This article originally appeared in a previous issue of Dream

of Italy

Think that best-selling novels are

only for commuter train and poolside

reading? Well think again! If

you're planning to travel to

href="http://www.dreamofitaly.com/public/department56.cfm">Rome

, Dan Brown's best-selling

book, Angels & Demons--

can be much more than

an exciting read. If you use it

as your city guide, it will lead

you to some of Rome's most

fascinating sights.

The plot of the novel takes

readers from one fantastic Roman artwork

to another, and for the past year

visitors to Rome have been seeking out

the sites detailed in the book. With a

copy of Angels & Demons in hand,

many a tourist has been seen standing

with mouth agape as they gaze upon

some of the finest architecture and

sculpture in the Eterna.

Although the plot of Angels & Demons

is complex, many readers find it even

more compelling than Brown's wildly

successful The DaVinci Code.

The story begins with the

murder of a theo-physicist in

a remote, scientific research

center in Switzerland, and a

fax summons sent to Robert

Langdon, the Harvard symbologist

charged with solving

the murder. Langdon leaves

his Boston home and makes a

supersonic, transatlantic

flight, arriving in Switzerland

in just under four hours--about the

same amount of time it would take

you to read Angels & Demons.

And from there the story speeds up!

From Switzerland, Langdon follows

clues to Rome where he discovers that

the current Pope has died--or been murdered. On the eve of the Conclave,

a BBC news reporter receives a call

from the Hassassin, a hit-man working

for a secret society called the Illuminati.

The Illuminati have a three-centuries

long grudge against the Catholic

Church and the Hassassin claims that

he's planted an already-ticking, antimatter

bomb in the Vatican that is

powerful enough to destroy all of

the Vatican City AND that

his team has kidnapped

and intend to kill the four

cardinals most likely to be

elected Pope.

Landgon's monumental

task is to stop the murders and

find the anti-matter bomb, all before

midnight. He works alongside Vittoria

Vetra, daughter of the slain theophysicist,

and the clue that sends them

racing around Rome comes in the form

of a 17th century poem composed by

John Milton and inscribed in the margins

of a document written by Galileo.

From Santi's earthly tomb with

demon's hole,

'Cross Rome the mystic elements

unfold.

The path of light is laid, the sacred

test,

Let angels guide you on your lofty

quest.

You, too, can undertake the "lofty

quest" and follow the path taken by

Robert and Vittoria. Without a doubt,

you'll have more time to make a

leisurely examination of the splendid

monuments featured in Brown's book,

and your efforts will be well-rewarded,

for you'll discover some splendid

Roman masterpieces that are a bit off

the beaten track.

Your first stop will be the Pantheon,

ancient Rome's temple to all the pagan

gods. Robert and Vittoria are led there

by a phrase in Milton's poem and they believe that the Hassassin intends to

kill one of the Cardinals in the ancient

building. They're wrong--they've

been misled--but that shouldn't stop

you from admiring this spectacular

structure.

The Pantheon provides evidence of the

genius of ancient Roman

construction and engineering,

as well as of the architectural

vision of the Emperor

Hadrian. Built in just seven

years in the early second century

A.D., the building's massive concrete

dome creates an interior space

unmatched in the architectural

world. While Robert and Vittoria

spent a tense few minutes here searching

for the Hassassin, you should

linger long enough to admire the tomb

of Raphael, Rome's premier

Renaissance artist, to wonder at the

dome and to gaze through the oculus,

a 30-foot diameter hole in the dome

that lights the interior. This hole

became the subject of a local legend

when in 610 A.D. the ancient pagan

temple was transformed into a

Christian church. Local lore claimed that the oculus in the dome of the

Pantheon served as an 'escape route'

for the pagan spirits that had formerly

inhabited the building and were now

officially ousted.

Unfortunately for Robert and Vittoria,

the Hassassin had no need of an

escape route from the Pantheon

because he wasn't there at all. The

intrepid investigators had misinterpreted their poem-clue and there was no

Hassassin or quivering Cardinal to be

found. To ease your disappointment at

not yet having entered into the dangerous

world of ecclesiastical executions,

you might want to sit for a bit in a café

in Piazza della Rotunda, outside the Pantheon, having a cappuccino and

cornetto in one of the best peoplewatching

sites in Rome.

After a respite, you can rejoin Robert

and Vittoria who, by now, have refined

their poetic interpretation and are

moving at top speed towards the

church of Santa Maria del Popolo, in the

majestic Piazza del Popolo, just up the

Via del Corso. (If you need a map you

can look in the front pages of Angels &

Demons.) This small church houses two

masterpieces by Caravaggio and is

home to the Chigi Chapel, the funerary

chapel of the richest man in the

Renaissance, Agostino Chigi. The Chigi

Chapel is the next stop in Robert and

Vittoria's nonstop chase across Rome,

and you, unlike them, may want to

spend some time examining

its complexities.

Raphael designed the

chapel for Agostino Chigi,

and incorporated into it a

wealth of iconographic

symbols alluding to the

soul's journey to salvation.

A century later, Bernini

modified the design,

adding sculptures of

Daniel in the Lion's Den

and Habakkuk and the

Angel.

Unfortunately, Robert and Vittoria

arrive at Santa Maria del Popolo a bit

too late to catch the Hassassin and to

prevent the murder of a cardinal.

Bernini's sculpture of Habakkuk and

the Angel points them to their

next stop in Piazza San

Pietro, in front of St.

Peter's Basilica. The investigators

have unmarked Alfa

Romeos at their disposal, but you'll

want to take a taxi.

Arriving in Piazza San Pietro, enclosed

by colonnades designed by Bernini,

you've entered Vatican City, the smallest sovereign state

in the world. The

Vatican has its own

taxes, its own (efficient)

post office

and even its own

police force, the

Swiss Guards. In

1505, Pope Julius II,

the powerful and

fierce Renaissance

pontiff, assembled an army of two

hundred Swiss guards dedicated to

protecting his safety. This is still their

task.

High-ranking Swiss guards accompany

Robert and Vittoria in the quest to capture

the Hassassin, but once again their

arrival at the murder site is just

moments too late. Another

Cardinal has been killed

and his body lies slumped

against the obelisk in the

center of the piazza. The

Vatican obelisk where he

was executed is one of 13

that populate the piazzas

of Rome--originally monuments

celebrating ancient

Rome's power over Egypt.

By the Middle Ages the

obelisk lay desolately on

the ground alongside St.

Peter's Basilica. In 1585,

Pope Sixtus V began to re-erect the

obelisks, placing them throughout the

city as visual guides for pilgrims coming

to Rome, and the one in Piazza San

Pietro was his first such

urban intervention.

An ambitious engineer and

architect Domenico Fontana,

had the arduous task of transporting

this 350-ton monument from

the ancient circus of Nero, near today's

St. Peter's Basilica, and then hoisting it

into a vertical position. Fontana was

able to avert a near catastrophe in the

process of lifting the obelisk, thanks to smalla

Genovese sailor

who broke a

silence declared by

the Pope to yell,

"Water on the

ropes!," as the

obelisk was levered

into place.

Now standing in

front of St. Peter's,

you'll want to go inside and see the

largest and most opulent church in the

Christian world, which showcases further

masterworks by Gianlorenzo

Bernini, including the Baldacchino (or

canopy) over the Papal Altar and the

Tomb of Pope Alexander VII.

You'll be overwhelmed. Spend some time. Enjoy yourself. But don't forget,

we've got murders to solve, and a

bomb to find! Robert and Vittoria are a

bit discouraged as they've failed to

save the lives of two cardinals, and

uncertain of the next murder site, they

visit the Vatican library in search of

further clues that will aid them in their

quest. By this time they've come to

think that perhaps Bernini was

involved with Illuminati society in the

seventeenth-century and they suspect

that the next murder will take place in

front of a work that he produced, like

the two previous. Had they time to

ponder the complexities of Bernini's

82-year life, our investigators would

certainly have admired the fact that

Bernini was a very prolific and enormously

talented architect who worked

for five different popes during his

extraordinarily long career. In that time

he helped to shape the sumptuous

Baroque style and he raised the standard

of art to heights previously

unfathomable.

Perhaps the work that best demonstrates

the extraordinary range of

Bernini's prodigious talent is the

Cornaro Chapel in Santa Maria della

Vittoria, conveniently (for tourists, not

investigators) the site of

the next Cardinal's murder.

This chapel, commissioned

by the Cornaro

family from Venice,

showcases Bernini's

command of the bel composto,

the harmonic synthesis

of the three arts--

painting, sculpture and

architecture. The focal

point of the chapel is the

sculpture of St. Teresa of

Avila, canonized in 1622,

who in her autobiography

described ecstatic

visions in which she experienced the

divine love of God. Bernini's rendition

of her ecstasy features Teresa, an angel,

and a cloud, all sculpted from a single block of marble, and appearing as

weightless entities floating in an ethereal

moment of divine love.

A few facts about the sculpture in

Brown's Angels & Demons are fudged.

Though the work is certainly provocative,

and St. Teresa did describe her

interactions with the divine in erotic

terms, the sculpture was never intended

for St. Peter's Basilica as the book

claims. This is not an error that concerns

Robert and Vittoria, however, for

they have other problems to solve.

They've missed the murder again and

another Cardinal is dead. And, it seems

that the Hassassin has gotten the best

of them, for Vittoria has been captured

and hauled away and Robert is

trapped under a marble sarcophagus.

Only one Cardinal is still alive and the

anti-matter bomb is ticking away.

Rescued by the Swiss Guards (and

Mickey Mouse), Robert is heaved from

beneath the marble tomb and he sets

off in search of the murderer who has

captured his lovely companion in anticrime.

He heads to Piazza Navona,

Rome's most cosmopolitan pedestrian

theater, built atop an ancient athletic

stadium constructed by the Emperor

Domitian in the first

century A.D. If you follow

him, you won't

have to perform the

athletic feats undertaken

by Robert as he

wrestles the Hassassin

in the Fountain of the

Four Rivers. Instead,

you may want to enjoy

a glass of Prosecco or a

chocolate tartufo in one

of the many cafes that

surrounds this spectacular

urban space while

you partake of the

book's not-quite-last-act.

Robert has raced to the piazza in anticipation

of the Hassassin's next move.

He hides behind the Fountain of the

Four Rivers, another of Bernini's astonishing

hybrid works of sculpture and

architecture. The fountain is a commission

that Bernini cleverly swipes from

his archrival, Francesco Borromini. With

this cunning move, Bernini created a

fountain celebrating the worldwide

powers of the Catholic Church that

was unveiled in time for the 1650

Jubilee celebration. The four figures on

the fountain represent four rivers on

the four continents known in the seventeenth

century, all of which were

host to fervent missionary work

undertaken by Catholic clergy.

Robert's efforts are all in vain. The last

of the four kidnapped cardinals is

drowned in the Fountain of the Four

Rivers, Vittoria is still a captive, and

the anti-matter bomb has not been

found. Since we'd never reveal the

book's spectacular ending, you'll

have to discover that for yourself&but

rest assured, Angels & Demons provides

an action packed, high art journey

"'Cross Rome as the mystic elements

unfold."

--Susan Sanders

Susan Sanders is the Executive Director of

the Institute of Design & Culture in Rome.

(www.idcrome.org) Her other musings on

Angels & Demons are published in Secrets of

Angels & Demons: The Unauthorized Guide to

The Bestselling Novel (CDs Books, 2004).

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