There is no one like Heidi and Linda! I love all my friends. Many of them will cook with me, go out to dinner with me, and chat about whichever country I’m working on at the moment. Heidi and Linda are not only happy to eat and talk, they read as many books and watch as many movies as I do (if not more), and they also participate in a relevant Conqueror Challenge! Their experience of the country and the culture while staying at home is unmatched!
Heidi and Linda especially engaged in virtual travel to Vatican City. Heidi hiked the 312 mile St. Francis Way from Florence, through Assisi, to the Vatican for the Conqueror Challenge: https://www.theconqueror.events/stfrancis/. Linda did the 34 mile Rome walk: https://www.theconqueror.events/rome/
We also gathered twice for dinner and a movie (once wasn’t enough). The Los Angeles County Library has a copy of the Pontifical Swiss Guard presents the Vatican Cookbook by David Geisser. I also did a lot of research online and discovered that many of the popes ate simple Italian food, so for the first dinner I brought roast chicken, polenta, and asparagus. Heidi brought tiramisu. For the second dinner, I brought Swiss steak, cauliflower with pesto, and spinach tortellini. Linda and a friend had made scorza, the shell for canolli, and Heidi filled them immediately before we ate them.
The first dinner we listened to the Anthem of the Vatican: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=519Xtbs_4Ys. The second time we listened to Gregorian chant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EG2oiF2tow
The first time, we watched the movie The Agony and the Ecstasy about Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel. The second time, we watched The Shoes of the Fisherman. Linda had seen it as a child with her mother and it inspires her to this day.
Watching The Agony and the Ecstasy with Heidi and Linda motivated me to listen to the book Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling by Ross King for the historic details on the Sistine Chapel. I also listened to The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope by Austen Ivereigh. Linda read Journal of a Soul by Pope John XXIII, the book The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone, and several other books.
Heidi tracked down movies set in the Vatican and I narrowed the list down to The Two Popes on Netflix and those that could be found free online.
· The Cardinal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hwy2EP3Mgbg
· The Scarlet and the Black: https://tubitv.com/movies/476189/the-scarlet-and-the-black
· The Shoes of the Fisherman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7Pa567w314
· We Have a Pope: https://tubitv.com/movies/636695/we-have-a-pope
A video about St Peters Basilica is here: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/high-ren-florence-rome/bramante/v/saint-peter-s-basilica-vatican-city-begun-1506-completed-1626
Click around and zoom in and out to see each of the individual works and the Sistine Chapel as a whole: http://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/collezioni/musei/cappella-sistina/tour-virtuale.html
If you can’t make it to St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, and you want to get a glimpse of how beautiful a cathedral can be, here are some amazing cathedrals to visit here in California. This list moves from north to south:
· The Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Sacramento is the largest cathedral west of the Mississippi. This webpage has beautiful pictures with many details of the architecture and art: https://www.cathedralsacramento.org/today
· The National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi in San Francisco has dazzling murals, beautiful stained glass, an exact replica of the Porziuncola chapel, a church rebuilt by St. Francis near Assisi, and activities celebrating its place in North Beach: http://www.shrinesf.org/
· St. Dominic’s Church in San Francisco has soaring buttresses, a high altar, exquisite stained glass windows, statues, and tours available to show off their meaningful “sermon in stone” https://stdominics.org/sermon-in-stone
· The Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption in San Francisco has one of the finest organs in the world. Scroll to the bottom of the page to find the times of their organ recitals called musical meditations: https://smcsf.org/cathedral/
· The Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph in San Jose has a historic organ, beautiful stained glass and statues, and a complex exterior with cupolas, finials, and towers surrounding a massive central dome: https://www.stjosephcathedral.org/
· The Cathedral of San Carlos Borromeo in Monterey may be more simple than many listed here but, as it was founded by Junipero Serra in 1770, it is longest standing, continuously functioning church in the state of California: https://sancarloscathedral.org/gallery
· The Old Mission Santa Barbara always has painted statues of St. Barbara, St. Mary, St. Joseph, St. Dominic, and St. Francis in the chapel and a Moorish fountain in peaceful gardens. Between now and September 4, 2023, one can also see an exhibition of full size reproductions of paintings from the Sistine Chapel up close: https://www.santabarbaramission.org/
· Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, a chapel at Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula near Ventura, is filled with light from the dome which highlights the stunning art and architecture: https://www.thomasaquinas.edu/sites/default/files/media/file/a-church-that-teaches.pdf
· St. Andrew Church in Pasadena has an exterior replicating Rome’s Santa Maria in Cosmedin and the interior of the Basilica of Santa Sabina with deep marble columns, vibrant murals, and magnificent Stations of the Cross: https://www.saintandrewpasadena.org/
· St. Vincent de Paul Church in Los Angeles is unique due to the Spanish baroque bell tower, dome, gold covered columns and altar, hanging lamps and wooden beams: https://www.stvincentla.net/
· The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles has a contemporary style with virtually no right angles and it treats the Hollywood freeway as the river that many cathedrals are built by. My thanks to Joan and Carmen for the tour! https://www.olacathedral.org/
· The Serra Chapel at Mission San Juan Capistrano is the oldest standing building in California and can be toured virtually: https://www.missionsjc.com/virtual-tours/
· The Immaculata at UC San Diego has a vibrant blue dome, Spanish-style bell tower, 20 side chapels with the Stations of the Cross imported from Italy: https://www.theimmaculata.org/aboutus
· Our Lady of the Rosary in San Diego has murals, statues, and stained glass representing the immigrants who built it in Little Italy: https://www.olrsd.org/
Vatican City may be small, but TheCrazyTourist still came up with fifteen things to do there! https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-things-vatican-city/#more-14459. I would love to go! I hope for a time when broad travel gives us new perspectives. In the meantime, I’m hoping we all survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace, health, and safety to flourish in Vatican City and throughout the world.
Photo Credit: Chris Czermak https://unsplash.com/photos/7ybKmhDTcz0
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