When in Rome...Illuminati!

            While in Rome, Italy, two men choose to accept a quest to discover whether Dan Brown actually uses real landmarks in Angels and Demons. One, a cunning Kansan, hell-bent on discovering the truth, Tyler Vincent; the other, the Lebanese Wonder, himself, Brandon Somerhalder. We left the group of fifty that we traveled with for the afternoon for the voyage could only be completed by two. Our tour guide had given us a map of the city of Rome that morning, and this would be our resource to find the four different locations that make up the “path of the Illuminati.” Base camp was set up at the Pantheon, so, due to convenience, we began our journey with a trip to the Piazza Navona. Although only a ten minute walk, the crowds of people proved to be a formidable opponent. We arrived at the Piazza, found the Fontana delle Quattro Fiumi, took a picture and headed towards Vatican City and St. Peter’s Square. We had actually made this walk earlier in the day, a peaceful walk across and along the Tiber River. I remember St. Peter’s Square was busy, as usual, and how peculiar I felt to be the only person to be taking a picture of the ground while everyone else was focused on the architecture. (We needed a picture of the West Wind stone at the base of the Vatican obelisk) The next stop on our epic adventure took us to the statue of Habakkuk & the Angel in the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo. This was by far our longest trek of the afternoon, and the most difficult location to find. The Piazza Del Popolo is a fairly large oval shape with an obelisk in the middle. There is also two churches there, both of which were undergoing construction on the faces of each building so we didn’t think either were open, but we would not be denied. We located the correct church and snuck in the side door, attaining the picture we so desired. Our final stop took us to the Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria to see the statue of The Ecstasy of St. Teresea. It was powerful to visit these different places and reliving the scenes from the book at each site. There were many moments of “reality-checks” where we could barely believe we were in Rome, Italy visiting these places that were in Angels and Demons.

On the way back to the Pantheon, we were in no hurry so we had no real planned path. As chance would have it, we walked by the house of the President of the Republic of Italy, which is on a hill in west Rome. The view from the steps in front of his estate captured the entire city of Rome, including St. Peter’s Basilica. It was late in the evening and there was an orange-creme colored sky as the backdrop to one of the best views I will never forget. We got back to the Pantheon a little before dark to the shock of the rest of the group. It was an experience I will never forget with one of my best friends of all time.