Angels in Rome

This morning, a bright blue sky shone over Rome, a sky blessed with a springlike sun that dried up the bones of the Eternal City,  swept by winds and soaken  by rain for, maybe, a fortnight (the sky: the colour of a spider's web, in the bleak damp smell of everyday chores...) But today, in glory above, what blessing from paradise! The angels had washed up the skies, overnight, pulling out the sun from behind the clouds, where it slept its coldish, forlon sleep, and doing so, all the angels  up above, shook earth and men to a new beginning. And everything looked new again, as if just made by the fingers of our holy creator... And lo, who could but go out and walk, walk, walk, as if carried away by the poetry of the newborn day. Me, too, of course. And not only because I wanted to. Here I am in the Liceo Visconti to talk to some teachers and then out again in the sparkling sunshine, in the twist of a Roman day. I love Rome, there are no other cities - I am sorry - like Rome: every church a museum and each and every street a book written in glory and story. So now, follow me in the church of Santa Maria della Minerva, where I  decided to go for a stroll in beauty. Switch off the light: the dome up there is sprinkled with stars in the velvet of a peaceful night. Out there, the sun and the people and the noise of the city; inside, the night, the prayer, the soul in happiness. I looked for Filippino Lippi and his magnificent Cappella Carafa and when I found him at last, I could just stand there in awe: those up there, dressed in colourful robes, in the crispy blue air, with flapping wings, are the same angels that  washed our Roman sky last night! They smiled at me, from their holy see, and while I was smiling back, I heard a voice by my side: "Excuse me. do you have an euro to turn on the light?". Down to earth again and goodbye...

Happy Valentine!