ROME – Day 0.5: Et In Arcadia Ego
Once back in the City, a switch is thrown in my head and it is as if I never left.
I made a run to Gammarelli to do some vestment business, but my guy wasn’t there. I’ll have to go back. Meanwhile, some stuff in the window.
If I am not mistaken, the buckles were still prescribed in 1962. I suspect that was honored more in the breach than in the observance.
In addition to making diminutive birettas, now too miters.
I had to go to the Vodafone store for something… that was waste of time… but it is never a waste of time to visit San Lorenzo in Lucina.
The Crucifixion is by Guido Reni.
Here you find also the tomb of the painter Poussin. Chateaubriand caused his monument to be made and carved with an image of one of Poussin’s better known works.
You can try your hand at the Latin.
On the image are carved the words “Et In Arcadia Ego”.
Some of you might be familiar with this phrase from your readings of Brideshead Revisited. It is a kind of “memento mori” trope. The idea is this. “Arcadia” is an iconic place of beauty and pleasure. You the reader, standing there reading the inscription, hear the inscription (and the person in the tomb) saying, “I, too, was in Arcadia”. That is to say, “I, too, was once in the land of the living… but before long you, pal, are going to be here with me.”
Every priest needs a pulpit like this.
A quick stop in Sant’Andrea della Valle to visit Pius II.
And St. Giuseppe Maria Tomassi di Lampedusa. An interesting guy, ahead of his time. In a way, I am glad that he failed in his endeavors.
Look at this risible set up. Good grief.
Stopping for an aperitif before supper.
Which drink is mine?
Rigatoni all Norcina.
Orata.
On the way to some rack time.
The Roman sojourn has begun.
