All Roads Lead to Rome

CRAIG HATKOFF | SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2010 AT 10:10AM

All Roads Lead to Rome;

On March 17, 2005, Craig and I left from Newark Airport on Alitalia flight #645 for Rome and for meetings about "Stargazer" with people from the Vatican. The flight left on time. Craig went to sleep the second we got in our seats; I, despite having taken an Ambien, was up the entire 8 hour plus flight. We arrived at Rome's Fiumicino Airport at 7:40 a.m.., I was in my usual delirious state after an international flight, Craig was fresh and ready to go. We were met by a driver sent by  Giorgio Fanara(our guide and "consigliore" for all things Italian and the Vatican especially), and taken to the Grand Hotel Parco dei Principi. When I heard we were staying at the Grand Hotel, I thought it was THE Grand Hotel --- but....as all the more well known big hotels in Rome were booked up, Giorgio had to put us up here (he explained that normally he would have put us in the Excelsior on Via Veneto), and all I remember about the hotel is 1) they weren't very welcoming, b) the rooms were tiny with not a lot of electrical outlets -- Craig had to re-charge his blackberry in his bathroom and at some point it almost got flushed down the toilet and was rendered useless for the entire Roman stay -- and c) while watching MTV Italia on TV in the room, I saw James Blunt for the first time, singing "Beautiful," and thought he might make a good candidate to play Galileo in something.....
The purpose of the trip was to meet with Stefania Scorpio, whose Prime Time Productions produced the Pope's annual Christmas concert, and to visit the "Braccio di Carlo Magno" (a wing of the Vatican Museum in St. Peter's) about an exhibit of original Galileo artifacts. Such an exhibit  (with artifacts from Pisa) could possibly coincide with a "Stargazer" concert in the theater down the block from St. Peter's.

In a stupor, we met Giorgio and went to the divine Cafe Antico Grecco near the Spanish Steps -- where I'd once seen Federico Fellini sweep in and survey the place -- for coffee. From there, it was on to a lunch at the Atlante Star roof garden, with its unbelievable views of Rome -- and St. Peter's in
particular. Much wine. More jetlag delirium. Then, onto the Vatican.

Craig, Stefania, Giorgio, Rabbi Irwin Kula (who'd arrived from Boston)  and I toured the Braccio di Carlo Magno with Fausto Sobrini and Eligio Ermeti.
After a tour of this wing of the Museum, I think we went to the Theater down the block from St. Peter's -- I remember very little, except clapping my hands inside the empty auditorium to hear the acoustics (they were good), and that the theater was under some sort of renovation. (It also was on the block where, when Pope John Paul II  died less than a month later, was on TV constantly as reporters broadcast from the Vatican, waiting for that puff of smoke that would signal the selection of the man who became the new Pope -- Pope Benedict -- more about that later).

There were more meetings: specifically with Maestro Renato Serio, the musician who
conducted the Vatican Christmas concerts; he had ideas about how to incorporate Craig's rock song from "Stargazer" with Renaissance musical treatments. There was an unbelievable meal at a restaurant in Trastevere -- the name I can't remember -- with a bunch of fabulous people whose names I don't remember -- it was a two day whirlwind of coffee, wine, jetlag, Italian,
Great food, much talk about science and religion and the Vatican and music and of course -- the man behind all of this: Galileo Galilei.

The following day, Saturday, we went to the airport to go back home on the day Mercury went into retrograde. Craig said he likes to fly on Saturday, because the flights aren't as full. Our plane was delayed seven hours -- there was a lot of screaming and carrying on by disgruntled passengers -- we werent getting any real information from Alitalia....it was a mess. I remember that still in my jetlag stupor, I bought an Hermes bracelet in the duty free shop (what was i thinking?) and I finally broke down and bought a paperback copy of Dan Brown's "The DaVinci Code."

And then, two weeks and one day later, on April 2, 2005, Pope John Paul II died. To be continued.
      --- Lisa Robinson