Wandering & Waiting Wednesday

Tomorrow my Mom comes with her entourage to Rome, it also begins our mid-semester break.  About 19 are going to the Holy Land, some to the North of Italy, some going to the South, one to Sicily, one to Ireland, two to France and some more to Spain.

Thursday will see me transmorphed into the reincarnation of Mario Parrillo, remember him?  The guy that gave Italy Tours?   So while they are on the overnight flight I am waiting for my transformation.

After a very interesting final presentation on Bio-medical ethics that explored the frontiers of what lies ahead in bio-engineering and reproduction I headed over to Trastevere to find a English language Used Book store, last week I found an English speaking bookstore selling new books.

Trastevere is a very nice neighborhood and though not that big it has some nice things to explore.  I stopped in a tiny store that sold anything and everything to do with time.  They had a pretty cool ring that you take off your finger, hold it up to the sun and it shoots a beam into the inner ring onto numbers that then tell you the time.

I stopped by St. Peter's Church which is next to the Spanish Embassy, if you take the long way to Trastevere you pass it.

St. Peter's in Monorio, notice the Square Chapel on the side, it was designed by Maderno

 Here is the few from the Piazza in front of the church

View toward Santa Sabina on right

 This is a side altar in S. Peter in Montorio, the angels brining St. Francis to heaven by Bernini

Bernini's Transition of S. Francis of Assisi

 Another side altar, the art is unbelievable even when it is by a  so-called lesser artist!

S. Peter in Monorio side altar

S. Peter in Montorio side altar

Side altar apse in S. Peter in Montorio

 Not all art and beauty is found in Churches.  As one fellow here said, some Churches do not have walls or ceilings.  Here are some trumpets growing over a wall in Trastevere.

Bella Fiori

 I stopped into a Church called St. Francis of Assisi inTrastevere and like many Churches in Italy you find deceased Saints and Blesseds.  Many of them wear death masks of wax or silver.  This is local saint of the OFM Order pretty well preserved in a side Chapel.

Local Saint in St. Frances of Assisi Church Trastevere

 Just in case you thought mosaic work is only found int Churches here is the Marquee of the local neighborhood Movie Theater...take that AMC!

front of local movie theatre

 There is a very beautiful Church in Trastevere called St. Cecilia's.  It is cared for by the Benedictine sisters.  Cecilia was an early Christian Martyr and is buried in this Church.  Under the Church are extensive archeological digs.  The lighting in the catacombs are all made in the shape of Consecrated Virgins lamps, pretty neat.

Consecrated Virgins lamp lighting up the digs

 Here is an example of a pre-Christian mosaic floor.  These can be quite beautiful, remember there was not carpet guy and it is too damp here for wood.  So they fashioned their floors out of mosaic, easy to keep clean too!

Mosaic floor

 Here is one of the rooms that has been excavated, you can see an entire amphora on the right corner on the floor, the other piles are fragments of amphora.  They are clay vessels used for storage.

excavated room with amphora

 At the back of the excavations, where Cecilia's tomb can be found is this magnificent chapel in marble, mosaic and terra cotta.

catacomb chapel to St. Cecilia

 You will notice in the picture above the chapel has a lot of columns supporting the Altar area above it. The ceiling is all vaulted, the vaults are a combination of mosaic and terra cotta work.

heavily decorated vault

 I am not sure if this Angel is Pre-Christian or Christian.  The excavations had a mix of pagan and Christian tomb fragments and this piece had no markings but it is a nice tomb fragment.

Angel

 Before Cena some local restaurants maintain what we would call a 'Happy Hour' but here is considered a way to 'wet' you appetite and get your gastric juices flowing.  Trastevere maintains this custom in many local food establishments.  For 10 or 12 Euros you get a drink and you help yourself to the buffet table.  Here is a good example.  There are many University Students in Trastevere so they find this an inexpensive way to dine.  Ah, you can also sit without being charged during this event.  As you can see it is a pretty big spread for 10 euros.

new meaning to the word, "Happy Hour"

 Rome is and always has been the great inculturation center of the world.  Whatever is desirable the Romans will adapt, keep and practice it.  Oct/Nov sees the Feast of Our Lord of the Miracles, a Peruvian Feast of great magnitude.  Posters are up all over the city announcing the month long processions at various Station Churches.  Here is the Icon at the Church of Santa Maria Luce in Trastevere.  The entire Parish is now a South-Central American Parish. Every side altar is dedicated to a South-Central American patron saint.  When I stopped one of the choirs was practicing.  You leave Rome and enter Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Columbia, Panama, Costa Rica etc....

El Senior do los Milagros (Our Lord of the Miracles)