Back to the Rome Temple

 The Rome temple has been closed for the past two weeks as usual every 6 months. I think the idea is to deep clean the temple and take care of any maintenance items that require daytime work that would disrupt the normal operation of the temple. It probably gives the workers a chance to recharge their batteries.  That doesn't work for us because during the last 3 closures, we've had friends and relatives visiting us. They'd like to see as much of Italy as we can cram into a few days and so it's pretty hectic. We took two trips to the Amalfi Coast--Sorrento and other beautiful cities across the bay of Naples.  I love that part of Italy but it takes a toll on this elderly body.

After dinner tonight, I thought I'd have an orange. I cut one in half and squeezed the juice into a glass. It was a "blond" orange and so I cut open another.  It was a a perfect specimen of a blood orange, so I squeezed the juice into the same glass and took a photo.

Robyn's sister Genie and her husband are staying with us this week, and when I showed her the juice, she said, "That's not orange juice, that's red juice.

In addition to local sites in Rome and the Amalfi Coast, we visited Tivoli Gardens, the palace at Caserta, the Pyramid of Rome, St. Peter's and St. John's Lateran Cathedrals. The architecture in these locations is astounding. I believe three complete Salt Lake Temples can fit inside St. Peter's Basilica.  St. John's was the headquarters of the Catholic Church until superceded by St. Peter's. It has 12 statues of the ancient apostles where the sculture and painter Thorvaldson sought inspiration for his much smaller versions of the 12 apostles. Both collections include Paul rather than Matthias who replaced Judas Iscariot.

Each statue contains something specific that helps identify which apostle is portrayed.  As in most other depictions, Peter holds keys in his hands. Others show how they died or something memorable about their lives.  Matthew holds his gospel in one hand and his foot is generally on a sack of money since he had been a tax collector.  John also holds his gospel and looks afar off with an eagle at his side demonstrating that he had special vision to see into the future.  Thomas is portrayed as a skeptic or a scientist holding a square--indicating his lack of faith.  Bartholomew holds a knife as well as his own skin, since history records that he was skinned alive. His face can be seen between his hands--one holding the knife and the other holding part of his own dermis.

The statues are more than 10 feet tall and line each side of the basilica.  There are many fascinating art works throughout the cathedral; but I couldn't find any place that explained what the paintings represented.

I went to the several shops and asked if there were a book that described the various artwork.  Unfortunately, no one has compiled such a work. I did, however, find a small booklet with a history of all the popes.  When I got home, I realized it also included a poster of Pope Francis.  I'm not sure what to do with it. The book has a brief description of the 266 popes beginning with Peter.

I thought I had taken a photo of a list of all the popes in St. Peter's but realized it only lists those popes buried at St. Peter's. 

On our way into the Vatican, I came across a commercial bread oven where several men were producing scores of loaves per hour. They let me come in and photograph the oven with the baking bread.  I bought a half of a loaf which was about the size of a small turkey.  It cost about a dollar and a half--and it was excellent. The workers explained that this was one of only two wood burning ovens left in Rome. The loaves were stacked like cordwood throughout the bakery and delivery men were filling empty flour sacks with the loaves, putting them into delivery vans and heading out.  That was at about 8:30 am. After our tour of the Vatican, I stopped on the way back and they were still baking bread and sending out deliveries. Surprisingly, there wasn't any aroma of baking bread evident anywhere--not even inside the oven room.  The baker would place the dough inside the oven with a long handled peele, move the loaves back and forth and take them out as he determined they were done.