Tuesday, May 24, 2022 – I was dreading this day – in the best possible way – because I had bought a private tour for the Vatican that started at 7:15 a.m. and I had no idea what to expect, except that Will and Amy would likely be fairly grumpy to get up at 6 a.m. to see yet ANOTHER museum and church. It turned out to be absolutely wonderful – we had a guide for just the four of us, and she took us through parts of the vast collections of the Popes, seeing treasures from the ancient world – statues that changed the way we see – to the Renaissance and beyond. The ornate palaces of the popes, their self-aggrandizing art, their pillaging of ancient monuments, the famous Papal apartments of Pope Julius II with the amazing Raphael paintings, the Sistine Chapel! Rick was able to see his beloved School of Athens, which Will apparently was drawn to as well, with Aristotle holding his book the “Ethics,” a work Will has been wrestling with for the past year at Notre Dame. We also waited a half hour in the hot morning sun to see St. Peter’s Basilica, an awe-inspiring space the length of one and a half football fields and whose side arms are bigger than most churches. Rick commented that most of the churches we have seen on the trip would fit inside this one glorious space. Will perhaps gave it his highest compliment ever, saying it was like a movie.

Afterwards, we went to the Pantheon – how could we see two of the world’s greatest structures in one day? Did that really happen? It is a transformative space, with its beautiful oculus and coffered ceiling. We had some wonderful granita afterwards, and you could see the majestic structure peeking around the corner, and it really didn’t feel real. I was once skeptical when Yale University’s Diana Kleiner proclaimed the Pantheon was the most beautiful building in history, but I am now a convert. St. Peter’s may be spectacular, but the Pantheon is almost like one of Plato’s “forms,” the ultimate ideal of what a building should be. We will have to ask Will if I am totally off base on this one.

Tonight, we are off for Dim Sum at a well-known restaurant a 3 minute walk from our hotel. Three minutes is about all we can handle after a very long, hot day. And I didn’t even mention the Caravaggios that Rick and I squeezed in after the Pantheon – the paintings of St. Matthew at the Contarelli Chapel at the Church of the Francesi (near Caravaggio’s haunts) and those at the Santa Maria del Popolo – where we had to wait for 25 minutes to open, so we bided our time with an excellent museum on Leonardo, recapping all we saw in Milan two weeks ago. Rick was exhausted but a good sport. And we learned the trick to lighting up the Caravaggios – both churches required you to put a few euros in a machine to illuminate them – otherwise you can’t see much in the darkness. But the key is to let the lights dim, then the crowds leave, then you put money in and enjoy them in peace for a few minutes. We were transfixed by the Calling of St. Matthew – my new favorite Caravaggio, though Rick confessed his favorite is the still life of fruit we saw back at Milan’s Ambrosiana. It’s a fair choice.

Ok, my 15 minutes are up – actually 20 – so I must go. Tomorrow we will visit the Coliseum, the Palatine Hill with its view over the Circus Maximus and the Forum! Party on, Nero!