The purposeful traveler: Chasing books and bishops

The crowds around the Fountain of Trevi tell a different story, swarmed by a coin-throwing mob wishing for their eventual return to the Italian capital 24/7. Whether it’s dawn or midnight, there is no alone time around the Rome’s historic center. There’s a real disconnect with the tourist statistics and the millions who actually fill the streets and the endless queues outside the Parthenon or the Forum. No off-season either registered by the trattorias in the chic, bohemian district of Trastevere; just as there are no tickets to be had to view that ancient pile of stone, the Colosseum, even if you try to book months in advance.

There is one antidote, however, and that is to plug into the network of tour guides and Filipino drivers that operate in Italy. Together, they can steer you with aplomb to the city’s oldest gelateria (Palazzo del Fredo, est. 1880) and outlet shopping in Castel Romano.

The tour guides will comfort you with the tip that the real location of the Spoliarium is not in the Colosseum’s basement (moonlit tours, by the way, are occasionally available). Both morgue as well as a hospital for fallen champions, as depicted in Juan Luna’s spectacular masterpiece, its location is to be found just a few blocks away close to the newly opened Domus Aurea (or “Golden House”) of the infamous Emperor Nero.

Rome is built on layer upon layer of thousands of years of history. Its subway project has never really gotten off the ground because, sooner than later, a few meters of digging reveals marvelous mosaics or crumbling cisterns. The city, after all, is called the world’s biggest open-air museum. You can literally cross the street from the 7-star Bulgari Hotel to the soon-to-be-unveiled Mausoleum of Augustus, Rome’s first emperor. Around the corner is the Romeo, set in a 16th-century palace that was one of the late architect Zaha Hadid’s last projects.

This ancient metropolis continues to reveal many secrets: Palazzo Colonna is one such destination, available for viewing by the general public only on select days since the family that owns it still inhabits it. There is an astounding private garden in the center of Rome; frescoed ceilings and brilliant chandeliers, a historic column and even a cannon ball embedded in the floor of one of its salons.

In keeping with the spirit of purposeful travel, I have flown to “the Eternal City” to pick up a trophy at the International Business Awards for a book I had written on the Makati Central Business District. (The CBD would become not just a model of city planning in the Philippines but would be central in the history of the Filipino nation.) Titled Fifty Years and Forward, it was published under the baton of Ar. William V. Coscolluela, chair of the Makati Central Estate Association (MACEA), which manages this proto-city and was marking its 50th anniversary.

The location for the awards was to be at the grande dame of Roman hotels, the Cavalieri Waldorf-Astoria, which stands on a forested hill overlooking the city; and the occasion was a black-tie gala dinner. MACEA treasurer Ismael Cruz would be giving the acceptance speech on behalf of the organization. The other award-winners included MetroBank and the Pag-Ibig Fund as well as the Saudi Arabian ARAMCO and dozens of American and Asian firms.

The Cavalieri is a very Casino-Royale establishment, with plenty of ceiling murals, gilded mirrors, and fine art. It has a glamorous ballroom, bathed in blue lights and chrome that runs from one end of the hotel to the other.

The staging point for my expedition, however, was more modest digs near the Spanish Steps, which happens to be in the same neighborhood as another landmark, the Congregation of the Evangelization of Peoples, of which Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle is prefect, the first Filipino to hold that position. The Congregation was founded 400 years ago in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV, who, in the same year, canonized some of the Philippines’ most beloved saints including Isidro Labrador, Felipe Neri, Teresa of Avila and Ignatius of Loyola.

St. Ignatius would found the first Jesuit school that would become the Pontifical Gregorian University. My grand-uncle, Cesar Ma. Guerrero, had spent seven years there as he pursued his doctorates in Sacred Theology and Canon Law. He would become the first bishop of San Fernando, after serving as the first bishop of Lingayen and also the first auxiliary bishop of Manila in the war years. My grandmother adored him and would color my childhood with stories of his piousness and miracle-working. (He would give me a copy of the medieval devotional, “The Imitation of Christ,” for my first Holy Communion, the book that would give Rizal such comfort during his exile in Dapitan. It would come too late for me since by that time I had fallen into the clutches of the very liberal Maryknoll nuns. “Lolo Obispo,” however, was pivotal in my mother’s strict education, ensuring her enrollment at St. Therese’s.)

The Gregoriana is a marvelous neo-classical building at the base of the Quirinal Hill, serendipitously very close to the Palazzo Colonna. Its portals are strictly guarded and I would have to present my case in my best saccharine tone at the registrar’s office for permission to have a look inside. My efforts would be rewarded and I was allowed to look at the main atrium surrounded by a two-tiered peristyle, creating a cathedral-like space topped with glass. At the end of the courtyard was a towering statue of Christ standing below the Jesuit coat of arms. It was a transcendental experience as I imagined Lolo Obispo walking solemnly through the marble hall as a young man on his first voyage to Rome. He would die in his beloved Pampanga, where he was known to wear, not the elaborate bishop’s robes, but the simple brown Franciscan cassock.

Retracing his footsteps in Rome was thus the perfect occasion to give thanks for our many blessings, pay tribute to the Bishop’s far greater accomplishments and pray for more purposeful travels in 2024.