Before you go to Rome:

See the movie ”ROMAN HOLIDAY” 1953 “Bocca della Verita”

Audrey Hepburn (first role), Gregory Peck & Eddie Albert.

These two photos are a key attraction in this film, directed by William Wyler, this was one of the first U.S. films to be shot on location overseas. It won 3 Oscars and 11 nominations, but it was the location that soared the popularity of this film to a classic. Audrey plays a bored and sheltered Princess Anne who is in Rome on a European capitol tour with her royal entourage keeping her on a strict schedule with tough restrictions. They give her a sedative one night when she rebels against her keepers and sneaks out of the palace into a delivery truck. The sedative takes effect after walking around the Roman Forum and she falls asleep on a stone bench. Gregory Peck, playing an American reporter, finds her and brings her back to his apartment. He goes to work early that morning and the news desk, and his boss, informs him of the missing Princess. The boss wants him to do a story which will bring him a tidy sum of money and so he hires his American friend photographer Eddie Albert to take photos as Joe (Peck) shows Rome to Princess Anne. The Princess learns of the authorities looking for her so she gets an Italian haircut and hops on Joe’s moped for the best time of her life. You have to see the movie. It’s a classic that grabs your undivided attention no matter how many times you see it.

The photos above, Santa Maria in Cosmedin is a church not far from the Roman Forum built in the 6^th century. If you go to Rome, you must see this church located at the foot of the Aventine Hills. It was built on the ruins of the station annonae, the food distribution center of classical Rome. It was enlarged by Pope Hadrian I in the 8^th Century and given to the Greek community who lived near the Tiber River in a district called Ripa Grecae. I walked these streets just marveling at the beauty of this district, it’s ancient history and unbelievable structures still standing. The streets are in great shape for their thousands of years of use and as in other streets of Rome, you can still see the chariot tracks. The church was restored in the 12^th and 13^th centuries given a new Cosmatesque pavement and decorations, plus the beautiful Romanesque campanile (the bell tower). In the sacristy is a part of an 8^th century mosaic from the original St. Peter’s Basilica, which is believed to be part of the remains of an altar from the Forum Boarium erected in honor of Hercules.

In the portico of this Paleochristian church is a Roman statue attracting tourists from all over the world. Shown in the above picture to the right is “La Bocca della Verita’ ” (translation: The Mouth Of Truth). This ancient stone is carved from Pavonazetto marble which was a fountain or manhole cover portraying one of the Pagan river Gods. In Roman times, it is said that men would bring their wives to the Mouth of Truth to get them to admit to adultery. If you tell a lie in front of this huge stone statue, and you put your hand in the mouth, it will bite it off. The legend goes like this: a rich wife of a Roman noble was accused of adultery but she denied the accusations. Her husband wanted to put her to the test by making her put her hand inside the stone mouth. Knowing she was lying about having a lover, the woman used a clever strategy. In front of the crowds of bystanders who gathered to watch her hand get bit off, she arranged to have her lover act like a lunatic to embrace and kiss her. She pretended not to know him and accused him of being a madman and the crowd chased him away. When she put her hand into the mouth, the woman declared that she had never kissed any other man apart from her husband and the poor madman who had just kissed her. Certain now that she wasn’t telling a lie, she put her hand in the mouth and it was saved, thus her husband saved her honor in front of witnesses.

In the “Roman Holiday” movie, during a break in filming, Wyle and the film crew were filming everything they did because it was a novelty to be on location in Rome. Gregory Peck brings Audrey Hepburn to the ancient stone and tells her the story while testing its truth by telling a lie. Peck manages to pull out his arm with his hand hidden in his sleeve. Audrey sees that Peck’s hand is missing and she is terrified to tears until Peck sticks his hand back out from the sleeve. This was such a touching moment that director Wyler put it the movie. Since this movie’s debut, La

Bocca della Verita is still a major attraction in Rome. It is such a favorite of mine, that I did an oil painting of it and now shocks everyone that comes into my studio and sees its gaping mouth!

If you go to Rome to see it in person, see it early in the morning on a weekend to avoid the long line. People don’t hang out too long, and amazingly, many are afraid to put their hand in the mouth. It’s an eerie feeling sticking your hand to the abyss of this statue but you must try it. It’s as important as throwing a coin in the Fountain of Trevi.