Day 20: "Hey guys...that was beautifully painful."

Well, the day started with all the intention of going with Dr. Bednarz  at 9:00am to checkout a 2,000 year old prison said to be where St. Peter was imprisoned....Chris and I woke up at 9:05am. Fantastic...

However, our plans were flexible. Chris, Michelle, and I headed off to the Capitoline Hill Museum. Actually, that was the plan until on the Metro we realized that it was Sunday. Plan C: Find a church, then go to Capitoline. The next stop after this revelation was Repubblica, home of Santa Maria degli Angel e dei Martiri. Michelle has not been in this particular basilica, and it is without a doubt a great sight as I have talked about in a previous post.

As we approached the doors of the basilica, we saw multiple carabinieri officers outside and wondered what was possibly going on inside. To our surprise, nothing. Only a couple early birds there at 10:05am for a 10:30am mass, and the common tourist snapping pictures of every tile he or she steps on. But when 10:30 came around, we wondered why there were still groupings of what seemed to be upper class italians in dresses and suits sitting in the section of nice chairs near the altar rail...again, to our surprise, we find out that the mass was a celebration of 450 years since the founding of the basilica. Mass did not start until 11:00am, and finished up around 12:30pm, and was in all italian. Thus: "beautifully painful" and vice versa. Oh, and we got these little post card things which were pretty nice.

Allow me to say this about the mass though. Whoever is instructing the servers on the techniques of incensing...is not up to par. He had no slack on the chain, no click for dramatics, and no puffs of smoke to say the least. Abrupt movements left and right. You would think that by building a basilica over the Diocletian Baths that maybe, just maybe there would be a some secret passageway to get from one side of the altar to the other rather than having to non-discreetly walk a half mile from one side to the other. Just a thought, call in Indiana Jones for a little excavation work and a new underground tunnel.

So, after two and a half hours in church. We finally headed to Capitoline. Time for some connections

1. There were tons and tuns of busts, overwhelmingly amount actually. However, I was able to spot an element of my "expertise" on the armor of Hadrian. Pictured, you will see on Hadrian's chest, the head of Medusa. Medusa, Queen of the Amazons, was seen as a "shocking" figure. It's main purpose was to ward off evil from the soldiers fighting and bring good fortune to those whose chest she lies on.

2. Another depiction of Hadrian was rather odd. There is a section of the museum with statues of Roman rulers depicted with the attributes of the Roman gods. Before going an further, see the photo below:

In some research, the only god I could come across that Hadrian would come across as would be Diana. A female god? Maybe this sculptor did not like Hadrian's political stylings, or maybe this sculptor is not portraying Hadrian as Diana. It is known that Hadrian was a triumphant leader of sorts, and thanks to our modern day depictions of Jesus, we see Jesus riding into Jerusalem triumphantly on an ass with a veil. (thanks Hollywood). Whether it is true or not that Jesus rode in with a veil himself, this statue is very interesting from that perspective. Hadrian was part of the persecution period, but it is said that he pitied Christians for than Jews. Thus, his persecution of Jews made the Christian population grow larger, not by design, but just by chance and by result of Jewish persecution. Hadrian represented as a triumphant leader/Jesus?

3... Oh there's good ol' Judith again

4. Okay, so where's "St. Paul's Outside the Walls"?