Two years of planning. One very long flight. Rome.
SPQR. The Senate and the People of Rome, still signing the manhole covers.
The Kongos have arrived to kick off The Roman Empire Through a Wine Glass, two weeks in which Kongo will lecture on the late Republic and the early Empire: the history, the nuances, and the things nobody ever told you. He built the itinerary two years ago around courses he has taught for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at CSU Channel Islands, so his simian troop is made up largely of former students and other curious monkeys.
Kongo’s first Latin lesson of the trip came from the pavement. SPQR, Senatus Populusque Romanus, was carved on triumphal arches and carried on legionary standards. Two thousand years later the city still stamps it on its drain covers. Rome has never been shy about branding.
While the rest of the troop flew in from all over the country, Kongo and Mrs. Kongo went for a walk.
St. Peter’s Square
:Via della Conciliazione, cut through a medieval neighborhood in the 1930s to give the dome a proper runway.
St. Peter’s Square is an easy five-minute walk from the monkeys’ hotel. By early afternoon tens of thousands were already gathering for an evening Rosary by torchlight, part of a month-long effort to turn the square into a place of prayer. Kongo, who prefers his crowds two thousand years old, went looking for a quieter corner.
Angels Unawares
One hundred forty passengers on one boat. Look closely: one of them has wings.
That corner held the most moving thing the monkeys saw all day. Angels Unawares, a life-size bronze by Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz, crowds 140 migrants and refugees from across history onto a single raft: a Jewish man escaping Nazi Germany, a Cherokee man on the Trail of Tears, a Syrian boy fleeing civil war, and many more. The number is deliberate. It matches the 140 saints standing on Bernini’s colonnade overhead. From the middle of the crowd rise a pair of angel wings.
The pigeons have not read Hebrews 13:2.
The title comes from the Letter to the Hebrews: show hospitality to strangers, for some have entertained angels without knowing it. Pope Francis unveiled the piece in 2019, and it was the first new sculpture added to the square in about four hundred years.
Kongo stood there longer than he expected. Rome’s own founding story begins with a refugee: Aeneas, carrying his father out of burning Troy and looking for somewhere to land. Rome was a city of newcomers long before it was a city of saints. More about the sculpture at angelsunawares.org.
Castel Sant’Angelo
Hadrian’s tomb, seen from Hadrian’s bridge. The emperor planned ahead.
Then a stroll along the Tiber to Castel Sant’Angelo, begun by the Emperor Hadrian around AD 123 as his own mausoleum and finished in 139, the year after he died. Over the centuries it became a fortress, a papal refuge, a prison and now a museum. The name dates to 590, when Pope Gregory the Great, leading a procession to pray against plague, reported seeing the Archangel Michael atop the tomb, sheathing his sword. The plague ended. The angel stayed, and is still up there in bronze.
The Tiber, doing its best impression of a mirror.
The bridge in front is Hadrian’s too, the Pons Aelius of AD 134, with Bernini’s angels added in the 1660s. Kongo goes inside with the troop on Thursday. Today he just looked.
Through the Wine Glass
Since the theme of the next two weeks is the Roman Empire through a wine glass, the Kongos got into the spirit early. Several times.
A proper Roman would never have drunk his wine neat. Undiluted wine, merum, was for barbarians; a civilized host mixed it with water before serving. By that standard the monkeys are barbarians. They would not dream of watering down vino this good.
Mrs. Kongo Reports
Mrs. Kongo and the Tiber. Both calm. Only one of them climbed the stairs.
Mrs. Kongo reports that the secret to walking in Rome is to “follow the blue line” on her iPhone map. What the blue line neglects to mention is that it sometimes turns into a StairMaster. Mrs. Kongo calls it a short walk. Kongo’s step count calls it something else.
When in Rome, do as the Roman monkeys do: walk farther than planned, and drink the wine neat.
Travel Safe. Have fun.