There are many ways to celebrate Easter in the eternal city, from scaling the 28 steps of the Scala Santa on your knees to joining the Pope at the Way of the Cross ceremony in the Colosseum
MANY MOONS ago, during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, your correspondent had a daily "gig" in the Holy See working for the American news agency, UPI. In the pre-internet era, this involved following every statement and indeed movement of the pontiff, right from the heart of the Vatican, in the press room on St Peter's Square.
It was thus that one learned that when it comes to Easter time, the Pope has a very particular programme. For example, one Good Friday I took my since departed mother-in-law with me to watch a fascinating little ritual practised by John Paul II. For that one day in the year, he would don black robes and step down into the Basilica of St Peter to "hear" 10 confessions from pilgrims who just happened to be mingling amongst the huge Good Friday crowd gathered there.
My dear old mother-in-law, a daily communicant, was astonished to see John Paul II step out of the Basilica lift closely followed by a small posse of journalists, including your correspondent. Did the Vatican authorities realise that this particular journalist was a Black Northern Prod, she anxiously enquired of my wife that evening? Otherwise, how come such a scurrilous fellow was allowed such close access to the Pope?
Pope Benedict XVIth, John Paul's successor, has not maintained this particular Good Friday ritual, but he does enact all the other traditional Easter ceremonies followed by his predecessors. His Easter week obviously begins with Palm Sunday celebrations and ends with the Easter Sunday Urbi et Orbi - televised, multilingual greetings to the "City and to the World".
Along the way he is involved in some highly suggestive ceremonies - on Holy Thursday morning, he celebrates the Chrism Mass in St Peter's, a ceremony that marks the renewal of all priestly vows as well as the blessing of the oils used in the sacraments. That evening, he presides over a "Last Supper" Mass at which he "washes" the feet of 12 priests (often seminary students) in memory of how Christ washed the feet of the apostles at the Last Supper.
Then, too, there is arguably the most dramatic (and photogenic) Easter moment in Rome when the Pope presides over the Via Crucis ceremony in the ancient Roman Colosseum. Echoes of the final years of John Paul's pontificate, marked as they were by constant concern about his health, were resuscitated this Easter when it was announced that Benedict would not walk all 14 stations of the cross but would rather join the procession only for the last three. The Pope just wants to "conserve his energy", said Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Pope's senior spokesman.
The fact that Benedict also called on the Archbishop of Hong Kong, Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, a noted critic of China, to lead the meditations at this year's ceremony prompted much speculation, with Vatican commentators suggesting that Cardinal Zen had been encouraged to "tone down" his meditations so as not to upset Chino-Holy See relations.
For many pilgrims and tourists who come to Rome for Easter, attention is inevitably focused on the Vatican and the Pope. Yet, far from the madding crowds that throngs all Papal events, there are a series of celebrations in the city worth considering.
For example, if you want to avoid the Easter Vigil in St Peter's, there is a particularly attractive service in the Basilica di Santa Prassede, itself close to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. Here, with the Church plunged in darkness, a great paschal candle is lit from the flames of a brazier. The doyenne of experts on Rome, the late Georgina Masson, has this to say of the ceremony: "As the small procession . . . forms up behind the cross and wends its way up the nave by the light of the single great candle, one experiences the feeling of returning to the shadowy world of the catacombs, where long ago such groups must have gathered together."
Other telling Easter images from Rome include that of the church of Santa Maria dell'Orto in Trastevere, where the Mass of the Last Supper on Holy Thursday is marked by the lighting of 268 candles in an otherwise dark church. Then too, there is the celebrated Scala Santa (Holy Staircase) in the corner of Piazza San Giovanni, comprising a marble staircase that was originally located in Pontius Pilate's palace in Jerusalem, according to legend.
Brought to Rome by St Helena, the Scala Santa is a popular place of pilgrimage on Good Friday, with many faithful climbing the 28 steps on their knees, in memory of how Christ climbed them on his way to trial by Pontius Pilate.
A word of advice - when Rome's Easter celebrations are over, sit your ground. Pasquetta, or Easter Monday, marks the day when Italians love to head off somewhere for a picnic. This year 12 million of them are expected to take to the roads, so be warned.