5/13….

San Clemente is small in size but especially rich in history, even for Rome. There are three levels open for examination. The church of today was built in the 12th century The next level down dates from the 4th century. Beneath that are a maze of chambers and corridors that in the 2nd century had housed a pagan temple dedicated to Mithras. Earlier than this, they are believed to have been the home of St. Clement.

We arrived at San Giovanni around 11 only to find numerous police and barricades all around. It turns out that the church has been cleared and closed to the public in anticipation of the pope’s visit several hours later to meet with Rome’s religious community. A crowd was already gathering–the picture of Hilary is on its fringe–in anticipation. It was at this event that Benedict announced that he was putting the beatification of JP II on a fast track. After walking from the rear of the church where the pope was to enter around to the front, we cut over to the stop for the tram that would take us directly to FAO. Fortunately, there was time enough before it came for Hilary to brighten the day of a young child in a stroller. Interestingly, we got into a conversation on the tram with an American now living in Guatemala whose son was about to graduate from John Cabot.

The massive FAO building, located near the Baths of Caracalla and Circus Maximus, dates back to the 1930s and was built to house the bureaucrats in charge of Mussolini’s empire, namely Ethiopia. After we signed in, Miriam came down to meet us and we proceeded to the executive dining room. Very, very nice, but not elegant. There were just a few others dining there. The food was quite good, and Miriam was a gracious and interesting hostess. Without going into gruesome details here, she does not a great deal of confidence in the competence of those in charge of the organization.

After lunch we saw some of the building, took a couple of pictures, and stopped by Miriam’s office. She is a dedicated collector of books, prints, posters and bric-a-brac of all kinds with very good taste. Her office shows it. I doubt that there are few offices of government bureaucrats anywhere in the world that could match hers in a decor contest. There was another stop along the way before we left, a shop operated by one of the FAO employee organizations, where Hilary was able to add to her purse collection, with a silk scarf to boot.