When in Rome

• Paperback - 15 June, 1998 - Main Street Books
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• By: Robert J Hutchinson
• ISBN: 0385486472

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About this book

Robert Hutchinson is on a mission: to explore the living center of the Roman Catholic Church. "Twenty years after my first visit to Rome I set out to rediscover the Vatican. I wondered how it would all seem, to a smart-aleck American writer and confused Catholic, to really poke around the place, talk to the people who actually run it." When in Rome is not a book of theology or politics, it's a compilation of the nitty-gritty, day-to-day inside stories of what really makes the Eternal City tick. "I wanted to know how much money a cardinal made, what those silly capelike outfits were called, where the Swiss Guards went drinking on their days off, and so on," explains Hutchinson.

This book is a collection of the best of his discoveries. Always with a sense of humor and a bottomless curiosity (sometimes irreverent, but never disrespectful), Hutchinson reveals how archaeologists found, then lost, the bones of St. Peter; he seeks erotic literature in the Vatican library to help him brush up on his Italian (when studying foreign languages he finds this genre increases his motivation to look up new words in the dictionary); he learns that "relics" in Rome range from right arms to foreskins; and devotes an entire chapter to the sex lives of the popes.

If Rome is on your itinerary, When in Rome is an excellent take-along read that will help make the Vatican City come to life. --Kathryn True

Other books you may find interesting

• A Traveller in Rome
• As the Romans Do: An American Family's Italian Odyssey
• Map of Bones
• The Gallery of Maps in the Vatican
• A Tuscan Childhood (Vintage Departures)
• Desiring Italy: Women Writers Celebrate the Passions of a Country and Culture
• Venice Observed (Art and Places,)
• That Fine Italian Hand
• Italian Education
• Italian Neighbors
• Vatican City Country Study Guide (World Country Study
• The Hills of Tuscany
• Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy

Reviews by readers

Served Its Purpose

Hutchinson served his purpose. He provided just enough detail about the stories he picked to keep the lay reader interested, and varied his stories widely enough to provide a wide angle portrait of the Vatican. A humorous and thoughtful look at the place and the institution which has, for better or worse, been the very center of Catholicism and the Catholic conciousness for 2,000 years.

Vatican Eye-Opener

In her New York Times Book Review, Sandra Mardenfeld tells us that When in Rome is "...an interesting but rarely startling account." She either didn't read it or is on the Curia payroll.

Fun and Factual

Upon the advise of a good tour guide, I purchased this book after visiting and utterly enjoying the Eternal City. Please note that this is certainly not the ultimate guide to the Vatican or to understanding Catholicism. It is merely a collection of the amusing anecdotes of a journalist, who like other journalists has the opportunity to live in another part of the world and then comment about his impressions of adapting or accepting another culture.
In this instance, Hutchinson moves to Rome with the sole purpose of writing a "what I did on my summer vacation" book on the Vatican. He and his wife and three children, all practising Catholics already feel that affinity to Rome, the Pope and the Vatican that all Catholics innately experience. Here, Hutchinson explores with pure delight his connection with an institution that has lasted through 2000 years of tumultuous change and yet like the rock it was built upon, invariably stays the same.
Hutchinson's Roman adventures are sprinkled liberally with his slightly irreverant humor and yes, as other reviewers have commented, he does repeat himself. But instead of looking cynically upon these faux pas, think of Hutchinson as the prodigal son (or any other excited tourist with a film projector filled with slides) returning from the unknown and merely so thrilled by what he has seen and experienced, can barely contain himself. Enjoy his exuberance, visit Rome and share in it.
Although most entertaining for me were Hutchinson's stories about St. Peter's bones, the Borgia popes, and the holy relics, I found the entire book one refreshing breeze of a read that brought back for me the sound of the Vespas in a city that juxtaposes the old with the new in a very stylish and sophisticated way. Recommended reading for AFTER that trip to Rome---to relish all those "Roman" sensations all over again.

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