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Please help

U.S. residents may help the victims of super typhoon Haiyan (YolandaPH) by texting AID to 27722 to donate $10.00. 0r text MKHUNGER to 50555 to donate $5.00.  All proceeds go to World Food Program (WFP) which organization is on the ground now distributing relief goods in the storm ravaged areas of Eastern and Western Visayas. Or donate online  https://www.wfp.org/donate/typhoon-philippines . Philippine residents may text RED space AMOUNT to 2899 for Globe subscribers and 4143 for Smart subscribers. Donations go to the Philippine Red Cross. "No amount is too small." Check also this list of organizations that are involved in relief and rescue operations in the Philippines:  http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/11/how-to-help-philippines-typhoon-victims/?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes&_r=0 Thank you for your generosity. *  *  *

Rome Essentials

Eats  Near Santa Maria Maggiore Tempio di Mecenate Ristorante/Pizzeria Largo Leopardi, 14/18 (Via Merulana) www.tempiodimecenate.it This restaurant is always full of diners. There's usually a line in front of the outdoor dining room. The food is quite good and the bill for three with wine and bottled water adds up to €52.  Panella Via Merulana This is a bakery and restaurant in one. They have a buffet table for a fixed price. Outdoor seating. Attracts a young crowd. Cute animal shaped breads at Panella Near the Pantheon Capranica Enoteca and Taverna Piazza Capranica 99/100 www.enotecacapranica.it/en Bar at Capranica This is a beautiful taverna inside the Palazzo Capranica, a renaissance era palace.  The bar, in warm tones of brown, is the backdrop of this elegant dining room. I had their salmon with risotto and zucchini. Across from the Colosseo  Oppio Caffè Via delle Terme di Tito, 72 Colosseo, Roma www.oppioc

The Ecstasy of St. Teresa of Ávila

The emergence of Baroque art in the 17 th c (1600 – 1700) was driven in part by the Protestant Reformation. The Catholic Church responded to the Reformation movement by propagating Baroque art with its flamboyance and theatricality, in order to engage the faithful through religious art and architecture and bring back erring believers to the Church. The Cornaro Chapel is inside the Church of Santa Maria della Vittora in Rome. Here is Baroque art at its finest. St. Teresa of Ávila, a nun from the 16 th century, is seen with an angel who has pierced her heart. Rays of light emanate from the heavens to illuminate the scene. On the side walls of the altar are theatre boxes where spectators (modeled by the Cornaro family) are watching the scene unfolding in front of them. St. Teresa is experiencing an intense spiritual vision that leaves her “utterly consumed by the great love of God”. Here is St. Teresa’s account of her vision: “ It was our Lord's will that in th

Michaelangelo in Rome

"Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the job of the sculptor to discover it." Michaelangelo Buonarotti Moses - Church of St. Peter in Vincoli The statue of Moses at the basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli was to have been part of a grandiose monument and tomb for Pope Julius II, a patron of Michelangelo Buonarotti. But this same pope pulled Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (1508-1512), a project that lasted four years. Not surprisingly, the scaled down version of the tomb was not completed until 1515. At eight feet in height, Moses is an all powerful figure, his muscles bulging from his arms and legs and transparent through the folds of his gown. He has a crown of horns symbolizing the “ray of light”, a misinterpretation of the Hebrew word karan which may also refer to horn depending on how it is read. Pieta The Pieta in the Basilica of St. Peter's was once the object of a madman who hammered away at Mary

Random Rome

I spied this courtyard filled with antique statues on my way to Santa Susanna. It would have been lovely to take Venus or one of the busts home with me to adorn my ho-hum garden. How many interesting conversations it would have started! But I console myself that I didn't have to pay extra for excess baggage. These two turbaned gentlemen in orange robes sit here all day in perfect balance across from the Pantheon. One man holds the stick on which the second sits in mid air. Total concentration and control are needed to maintain this stance. Most importantly, how can they keep cool in the scorching summer heat? They must be thinking about winter! Yes, it's a pedal car but not for a child. I wonder if all the knock off bags and scarves hanging from the rack will be packed away in the back of this motorized tricycle? A smart car indeed! A piece of wall, a reminder of Rome's storied past, preserved in the center of the city and just down the stre

The Many Faces of the Colosseum

In mid afternoon, the Colosseum is tinged in chalky white. At sunset, the Colosseum is baked in shades of sienna.  The exposed inner rim was pockmarked by medieval robbers in search of iron clamps.   My favorite view of the Colosseum is from the Via Sacra where ancient columns provide a linear frame to the elliptical curve of the Colosseum's walls. Past events in this ancient amphitheater are put to bed in the dark shadows of night. If only walls could talk, what a fright they would tell! An excerpt from Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto the Fourth, (1818): A Ruin — yet what Ruin! from its mass Walls — palaces — half-cities, have been reared; Yet oft the enormous skeleton ye pass, And marvel where the spoil could have appeared. Hath it indeed been plundered, or but cleared? Alas! developed, opens the decay, When the colossal fabric's form is neared: It will not bear the brightness of the day, Which streams to

A Papal Audience with Pope Francis I

Pope Francis I - June 2013 One of our main reasons for visiting Rome was to see the new Pope. There are several ways to see the Vicar of Christ at the Vatican . Two of these are during the Sunday Angelus at noon and the Wednesday general audience at 10:30 a.m. both on St. Peter’s Square. Of the two, the best close-up view of the Pope would be at the Wednesday audience as the Pope circles the square in his popemobile before the hour-long acknowledgements and homily. On Sundays, when he is in residence, he blesses the crowd in attendance from the balcony above the entrance to the Basilica (predecessors of Pope Francis I blessed the faithful from the papal apartment window). It is necessary to get tickets for the Wednesday audience but not for the Sunday Angelus. These tickets are free and may be requested from the Pontifical North American College or from the Church of Santa Susanna in Rome . Tickets are picked up the day before the audience or on Tuesdays from the location