Popemania in Rome

Pope Francis, who has been Pope for over a year now, is a crowd-pleaser.  He has shown up in graffiti around Rome in various guises, including as superman.
We liked this one, in the Spagna Metro, showing him with a thumb's up. By graffiti artist C215, who works only with stencils, this artwork was one of 14 put up by 6 well-known artists in two nights work in May, and authorized by the Metro service (ATAC).

If you're looking for this picture, it's just as you go into the (very long) station entrance, near a rare info booth.  I had to ask some people in line there to move aside a bit to get the photo.



Another indication of the Pope's popularity are the pilgrims in Rome.  One of our Roman friend's mothers complains about this "Popemania," that brings in millions of people who don't spend money in the city--as the mother tells the story.

Pilgrims at the Vatican

The sight of dozens of people wearing the same t-shirts that have a religious slogan on them is now common around the Vatican.  There's no doubt the Vatican is more crowded than ever.  How much is due to Pope Francis, we're not sure.  But he's definitely beloved, in contrast to his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI.

Dianne

Nun photographing Francis as Superman

Tourists lining up for the Vatican museums

Castel Gandolfo - Picturesque retreat for Pope Benedict XVI

Now former Pope Benedict XVI is ensconced in the Papal Summer home at Castel Gandolfo, a small hill town we visited last year - just to check it out - not knowing it would host a living, former Pope. We have a fondness for the Castelli Romani, also known as the Alban Hills (Colli Albani), the cluster of volcanic hill towns about 15 miles (of heavy traffic) from Rome.  We've been in Castel Gandolfo several times, but mostly to take hikes or scooter through.  We never went close to the Papal grounds until last year.

Picturesque Castel Gandolfo is; lively, well, no.  We stopped at a tourist kiosk, unusually (for Rome and environs) open, and the trying-to-be helpful woman inside told us that, frankly, there was not much to see in Castel Gandolfo, except the tiny main drag and the Pope, when he was in town (Castel Gandolfo has historically been the Pope's summer retreat, especially vital in the days before air conditioning). 

A public park outside the Papal walls could use some
attention

Ad and funeral notice

We wandered around a bit, and confirmed her take on the town. We saw - about one block off the Papal walls - a public park with unused (at 11 in the morning) playground equipment and knee-high grass.  We also discovered some ads of which no Pope would have approved.  We were taking the photo of a personal  funeral notice (common in Italian towns) because it featured Padre Pio, the controversial saint, and then realized the Padre was plastered on the same wall as a picture of a scantily clothed woman.

Swiss Guards in front of the entrance to the Papal palace
in Castel Gandolfo

The main drag, about 2 or 3 regular blocks long, ends at the Papal walls and features great side views of Lake Albano, the lake on whose volcanic rim the town sits.  Several restaurants have terraces opening to views of the lake.  There's also a train stop down the hill a ways.  We have often spotted nuns waiting there for the next train to Rome.  Although the lake is accessible from the town via paths and roads, the trek up is not the easiest--about 300 vertical feet.

Castel Gandolfo claims to have the first
mailbox in the world (1820) - this is it

The town can be sleepy when the Pope is not in residence.
This shop sign reads "Returning soon; we are at the bar."

Castel Gandolfo has its share of public
drinking spaces

The Barberini were here - note the bee symbol.  There were several Barberini Popes.

Looking out of the Papal walls towards the
plains; tourist kiosk at bottom of road

One of the restaurants with a terrazzo

"Habemus Papam" - We Have a Pope - or do we? Inside the Conclave with Nanni Moretti

We have a Pope - "Habemus Papam" - is Nanni Moretti's prescient 2011 film, released in the U.S. last year.

The newly elected Pope in Moretti's film has a crisis of conscience and confidence (to put it mildly) and spends days deciding if he will even greet the public after the white smoke puffs come out of the Sistine Chapel and after the head of the Conclave announces to the crowds gathered in St. Peter's square "Habemus Papam" or "we have a Pope."  The elected one here is a dark horse choice (in fact, 90:1 per the odds-makers, Moretti's film later tells us) when no one else even wants the job.  "Lord, don't pick me!" is the common prayer of the cardinals.

Moretti's film seems to take us right to today, as the cardinals proceed into the Sistine Chapel (while a pushy newsman, remarkably like Geraldo Rivera, attempts to interview them).  In the backdrop of the Sistine Chapel (recreated for the film), and particularly the entire wall covered by Michelangelo's Last Judgment (no sloppy choice of walls here), the cardinals write out their ballots like high schoolers, peaking at one another's votes.



Michel Piccoli as the just-elected, and
totally shocked, Pope

The first 20 minutes of this quiet film will give you as close a feeling as you can get to what the Conclave must be like.

I won't do a spoiler alert for the film, but will say it has many comic moments - the cardinals playing volleyball on geographically determined teams (underrepresented Oceania only has 3 cardinals), under the supervision of the psychiatrist - played by Moretti - brought in to help the Pope get up his gumption; the Swiss Guard ordered to stand in for the Pope, gorging in the Pope's apartments while the Pope is MIA.  And the film grabs us with the Pope's wistfulness at the life he could have had - as an actor, quoting Chekhov with an actor's troupe, and multilingual, recalling Pope John Paul II.   The last speech of this just-elected Pope sounds like it's out of Benedict's mouth in 2013.

Swiss Guards under the Last Judgment in
Habemus Papam

Television crews are set up at the end of via della
Conciliazione facing St. Peter's - part of the Pope watch

The film takes some odd turns and has some puzzling moments, perhaps one reason it hasn't been rated as highly as some of Moretti's other films.  "The Son's Room" won the Cannes Palme d'Or in 2001; Moretti won Best Director at Cannes for his 1994 Caro Diario ("Dear Diary"), and he chaired last year's Cannes jury.  Habemus Papam has been reproached for not being critical enough of the church (Moretti is a leftist and an atheist), or not being comedic enough.  And it has been praised, with good reason, for the magnificent performance of Michel Piccoli as the Pope-in-waiting or the Pope who keeps us waiting.

Piccoli was a leadingman of French noir and has appeared in more than 200 roles .  We just this week saw him in the 1971 Claude Sautet Max et les Ferrailleurs ("Max and the Junkmen") at our local Tarantino-owned theater.  Now 85, Piccolo's performance alone is worth watching the film.  All criticisms taken, I just watched Habemus Papam again, and found it even more compelling against today's news than I did when I saw it a year ago.



Crowds in St. Peter's square in 2005, awaiting news of
a new Pope

Habemus Papam is now available on Netflix, Amazon, Amazon instant video, etc.  To get yourself in the mood for this Conclave, rent or buy it now.  In Italian with English subtitles.

We were in Rome when John Paul II died and Benedict XVI was elected.  Those 2005 photos give a feel for what Pope-watching is like in Rome.

Another Rome tidbit - The Palazzo Farnese filled in for the Vatican for much of the film. These days, it's almost the only way you can see the Palazzo, which houses the French embassy in central Rome.


View from St. Peter's square back
to the TV stands at the end of
via della Conciliazione (the bright
lights)

Dianne

Crowds watching an outdoor screen set against the Coliseum
for Pope John Paul II's funeral in 2005

Crowds in Circo Massimo, with the Palatine Forum in the
background, large screens and speakers set up for
Pope John Paul II's funeral in 2005