Two coins bring two friends back to Rome!

It is the blessing of a lifetime to be in Rome. This is my second visit and I still can’t believe I’m here. On my first visit, I came on pilgrimage with friends from Trinidad and Tobago where I was born and raised. We visited different religious and cultural sites, one of which, was the beautiful Trevi Fountain. This is where my friend Marianne, told me of the tradition of throwing a coin into the fountain and the belief that by doing so you would return to Rome. At the time, Trevi was undergoing renovations but we tossed our coins into what little water was there, our hearts filled with hope. That was in 2014. Now, 9 years later I’m back in Rome and so is Marianne as well as a couple more of our Trini friends! Life is beautiful and God has a sense of humour!

I came this time to participate in a course on Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue at the Centro Pro Unione in Rome. I’m here with another lovely group of friends that I’ve made through my studies in Theology at the University of St Michael’s College at the University of Toronto.

It’s been quite the adventure seeing different sites including the Piazza Navona, Vatican City, the Colosseum, Castel Sant’ Angelo and the Pantheon. The heat is sometimes unbearable (I swear Rome is an oven) but it’s worth it to have this experience. It's also impossible to see all that Rome has to offer in one or two visits.

I’ll be sure to return to the Trevi Fountain to toss another coin in!

By Rheema Farrell

Comments

The Catacombs of Domitilla

The story of Christianity is awe-inspiring. This is true whether you are a believer or not. Within 50 years of the physical death of Christ, 12 believers had directly and indirectly converted thousands to the new faith. Within 300 years, they had converted an empire. This tour begins at the walls of Rome within sight of St. John Lateran where we get our ride to the countryside of Rome. Making our way outside the walls, the city changes to country quickly. The Roman countryside is quite beautiful. The hills begin to roll and the gated villas extend to farms of vegetables, rose hips, or barley. The air cleaner and the sound clearer. Flavia Domitilla was the granddaughter of the emperor Vespasian. As daughter of Domitilla "the Younger", Flavia was also the niece of the emperors Titus and Domitian. These catacombs were founded on her property in about the year 120 A.D. Flavia and her husband, Flavius Clemens, were likely ...

The Villa Borghese: Tainted Beauty

In the 17 th century it was common for the pope to place a nephew in a key administrative role, for self-preservation. Thus in 1605, at the age of 28, Scipione Borghese was made cardinal and papal secretary, head of the Roman Curia, by his uncle Pope Paul V, making Scipione the second most powerful person in the country. Cardinal Scipione purchased a property in the north of Rome and began acquiring ancient Roman and contemporary Italian art. The villa and its beautiful grounds were never a residence, only ever a gallery and conservatory. Cardinal Scipione became the patron of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, providing Bernini with the opportunity to cement his legacy as perhaps the best sculptor to have ever lived. Though several pieces of furniture and adornment were sold off by the Borghese family in the 19 th century to address fiscal problems, those have been replaced with copies, and the most famous and significant pieces of the original collec...

A Trini - Canadian walks into a Mosque, a Synagogue and Several Churches

During my last week in Rome, I had the honour of entering both a synagogue and a mosque for the first time in my life. After visiting what seemed like a million churches in Rome and, (as a Roman Catholic), loving every one of them, it was a nice way to end off the interreligious dialogue component of our course. The synagogue is located in the old Jewish ghetto of Rome. It is in this area that Jews were forced to live and had many restrictions put upon them in the past. Our visit included the museum under the synagogue where we saw a copy of the declaration that announced forming the State of Israel. The Great Synagogue of Rome A picture I took of the beautiful square dome inside the Synagogue Declaration of the State of Israel Our friend and classmate Oded, who was born and grew up in Tel Aviv, Israel, drew my attention to an extraordinary black and white photo of crowds of Jews in Rome celebrating this d...

Rome Ecumenism Course 2023

Search This Blog