If I can just get through this week without having a total and complete nervous breakdown (which I am not sure is going to happen, but at least it is Thursday), I am going to have such a great time in Italy. Future Dr. H and Dr. P agreed to go to the medical history museum (yes!) and I am psyched to see four dead saints. I read about them in Magnificent Corpses by Anneli Rufus, and can’t wait to check them - and the fabulous churches with amazing art that they occupy – out. We’ll hit:
• Church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva – This is a church chock full of Renaissance masterpieces (Michelangelo, Lippi) and crazy architecture. It is built over an ancient temple dedicated to the goddess Minerva, and is the only Gothic church in Rome. Plus it has a weird mini obelisk supported by an elephant from the 6th century in front of it. Best of all: St. Catherine of Siena’s headless body is on display under the main alter.
• Chiesa Nueva – More Renaissance art, and the body of St. Philip Neri on display in a room and chapel upstairs.
• Chiesa del Gisú (aka Il Gisú) – The first Jesuit church houses the disembodied arm of St. Francis Xavier, missionary to India and Japan.
• Santa Croce in Gerusalemme – This baby is a bit out of the way, but it houses the bogus artifacts that Helen (later made a saint), mother of the first Christian Roman Emperor, bought from scam artists on a trip to Jerusalem in search of Jesus artifacts. Supposedly on display: the finger of St. Thomas (disciple who had to poke Jesus’ wounds before he would believe them, hence the expression “doubting Thomas”), some thorns from Jesus’s crown, and splinters of the true cross.
Sounds awesome, no?
Speaking of dashing about, what the fuck is wrong with Tom Cruise? (Yes, I realize this is a long list.) Yesterday he was in NYC to promote Mission Impossible: III, and he choppered into the city and ran around like a mad man, ultimately renting an entire subway train to race around the city during rush hour. The MTA better use that $10,000 in a way that makes it up to New Yorkers. Yeah, I am not going to hold my breath for that…
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What you say reminds me of the Divinci Code.
ReplyDeleteNo morbid tour of Italy is complete without a visit to the Couchin "museum" in Rome where the bones of more than 400 monks are arranged in artful patterns. Check it out:
ReplyDeletehttp://www3.sympatico.ca/tapholov/pages/bones.html
peace,
peter