Our trip is a spiritual pilgrimage/cross-cultural experience/history course. Before we left we were asked to watch Gladiator (which is NOT historically accurate, or even close to it), Roman Holiday, Quo Vadis (a 1951 Technicolor movie about Nero's fire, which is also NOT historically accurate, but is very good anyways!), and Hudson Hawk (which is up there in the horribly stupid, but entirely hilarious 1category). Each of these movies is a must see! We were also asked to read some books (depending on where your credit was going to depended on what books you should read).
From all of these things I realized how little I really knew about Rome! I had forgotten much of my "Roman Empire" history lessons from grade-school. So I started watching the HBO series "Rome". Coolest thing about the DVD Box set is that there is an option to have a commentary that is called "All Roads Lead to Rome" that is similar to VH1's Pop-Up Video. Love it! I have learned so much from that! Amazingly it is only the first day I am already overwhelmed with the amount of stuff we have seen. So onto the itinerary…
After leaving the airport, we went straight to the MVSEO DELLA CIVILTA ROMANA o
r "The Museum of Roman Civilization" (forgive my Latin and Italian in the time here… it may not be entirely accurate, I only speak Koine Greek, Hebrew, and English). In this museum we saw a lot of replicas of ancient buildings and graffiti, etc. Two of the coolest things we saw (other and an entire room dedicated to Julius Caesar and another one dedicated to Augustus) were:
1) a 4th Century Model of Rome (Constantine's era; gave us a good idea of what Rome looked like around the time of the first churches)
2) a replica of a household shrine to a family's gods (at least I think it was a replica… We found it on the way to the restroom and the area was under construction so there was no sign on it.)
After leaving the museum we drove by the Square Colosseum (used as the Mayflower building in the movie Hudson Hawk). The area where this and the museum are located is called the EUR. It was Mussolini's attempt to create his own political forum outside of the actual city of Rome. The bus then took us to our hotel so we were able to check into our rooms. We all dropped our
things off and went next doors for our first meal of real Italian pizza. YUM!!
Then, after some freshening up/nap time (because we all needed it) we walked over to the church San Pietro in Vincoli or Saint Peter in Chains. It is called thus because the alt
ar
has chains that are supposedly from Peter's imprisonment in Rome and/or Jerusalem (there is a debate over which and legend says that it is both and that the chains were miraculously fused together… take it as you will). This church is called a "Title Church" and is one of 25 in Rome. These churches are supposed to be built on top of 1st-3rd century house churches (before Constantine made Christianity legal per se). These churches are typically named after the owners of the house or after a patron or after a martyr.
Inside of this church is the famous Michelangelo's Moses. Fascinatingly, this depiction of Moses has horns. I know right!? According to some Dan Brown book (I think The Lost Symbol) this is because of a Hebrew mistranslation… I am not positive because my Hebrew is not up to par yet, but that is one theory as to this mystery. Another cool thing I noticed in this church was a depiction of skeletons along the left wall. I was told this is a Medieval and is meant to remind people of their mortality as they walk by. Cool stuff!
The next church we went to was San Vitale which is another Title Church. This church was dedicated to Saint Vitalis' family. The story goes that he was tortured on a rack and then buried alive. The is a 5th Century church (around 400). Entering this church we had to walk down a large flight of stairs which illustrated the rising street levels throughout time. The church is known for having very elaborate nativity scenes.
The next church we went to was the Basilica Papate Di Santa Maria Maggiore or the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major. This church has the tallest bell tower in Rome. It is one of 4 places that the pope will celebrate Mass. The parts of the ceiling of the Basilica were made from the first shipment of gold sent to Spain from the "New World" (from Christopher Columbus). This church also has a statue called the Ave Regina Pacis or the Queen of Peace. This is a statue of the baby Jesus and Mary, who is holding up her hand for peace. It is interesting to point out that Jesus is holding up an olive branch. This statue was created at the end of WWI.
In the front of the church there is a 5th century mosaic depicting the nativity scene. Along the sides of the church there are also mosaics of different Old Testament stories. In the altar itself there is a piece of wood that is supposedly from Jesus' manger in Bethlehem.
We were unable to see Bernini's tomb (sad day) which is somewhere in the church because it was closed
off. However, I ventured into a baptismal area (by the entrance to the museum) and found a very cool fountain thing and behind it was the all seeing eye (a pagan-ish symbol, it is on the
top of the pyramid on the back of a U.S. $1 bill). Dan Brown relates this symbol to masonry and creates or feeds into the lore.
Outside of the church, we discussed the differences between Basilicas and Cathedrals (Basilica is named after the shape which is rectangular and is Roman in origin vs. Cathedrals which house bishops). We also saw a column in front of the church which is from the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine.
From there we headed back to the hotel (and took a short detour for gelato… of course!)
Fascinatingly, this depiction of Moses has horns.
ReplyDelete(Aargh: Blogspot won't let me paste my comment. Okay, I'll write it out again...)
In Exod 34:29, 35, it says that when Moses would come from being with the LORD, he would not know that his face was *doing something* (qaran). The LXX translates that his face "was glorified" (so NRSV "was shining"), but the verb derives from a noun meaning "a horn" (that is, of an animal).
What does it mean that Moses's face was "horning"? Well, gods were sometimes depicted in reliefs or cylinder seals as having horned caps: this distinguishes them as divine beings. Moses's horns may suggest that he, during the hours after being with the LORD, partakes of the God's divinity.
Glad you're having fun. I did hope that, when you mentioned Italian pizza, you would post a photo of Sbarro's (an homage to an episode of *The Office*, where Michael shows his favorite place to get a "New York slice" when in the city).