Rome-ing around

I have longed to go to Italy for as long as I can remember - largely due to a heavily romanticised and idealised view of what Italy would be.

Verona gave us Romeo and Juliet, Venice waterways practically sing romance and Rome itself is home to the Vatican City, the Colosseum and the Trevi Fountain.

Both the ethics, and the aesthetics have drawn me since I was a teenager. So wandering around it was both a dream, and a well-timed escape.

Admittedly with my mother, which disrupted my inner hopeless romantics wish-fulfilment, but still - the gelato, in 34 degree weather? Better than sex at any rate.

I’m not religious, if that statement didn’t make it clear.

It was suggested a while back that I shouldn’t wear a cross because I’m not.

I’d explained that crosses were symbolic of more than the crucifixion at the time, but standing in the Sistine Chapel I was reminded of just how much more.

My decision to take Religious studies at A-Level was rooted in the extended course title - philosophy and ethics.

Two things that deeply interest me, and are inescapable within the walls of the Vatican - for better, and for worse.

Most people know that Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel - I only learned this weekend about something else he did - that was arguably even more impressive.

He spoke truth to power.

After completing The Last Judgement, Michelangelo was told he needed to apply some decency to his darlings - on account of them being as naked as the day of their birth.

He responded that whilst he’d go ahead and modify them for the sake of modesty, the church should focus on the issues within its walls, as opposed to what was on them.

(Paraphrased, not a direct quote).

One thing I had already known was that in his painting The Creation Of Adam which sits in the centre, Michelangelo painted the finger of God fully extended, and that of Adam only partially to serve as a reminder that God is always there, but that man must reach for him.

I’m not religious, though I have always been drawn to the philosophy and symbolism that lives within it.

I do believe in the sanctity of connection, however.

Waking up on Sunday morning, the reflections became more poignant with the news of the American airstrikes in Iran overnight.

The news has been on a longer ‘but what does it mean?’ Cycle than even I could sustain since - and I learned far too much about what’s on my mother’s TikTok on account of it.

All I am sure of, is it seems like a good time to extend a finger - especially in the modern world, where our phones are perpetually within our reach.

We might have many religions, ideologies, and countries, but we only have one world.

And everybody in it, is human.