Berkley Center

Recently, Georgetown students at the Villa Le Balze took a trip to Rome, but it was not our first encounter as a group with the city. Before our travels, we had watched a number films set in Rome. One, Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grande Ballezza, focuses on Jep Gambardella, an aging journalist and nightlife-loving savant whose years without writing another novel catch up with him. Among the many themes that the film touches upon, it is a movie that highlights an unsettling contradiction between the beautiful riches of Rome with the emptiness of its upper class. Naturally after watching the movie, I was eager to see Rome for myself.

Upon entering the Eternal City, I found myself in the middle of more apparent contradictions; I entered a modern city that is dominated by ancient ruins, governed by an unelected prime minister, and simultaneously home to two men who have held the keys of Saint Peter.

As soon as we exited the train station, we could see ancient walls and Roman baths. Forcing cars and other traffic to its edges, huge ruins inhabit parts of the city. Their presence removed any wonder I had about why the Roman civilization is so deeply set in Italy’s memory. Many of the ancient Roman forms still echo resoundingly throughout the architecture that follow it.

That night, I saw the Coliseum for the first time. The size alone was enough to leave me staring up at it for several silent minutes. It’s even hard to fathom what it would take to build something comparable in the present day; it’s a wonder how such massive architecture could even be conceived, much less built, in Roman times. And it’s still enduring thousands of years later, only portions of it consumed by mighty earthquakes and pilfering medieval foragers. The size and perfection of the pantheon was equally as inspiring. Later in the hot afternoon, Rome’s fountains reminded me of the remarkable Roman aqueduct system that supplied water from distant sources to all the city’s inhabitants.

Yet, the Coliseum housed horrific spectacles involving hundreds of animals and humans that were carried out year after year. Building projects necessitated forced labor. Fresh warm baths for the pleasure of a few subjected servants to sweltering tasks like feeding a roaring fire underground. Admiring these traces of the great wealth, organization, and construction of the Romans Empire was a fantastic experience, yet it was difficult to reconcile my awe with the conflicting realities built into these structures.

I was reminded of another paradox while we walked the streets of Rome. Without an election, Italy’s former prime minister was forced out and a new prime minister installed. Matteo Renzi, the former mayor of Florence and leader of the Democratic Party, recently became prime minister and faces challenges such as large unemployment in a struggling economy, and it will be interesting to see what he does as he deals with a largely unchanged majority.

Another leader in Rome is also working hard to address the paradox of his organization. As he tries to lead the world towards a closer embrace of the poor and marginalized, Pope Francis is starting to confront those within the Catholic Church that disregard their own teachings. Pope Francis released an exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, in which he asserts that when capitalism is not applied properly, “man is reduced to one of his needs alone: consumption.” He criticizes a system in which the Church is deeply intertwined and promotes capitalism for a common good.

In another scene of La Grande Bellezza, the movie depicts a cardinal (next in line for the papacy) more inclined to discuss his culinary escapades than faith or piety. This humorous scene could question how out of touch some leaders may be. Yet two less funny discoveries have been made recently as Pope Francis confronts the excesses in the Church; a German bishop resigned after spending millions on his opulent residence and similar spending has been uncovered elsewhere. Much more has to be done in the Vatican, but Pope Francis is taking steps in the right direction by addressing these contradictions in the Church.

After an amazing trip to Rome and thinking about some of its paradoxes, I’m eager to watch how a newly emerging political situation and changes under the papacy will both progress during the rest of my study abroad in Italy.