Get Ready for Rome

Pope Francis recently inaugurated a new statue in Piazza San Pietro, the first new statue there in four centuries. Called Angels Unawares, it calls attention to the plight of refugees and migrants and summons us to the virtue of charity. What, I wonder, is its relation to the piazza in which it has been placed? Does it duplicate the aesthetic judgment of Bernini's baroque piazza? Does it summon us to a similar understanding of Christian virtue? Does it advance a political agenda?

Of the Four Founders of Modern Italy, Giuseppe Garibaldi lived the most colorful life and—at least on the field of battle—made the greatest contribution to the new nation. He fought tirelessly for freedom for four decades, not only in Italy but also in South America and France. He was so dynamic a leader as to attract followers ready to fight to the death, the so-called Red Shirts or Garibaldini, and he even led them against the pope in Rome, only to be turned back by the nation he had helped to create. The names of bridges, piazzas, and streets remember him all over Italy. Today we visit the most important Monument to him in Rome, his statue on the summit of Rome's highest hill, the Janiculum.

I here preview four different podcasts I'm working on at the moment. The most pressing is on Garibaldi, and I hope to have it ready to go by December 8, but it is challenging, for his life was so full of action and his political views were so pleasing to the people but so annoying to the New Italian government. A second is simpler and is on the new statue in St. Peter's Square, called Angels Unawares. A third asks how the Catholic Church raised the money to pay for St. Peter's Basilica, which takes us directly to the various sparks which ignited the Protestant Reformation and split Europe. And the forth will identify and discuss "presentism," which is the approach to history which uses today's standards to condemn the past.

After 1200 years, the first Roman basilica dedicated to St. Peter was torn down, and then began the slow process of building a new one on the same location. We discuss why it took so long to build the basilica, what the main features of its beautiful piazza are, and how it differed from that of the old one.

Today we glance at why the Flavian Emperors may have built the Colosseum and how they put themselves in a position to do so. What did such vast public works projects have to do with the rise and fall of Roman Emperors?

This podcast discusses the Colosseum as a building, including its overall shape, the huge awning that protected the spectators from the hot Roman sun, the foundations needed to support it, and its decorative elements. Our next episode will take up the kind of events that were staged in it.

Although its exterior is utterly devoid of Christian symbols, the Monument to King Victor Emmanuel II has a Christian chapel deep within it. Why is it there, and how does its message relate to that of the monument's neoclassical exterior?

Modern Italy's largest, most expensive, and most eye-catching monument goes most often by its nickname, the Wedding Cake. It is huge, bright white, and covered with a wide variety of allegorical statues. This podcast finds in these statues Italy's intention to break away from the long traditions of Christian Rome, while at the same time reviving Italian pride, unity, and dedication by evoking the glories of Ancient Rome.

Ancient Rome had, and Christian Rome still has, lots of buildings called "basilicas." But this important word is used in two senses. So just what is a basilica? This pod explains both the architectural and ecclesiastical senses of the term.

We here survey and introduce the main sites of Vatican City and Saint Peter's Basilica. These include the Sistine Chapel, the Raphael Rooms, and other parts of the Vatican Museums; the Vatican Necropolis, an ancient cemetery in which St. Peter may have been buried; the Vatican Gardens; the Apostolic Palace; and the Grottoes, main floor, and dome of St. Peters.