Visiting St. Peter's Square in Rome (Italy) by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Visiting St. Peter’s Square in Rome (Italy) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

After visiting the Vatican Museum, we went outside to St. Peter’s Basilica and Square. 

The interior of St. Peter’s Basilica overwhelms with its twisting Baroque columns in gold designed by the architect and interior designer Bernini. 

Michelangelo’s Pièta of Mary holding her dead son glimmers from the sheer white marble it is made of.  The beauty of the stone almost makes you forget the sad subject matter, and the fact that Mary is absolutely huge; the sculptor’s trick to accommodate the sprawling Christ.

Bernini'a Ecstasy of Saint Teresa by Bernini seems to be suspended on nothing as she experiences religious transcendence.

Laurent came back from the crypt where he had been inspecting tombs of popes.  We walked from the cool marble interior of St. Peter’s Basilica outside to the blazing hot St. Peter’s Square.

I liked watching the Pope give his Christmas message from his window looking out over St. Peter’s Square on television every Christmas as a kid in Detroit. 

I even went to Christmas mass at St. Aloysius da Gonzaga Church down the street from my apartment building in downtown Detroit much to the amusement of the priests who presided there.  (They knew I was Protestant at the time.  I was told I could go up to be blessed only with my arms crossed on my chest, because I was a Protestant with a Valois grandma.)

I wanted to stop for a cup of coffee, but Laurent said that would be a waste of money.  I wanted to stand at a Roman espresso bar and read Repubblica newspaper headlines, too.

I could not read Italian very well when we went on our honeymoon.  I can read Italian now thanks to a lot of work at home.  My first books were Rushdie’s La Sonrisa del Jaguar about Nicaragua and L’Isla en Terraforma by Ugo Pirro.  I read Corriere della Sera newspaper if I can now for arts and culture coverage in Italian.

After our big walk around Rome, we took cold showers at home after walking around and passed out for our siesta.  We sat in the air-conditioned lobby of the hotel and wrote “thank-you” postcards to the family.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France


Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

Ruth Paget Selfie