Meanwhile, back at the Vatican

Today, Pope Benedict XVI delivers his final public address from his window overlooking the beautiful St. Peter's Square. I'm watching on television as the piazza begins to fill with crowds that want to be there for an historic moment.

But frankly, the pope and the upcoming conclave is second in my thoughts. My elderly mom has been diagnosed with a very aggressive cancer near her liver, so I'm making plans to go back to Canada to be with her. Also, trying desperately to get back to some healthy state so I'm fit to travel.

Still, it has been part of my job to write about Pope Benedict's doings and what will happen with the conclave.


Benedict shocked the world when he announced on February 11 that he would resign the papacy on February 28.


Suggestions are flying that Benedict may speed up the timing of the conclave, since this is quite an unusual situation where the pope - for the first time in 600 years - was able to give notice that he is retiring from office. Before now, popes died on the job, so cardinals needed 15-20 days to arrive in Rome to begin conclave.

So the Vatican is rushing to make everything ready for the Sistine Chapel when it hosts one of the most important events in the Catholic Church: the election of a new pope.

A team of 40 Vatican workers, officially called the "Floreria" is carefully following the pattern set in April 2005 when cardinals last gathered beneath Michelangelo's masterpiece The Last Judgement on the altar wall of the chapel, and voted to choose Pope Benedict XVI.

Without knowing the precise date of the conclave, the team is racing against the clock to have every detail perfectly prepared for the 116 cardinals who will be shut up inside the fortress-like chapel until a new pope is found.

"Until the date of the conclave, we live from day to day," explains Paul Sagretti, deputy director of the Floreria, whose office is charged with organizing most major events inside the Vatican.

No detail is left to chance as the Floreria workers carefully follow photos taken from previous conclaves, so that everything is arranged inside the Sistine Chapel in precisely the same manner as in previous conclaves. 

That will include 116 chairs made of cherry wood for the voting cardinals, with seating assigned by place cards bearing the papal coat of arms, and 12 wooden tables covered with beige cloth and burgundy satin.

Six tables are placed on the right side of the chapel and six on the left, arranged in two rows of different levels. A 13th table is placed at front of the chapel, before the altar, where an urn is placed to contain used ballots as well as a Bible.

A wooden platform has been built about 60 centimetres above the Sistine Chapel floor, covered with a beige fabric, so cardinals won't walk on the tiled floor of the chapel but instead are elevated to the level of the second step of the altar.

A velvet bag contains the ballots which each cardinal will draw come voting time.

Finally, two stoves have been connected inside the Sistine Chapel, so after a vote, ballots can be burned with a coloured chemical. The relatively rare white smoke indicates that the conclave of cardinals have reached a decision on who will head the Catholic Church.

Black smoke sends the signal that another vote must be taken.

According to Sagretti, recent conclaves have been much easier for the Floreria to organize than those in the past.

Until the 1970s, the Floreria also had to arrange all of the accommodations for the cardinals arriving from around the world.

Fortunately, with the construction of the residence of Santa Marta to house the cardinals, that task has been lessened.

Of viruses and the Vatican

I have been an absentee blogger lately - I've been so sick with a ghastly stomach virus that triggered some chronic stomach problems that have left me with barely the energy to drag myself through my shifts at the news service.

Still, it is impossible not to follow the developments at the Vatican - what an historic event! I'm not sure I would have believed the first reports if not for the fact that every TV station in Rome went live with story and updates through the day.

As the world now knows, Pope Benedict XVI, 85, has announced that because of his failing health he would step aside on February 28 so that a conclave of cardinals could meet in mid-March to choose his successor. It's believed that he is the first pope to resign since Pope Gregory XII in 1415, and the first to do so voluntarily since Pope Celestine V in 1294.

Although his health had been a concern for some time, the abruptness of the announcement by Benedict, the former cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, stunned the world.

Ever since his election on April 19, 2005, Benedict steered a steady, strongly conservative course for the Catholic Church despite protests from reformers.

Yet he was also willing to take advantage of new technologies, becoming the first pope to have his own Twitter account, which was followed by almost three million soon after it was launched late last year.

The outgoing pontiff belied his mild demeanour by strongly reaffirming resistance to non-believers and a secular society.

He drew enormous criticism over a 2001 directive when, as head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - the former Inquisition - Cardinal Ratzinger said that sex-abuse investigations should be kept in-house.

The Catholic Church is still reeling from the fallout of the clerical abuse scandals that came to light under Benedict's papacy after years of being hidden by some Church officials. Although the Pope eventually apologized for the abuse and met with victims, the Church remained branded for having shielded priests accused of molesting youngsters and hiding bad behaviour which in turn, prevented criminal prosecutions.

Another high-profile controversy involved the Vatican Bank which continues to struggle to overcome an iffy reputation and become included on the UN's list of countries with flawless anti-money-laundering credentials.

Most recently, Benedict's papacy was rocked by the so-called Vatileaks affair, when his butler leaked confidential documents to a muckraking journalist alleging corruption in the Vatican.

The pope settled the affair when he pardoned the former butler, Paolo Gabriele, who had been sentenced to 18 months in jail in December. (Gabriele now works as a clerk in a hospital in Rome.)

However, supporters consistently praised Benedict for the breadth and innovation of his theological writings and, even outside the Church, his first encyclical, God Is Love, drew widespread praise.

His best-selling trilogy on the life of Jesus also gained acclaim, while traditionalists welcomed his moves to reinstate the Latin Mass in a more user-friendly form.

I came, I saw, I found a doctor.

It has been almost a year since I found my doctor here in Rome and since this is an important fact of life - finding a doctor and dealing with medical issues - I thought it was worth a blog post.

Ginevra's office is in a fabulous location: Piazza Santa Maria della Pace, one of the sweetest little squares in central Rome. Very near the Piazza Navona, but don't blame the square for that! Often, after an appointment, I treat myself to a coffee in one of my favourite cafes, in the Bramante Cloister of the church of SM della Pace.

I was referred to my doctor by the nearby pharmacy last winter when I caught a terrible bronchial infection. Ginevra saw me right away and helped a lot. And by a remarkable coincidence, only a few months ago I discovered that one of my dearest friends in Rome, who has connected me with great people (and work) at the news agency ANSA, has been a patient of Ginevra for 20 years!

I mostly see Ginevra for refills on prescriptions. And it is always an interesting experience.

I'm not sure her medical office style is common in Italy and it's quite different from my general practioner in Canada! First, she doesn't appear to take appointments and has no secretary. She keeps daily office hours that are posted outside the building, so patients just show up.

The waiting room is about the size of a large bathroom; only 10 chairs, so it's very cozy. You must greet everyone politely and ask "Chi è l'ultima?" or, "who is last?" so you know who you'll follow. (My friend Anne-Marie told me once that an old wag replied to her question: "Who is last? You are!" Not helpful!)

Then, you wait. This is when it can be challenging because very often, a discussion group breaks out and everyone is expected to join in. This means you. Often, it's about fairly easy subjects, weather, viruses, where did you buy your shoes? But it can be stressful practicing Italian in a crowd where the whole room is watching and listening!

On the plus side, Ginevra brings a very personal touch - she seems to have known many of her patients for years, so there are often a lot of "caras" thrown about; and hugs and kisses as patients come and go. 

Anyway, now that I have my tessera sanitaria - my Italian health card - I receive the very complicated-looking prescriptions on a large pink form that looks like the computer printouts of the 1970s. But I don't care; with these, I pay very very little for my prescriptions. An asthma drug that was easily $200 Cdn is 3 euros here. Thank you public health care! And, just to be clear, Italian taxes are withdrawn from each of my paycheques, so I'm living completely cleanly - fiscally speaking!

The farmacia can be a challenge. For reasons that aren't clear to me, it can be very difficult to find my brand of asthma inhaler. Everyone knows its name and everyone seems to be continually out of stock. I often have to hit 5 or 6 different pharmacies to find one that has my Pulmaxan in stock - and next time I need some and return to the same place, they're out and the cycle begins again. This is how I fill my days, waiting in lines and hunting for medication!

Once, for a thrill, I tried the Vatican pharmacy. It's hidden inside the walls of Vatican city but I was allowed in with my pink prescription. I came to regret that. 

What a scene! First, I had to sign in at the Vatican gatehouse, which meant a queue to fill out a form and leave a piece of photo ID to get an entry pass. Once inside the pharmacy there must have been 100 people milling around! There were about 6 pharmacist serving Vatican staff, but only 1 pharmacist for non-staff, like me. And apparently everyone else. I drew the number 72 while they were serving number 6. 

I lost heart and left.

The secret cult of Mithras

I recently had the chance to tour one of ancient Rome's best-kept secrets: the city's largest temple to the cult of Mithraism.

Located beneath the Baths of Caracalla, where each summer thousands gather for some of Italy's most popular outdoor opera performances, the temple to the god Mithras was only recently opened to the public.

What makes this discovery especially interesting for amateur historians and professionals alike is its large size and the fact it includes an ancient pit where a very secret ritual blood-bath of the most faithful worshippers occurred.

"This provides another piece in the puzzle of understanding," the mysterious cult of Mithras, says my friend and tour guide Laura, who teaches Latin and Greek in Rome.

Although the Italian capital is dotted with smaller temples that each tell a piece of the Mithras story and how the cult operated, this latest example is the largest and contributes a great deal more to understanding, Laura says.

She says that in Rome, it is only in this monument where we find this 'fossa sanguinis', or blood pit, used to initiate members of the cult, which was highly popular among Rome's elite and later, among soldiers. 

Initiates aiming to eventually rise through the seven levels of the cult would be lowered into the square pit, measuring about two-and-a half metres deep, and showered with the blood of a bull sacrificed for the ritual.

"It's so evocative to go down into these places because there, you can imagine the faithful performing their rituals," says Laura.

Other Mithraic temples, including a popular example beneath the church of San Clemente near Rome's Colosseum, provide different clues such as frescoes that tell the story of Mithras being born from a rock, slaughtering a bull, and sharing a banquet with the god of the Sun. 

Mithraism likely came to Rome in the first century AD and survived publicly until the end of the 4th century, when it was outlawed by the Christian emperor Theodosius. 

But little is reliably known about the cult because it was so secretive. Most information comes from early Christian sources who had their own axe to grind about the Mithras cult and therefore, controversy and disagreement surrounds almost everything that is said about it.

The highly secretive nature of Mithraism also explains why its temples were usually located underground. Later, when it was outlawed, Christian churches co-opted many of the old religion's practices - and places of worship - to ease the transition for the public, says Caci.

"It is not an accident that churches are usually built right over a Mithraeum."

Besides the blood pit, this temple at Caracalla includes long stone benches where the faithful would sit, and the remains of a fresco of Mithras himself, usually pictured as a young man in a red cap.

This Mithraeum was discovered 100 years ago amidst a network of tunnels running beneath the Baths of Caracalla, which was constructed between AD 212 and 216 and are thought by many scholars to be Rome's most elaborate. 

A region of Italy that I'd like to know better: Le Marche

Although I've only visited the Italian region of Le Marche once, and only the city of Urbino (the above photo is one of the towers in the Ducal palace) I'd love to know it better. I recently interviewed my friend Giulia Savini, who lives near Urbino, about the region's appeal (these are also her photos.)

 It seems that visitors to Italy seeking an authentic experience, away from tour buses and camera flashes, are turning to the stunning beauty of Le Marche region. Below is a photo of the hilltop town of Mondavio.

Stretching from the 6,000-foot peaks of central Italy's Apennines on the border of Tuscany and Umbria, Le Marche reaches across to the Adriatic sea.

Its land is hilly and even mountainous, with plenty of agricultural fields dotted with stunning hill towns, curving rural roads, and even crowded summer beaches snaking along 200 kilometers of coastline.

Surprisingly few tourists make their way to Le Marche, despite its numerous art treasures, carefully preserved historic churches, towers, and piazzas, all giving the region the air of being frozen in time. Below is Sant'Ippolito.

"Something that makes Le Marche so special is that we are really off the beaten path," says Giulia, who runs an organic farm with bed and breakfast Locanda della Valle Nuova, 12 kilometres outside the region's best known city, Urbino.

"People here are not fed up with tourists".

(Here's a photo I recently shot of Giulia, on the right, and Letizia Mattiacci of Alla Madonna del Piatto in Umbria. We met at Letizia's house. As you can see, they were up to something.....)

Many Le Marche visitors head to Urbino, where the walled city centre has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Birthplace of Renaissance master painter Raphael, Urbino is also known as an early model for the ideal Renaissance town, remade as such by Duke Federico of Montefeltro during the 15th century.

His court was famous in its day and the countryside is today still dominated by his magnificent Ducal Palace - which holds the region's most important art gallery, boasting works painted by Raphael and Piero della Francesca. Below is one of Giulia's photos of a XII century castle perched on a steep hill above the Candigliano river between Acqualagna and Piobbico.

Churches and monasteries hold beautiful art endowed by the wealthy families that were drawn to the duke's court, and Raphael's home is open to art lovers keen to see a fresco painted on the house walls by the artist as a very young man.

Still, Le Marche is less of an urban experience and more about stunning landscapes, important nature preserves, hidden monasteries, and charming villages.

For example, visitors can explore the Grotte di Frasassi (Frasassi Caves), among the biggest in Europe, including a chamber which is large enough to hold Milan's great cathedral; or, hike in the beautiful Riserva Naturale Gola del Furlo (Furlo Gorge).

"We have many great sites, but they're all spread around so the region attracts the kind of visitor who wants to really 'live' a place and not just have a list of must-sees from a more fashionable place," adds Giulia.

The region is also about wine and food: traditional dishes produced and prepared in the old-fashioned way but rediscovered by modern cooks looking for natural, clean ingredients.

Because Le Marche is fairly unknown, land here was relatively cheap in the 1970s and early 1980s, bringing waves of young producers - including Giulia's family - interested in clean production that would leave as small an environmental footprint as possible.

It's still possible to find heirloom fruits in Le Marche - varieties that have disappeared or been forgotten in other regions. Certain farmers in the Montefeltro area in northern Le Marche specialize in forgotten fruits including visciole, sorbe, mele rosa, and pere angelica.

A golden Christmas cake

It's easy to know that Christmas has arrived in Italy when the golden star-shaped treat pandoro appears on the shelves of supermarkets and pastry shops.

Similar to its brother, the panettone, the pandoro is a high-sided sweet bread, or cake, that is often dusted with icing sugar to resemble the snow-covered mountain peaks of the Alps near its northern Italian home.

However, the pandoro is now a Christmas standard across Italy. The simple ingredients of flour, yeast, sugar, and butter, which combine to form this light, spongy dessert, can be personalized and its slices decorated with cream or gelato.

The recipe for pan d'oro - or golden bread - dates as far back as the first century in Italy, when it was a special confection reserved for royalty because of its exotic and expensive ingredients: eggs, butter, and sugar or honey for sweetness.

In fact, pandoro was mentioned by various names in the writings of such historic Roman writers as Pliny the Elder, Virgil, and Livy.

The Christmas treat become more widespread in the peninsula in the 17th century, enjoying popularity in Venice. However, in modern times it has  became firmly associated with Verona, a city in Venetian territory in northern Italy where the formula for making pandoro was perfected.

The recipe is complex and precise, involving three different doughs and rising times that must be followed scrupulously before the sweet bread is cooked in a star-shaped mould.

The modern history of this holiday treat began at Verona in 1894, when Domenico Melegatti obtained a patent for a procedure to be applied in producing pandoro industrially.

Today, Melegatti's commercial pandoro products can be found in supermarkets all over Italy. It also exports to more than 40 countries on five continents.

But there is still a high demand from consumers for handmade pandoro, and Italians flock to popular pasticcerie, or pastry shops, for artisanal versions of the Christmas classic.

In Rome, one of the most popular, go-to places for every kind of pasty and cake - and especially pandoro - is Colapicchioni near Castel Sant'Angelo.

It also produces panettone, another important Christmas treat that is less sweet than pandoro and includes dried fruits and raisins. Italian shoppers can often be seen hurrying down the street with this carefully wrapped, large seasonal treat.

To the casual observer, panettone and pandoro look quite similar, although the panettone is rounder, like a church dome, than the taller pandoro.

The origins of the pair are also different, although both are associated with northern Italian cities. But where the pandoro is traditionally linked to Verona, the panettone belongs to the history of Milan and the region of Lombardy.

There are several legends built around the birth of the panettone. One comes from a kitchen disaster in the house of Milan's Renaissance ruler Duke Ludovico Sforza, better known as Il Moro.

After a cook in Il Moro's kitchen allowed the Christmas cake to burn, a kitchen boy named Toni suggested a quick solution: throw all of the leftover   fruits, flour, sugar, butter and eggs together.

The creative new sweet bread was a hit and become know as the "pan del Toni", Toni's bread, which evolved into the name panettone.

These two cakes are so important to Italy's culture and traditions - and economy - that the national government has set strict regulations governing what products can be labelled panettone and pandoro.

These rules even set out the required ingredients and in what proportions.

"Italy has an age-old tradition in the manufacture of sweet products that dates all the way back to ancient Rome: simple, oven-baked cakes, made with the ingredients that reflect the wholesomeness and simplicity of Italian cuisine and of our nationally grown products – cereals, eggs, butter, honey, almonds, hazelnuts, raisins, candied fruit," explains the preamble to the 2006 regulations.
 
"It is a tradition that has been handed down to modern times and thus deserves to be safeguarded and fostered".

Rome is dressing up for the holidays!

Rome is getting all dressed up for the holiday season, with Christmas trees, lights, and presepi. And in every store window, delicious pandoro and panettone beckon.

Above, at the Vatican in Piazza San Pietro, workers are hoisting an enormous tree, and are beginning to decorate.

Meanwhile, at the Spanish Steps, the lights are already twinkling on another giant tree.....

Streets in the area are decorated with pretty strands of lights....

Since today is my birthday, I'm going to pretend the lights are all for me!

At the Vatican, in St. Peter's Square, the presepe is sure to be very large and beautiful. The Vatican says that this year's Nativity scene will be traveling to Rome from the southern Italian region of Basilicata. This is last year's version..

And I'm off to check out the Christmas tree at the Colosseum, which was so lovely last Christmas!