The Steps of St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome
March 1985Giorgio was sitting on the second step on the promenade outside the Basilica, leaning back on his elbows with his face turned up towards the early morning sun. Tamara was sitting beside him, but paying more attention to the tourists than to the celestial body above.
People were pouring out of buses and as pedestrians across the streets, angling toward the massive doors of the church. The piazza outside is immense and yet, filled with these teeming throngs, it seemed on a human scale. Tamara watched these tourists from every country and race head toward the church, and wondered how many were members of the Catholic Church and how many were merely visitors to this greatest of all attractions in Rome. The Colosseum had witnessed mock battle
