Capitoline Museums

Today I went to Mass at San Gregorio at the usual morning hour. Afterwards I was invited by Fr. Gerard to have lunch with him and two other people who attended Mass that morning. We agreed to meet at noon by Maderno’s fountain in St. Peter’s square, in case the Pope were home (he wasn’t) and said the Angelus. Pop quiz: Which fountain in St. Peter’s square is by Maderno and which one is by Bernini? Submit your answer to the comment box—and no cheating!

Between the end of Mass and the scheduled meeting at St. Peter’s, I went to St. Mary Major for my novena. High Mass was being offered at the high altar, so not only were all the side chapels locked, but all access to the Borghese chapel was cordoned off. There was no way for me to get even remotely close to the gates, so I said my rosary in front of the Regina Pacis instead. I presume our Lady did not mind. It is a very impressive statue, and the artist was able to portray our Lady both as motherly and protective in the way she clutches with her right arm the Christ child to her bosom, who looks eager to jump off her lap to offer the olive twig in his hand, and very strong, in the way she lifts up her left hand, as if she could stop a bullet or a daemon, or anything evil.

We said the angelus at noon in St. Peter’s, and then we went to have lunch at a Chinese restaurant close to Santi Apostoli. I got to meet a very nice Hungarian girl, Agnes, who was visiting Rome one last time because she is entering a Carmel when she goes back to the U.S. For the first time it became clear to me what a great sacrifice these women make when they choose to be cloistered.

After lunch I went to the Capitoline museums. I spent nearly five hours in there, without really knowing it. There were so many great things to see, but what was really exciting and new for me, since I have never seen it even in a book, was to visit the Tabularium, (more or less the state archives of the Roman Republic and Empire) which has only recently been reopened. There is an incredible view of the forum from the Tabularium, and I did indeed regret not bringing my camera. There were a couple of disappointments: the Lupa has been moved from her traditional room to a brand new (and distinctively ugly) atrium built for the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius. The Capitoline Venus had bird doo doo or something else on her head, and many fruit flies buzzing around, which I thought was a great pity.

Shall I conclude this entry by recording some of the horrors perpetrated by the masses of fools that roam about this city? (There really should be some sort of entrance exam rather than passport check at the airport. Anybody who doesn’t demonstrate a minimum amount of knowledge of Classics and Catholicism should be sent back to wherever he came from.) In the Sala di Annibale, in the Palazzo dei Conservatori, where the oldest frescoes in the building are found, a Chinese man in his 20s actually reached out, and not only touched the wall, but proceeded to rub his (no doubt dirty) hand in circles over it. This continued for several seconds until a museum guard caught him. In that new atrium I was talking about, where the gilded statue of Hercules has also been moved, a Spanish woman decided to get her picture taken, while hugging the statue’s leg. In the courtyard of the Palazzo Nuovo, a statue of a fawn was splashed all over the face and torso (and the wall too) with some sort of black sticky stuff that looked an awful lot like dried Coca Cola. These people are a plague, and should be dealt with accordingly.