All Roads Lead (Eventually) To Rome

I should have known that when I saw the Alitalia plane pointing AWAY from the gate that something was wrong. I arrived at the airport for my trip, only to be told that the flight was "delayed" until 2 AM. When offered the chance to get immediately on a flight for Paris with a connection to Rome I took it, knowing that long delays usually mean that the flight will eventually be canceled (and it was). However, it is a bit disorienting to be "in the mindset" for Rome and find one's self totally sleep- deprived and jet-lagged in Paris, running across the very un-user friendly Charles de Gaulle airport. Even running as fast as I could I missed the connection to Rome because I had to go through immigration into the EU. Okay, enough whining! After a cappuccino I thought about how fortunate I am to have been to London, Paris, Basel, Amsterdam, Athens, Buenos Aires, Singapore, Hong Kong, and now Rome, all in the same calendar year. I eventually made it to Rome, and at the hotel check-in ran into a neonatology colleague from Minnesota. We decided to beat the jet lag by taking a bus into Rome and doing some walking and nighttime sightseeing. Our hotel is about 25 minutes from Rome. The shuttle dropped us off at St. Peter's so that is where we began. It is quite beautiful at night and there were masses going on, so the experience was quite different from when I was there in 2005. I took the lower picture because I was fascinated by the contrast of the baroque Bernini sculpture with the flat screen TV used to broadcast the papal blessing on Sundays. The middle photo shows me at the Hospital of Santo Spirito, the oldest hospital in Rome. It was built following a nightmare had by Pope Innocent III (1198-1216). I am touching the oak "rota", a revolving door in which unwanted babies were left in the care of the nuns. The mother could leave her baby there in total anonymity. It was sad but much better than today's approach of leaving babies in dumpsters. The upper picture shows the Castel Sant' Angelo, which was built around 139 AD, initially as the repository of the emperor Hadrian's ashes. It has also served as a medieval citadel and prison, and in opera, is known to Tosca fans as the spot where she commits suicide. There is also a secret corridor built in 1277 that serves as a papal escape route (featured in "Angels and Demons"). There were beautiful frescoes from the 1500s and really unique marble cannonballs piled up around the ramparts. I wondered why I had never taken the time to visit this most interesting place on previous visits!