I Finally Got To See My Church

I finally got to see my church.

Well and some other things on the way. Whats a trip to the historical center without having a look at the Colosseum. This grand old slaughter house is in my opinion one of the most beautiful buildings in Rome. I also managed to take 18 pictures of it, but I will spear you and only put one:



Going towards the church I tried an alternative road, behind the Trajan markets, which is the year 100 AD version of a shopping center. It housed around 150 shops and offices, ranging from lawyers offices to olive oil shops. This picture is taken from behind, and actually shows the Foro Romano more than the market itself.


Walking on I found this cupboard hanging on the wall, which I am still wondering what it is for:


The intelligent guess would be that some picture of a saint is hidden behind, and is only opened on selected days, I don't know, maybe a nice reader could put the answer in a comment, does he/she know it.

Further on I saw distant view of the Trajan column build to honor the same emperor which build the markets. Now, however, its not a nude statue of the emperor as in the beginning, but a statue of St. Peter, put there in the sixteenth century by a pope.



When I got to the church it was open, and practically empty, I met a monk in the entrance, which held the door for me, as he was trying to get out and I was in the way (wonder if I broke some monk courtesy rule here, not letting him pass first).

Inside there were only some low whispers from the confession stands. It sounded like somebody had had a busy night. And a Spanish tourist, who did everything he could not to make a sound. He tiptoed, slowly. If he made a sound he would stop and look startled around, to see if he had bothered anybody ( meaning me, course I was the only one there). Then this funny thing started, apparently it was only selected sounds that he deemed wrongful in the church. Because after a while he took out a camera, standing maybe 10 meters in front of me, looking at the ceiling behind me. This camera – digital - was very small, but that did stop him from entering in very artistic positions, to get the ceiling from the right angle. The camera was one of these user friendly ones that makes a loud beep when the flash was ready, and the tks-sciazzzzz when it takes a picture. In the silent church it sounded like he had an amplifier and some speakers in his bag pack, but I guess it was just because everything else was so silent.

So picture this a skinny guy from Spain ( I think), long messy ponytail with an neon orange t-shirt with some political statement and squeaking shoes. Tiptoeing around, stopping at times to make this BEEP [break] tks-sciazzzzz, which he didn't seem to hear. The poor guy stiffen in mid air, when the confessing man exited the confession box. He turned around, took another couple of pictures, in new artistic angles and ran for the exit.

After this I wasn't so keen to take out my own camera, even if I had figured out how to remove the sound effects. But I took one fast picture of the wonderful ceiling, walking towards the exit:




Go and see it, cause my photo does not do the ceiling much justice.