Monday 9 June: Filming Angels and Demons; or, Gary and Dan see famous movie stars

Gary only has a couple more days in Rome, and his favorite part of town is the Centro Storico from the Campo dei’ Fiori to the Forum and Colosseum, so we decided to visit the area again. We left in the morning while it was still relatively cool. Rome is already starting to get hot; by the end of the month it will be a furnace. First, though, we headed to the Vatican. The line at St. Peter's had been hours long the entire time Gary was here. We decided to go early, and we found no line at all. Gary and I entered the huge basilica and just wandered, admiring our favorite sculptures and monuments. Mass was being sung in a side chapel, and the sound drifted faintly through the vast space. We spent an hour in the cool interior as we visited the many altars and chapels that crowd the immense interior.

We left the Vatican and walked into the already-growing Roman heat, and headed toward the Pantheon. There was a huge crowd in Piazza della Rotunda in front of the Pantheon. A group of people had wardrobes of clothes, cameras and microphones on booms, and batteries of lights. I thought maybe they were making a commercial or something, but Gary said, “No, it’s too big for that. They must be filming a movie.” He stayed outside to investigate while I entered the Pantheon. I’ve described this incredible structure before, with its vast dome made in a single casting of concrete. Well, I had taken a seat for a couple of minutes to rest, when Gary came in looking for me, saying, “Look! Tom Hanks is out here!” I followed Gary outside, and right there in front of us were not only Tom Hanks, but Ron Howard, too. They were filming Angels and Demons, Dan Brown’s prequel to The Da Vinci Code! We had front row seats, right on the top step of the portico of the temple, and were able to watch them rehearse and shoot a couple of scenes. We realized that half the people in the piazza were extras. Priests and nuns in a variety of habits (many of which you seldom see outside the Vatican these days), street performers, vendors and hawkers, and even families of tourists were all standing around, waiting for their cues. Gary pointed out how cool it was that everything looked so randomly placed, but was really tightly choreographed. We watched the spectacle for a while, and Gary got some excellent pics for Flickr; check them out at www.flickr.com/danielcmack. He got a couple of great close-ups of Tom Hanks and Ron Howard. I’m not a great fan of Brown’s prose, but I thought The Da Vince Code made a better movie than book, and I bet Angels and Demons will, too. Now we have to see it just to see if we’re in camera view!

We finally left the Pantheon and the filming, and headed back to Trastevere. On our way back, near Campo dei’ Fiore, we passed a group of college aged young women, who yelled “Penn State!” at us. Gary was wearing Penn State polo, and they had spotted us. They were students from University Park here for a few weeks. We stopped and chatted with them for a while, and discovered that they were living in Trastevere too. We gave them a few tips for food and shopping, and Gary pointed them toward the filming site. By the time we reached the apartment it was hot, and time for siesta. We rested during the afternoon heat, and then had a dinner of salad and pizza. Monday night is the quietest in Trastevere because half the restaurants and most of the bars are closed, so we had another decent night’s sleep.