Giornale 3

I arrived to the church 15 minutes before it opened, so I decided to sit out in courtyard under the portico. It was a hot day and I had headed straight from the Via Appia to Santa Cecilia in the hopes of getting done with my last giornale early. The bells started to ring at 3:50 and I thought maybe it signified the church opening soon. While sitting there I took off my coat and tried to reorganize my backpack. My site report booklet was in pieces and I was trying to put it back in some semblance of order, but I don’t think I was very successful. A number of people had already gathered under the portico like I had in preparation for the opening of the church. While there I decided to read the Wikipedia page for the church, since after going into Santa Maria in Trastevere I wish I had known more before I went in. 

As I was reading a black Mercedes decorated for a wedding pulled up along the curb next to me; here was a white chiffon strip of fabric tied around the side mirrors and hooked under the hood. A woman in a belted metallic navy blazer and a long pleated skirt got out of car. I realized sitting there that there was a photographer in the entrance of the church taking photos of those getting out of the car and I was definitely within the shot. I debated getting up and out of the photos but if they didn’t care I was there why should I. However people started gathering around the car, therefore also gathering around me, and I really felt that I should move. Shortly after though a nicely dressed man and little girl talked to the driver, and the driver pulled the car around to the other side of the courtyard and parked. Sitting there I began to worry that this was part of a wedding party and that the church wouldn’t be open. 

I was so distracted by the possible wedding party that I didn’t even notice the doors to the church opened five minutes early and people were already filing in. Once I stepped inside though there was no doubt o we whether or not there was a wedding happening here; the inside of the church was fully set up for a wedding. There were a number of chairs set up with bouquets of roses lining the central aisle. The rest of the tourists looked very confused as to what was happening, but almost everyone immediately went to the chapel in the back of the church and I followed for some reason. Next to the chapel there was a nun at the alter fiddling with the placement of the altar cloth. The church had similar mosaic to the one at San Clemente with twelve lambs flanking a central lamb with a halo. Suddenly I got pushed aside with everyone else as people made way for the nun walking off of the apse. 

I made my way across the church and light a candle for grandma as I always do in front of a statue of the Madonna and Child. Looking back at the alter I wondered why the statue of Cecilia was lying with her face down. It was quite unlike any other memorial carving of a saint I had seen. At the front of the church grooms phone started going off and he ran outside. I hoped everything was going okay for him today. After seeing that I decided to leave since I didn’t want to crowd the church and make the wedding preparations even more difficult. While leaving I could see in the corner of the church the nun looking on disapprovingly at the women in their non church appropriate wedding outfits. 

(Santa Cecilia, 6/1/19)