Daily Rome Shot 1274 – processions and more

Not Rome, but Norcia. A procession with a relic of St. Benedict… of Norcia, his birthplace.

One day in May, years ago by now, I was hanging around outside the Paul VI audience hall (Vatican) during a plenary of the Italian Bishops Conference waiting for my bishop to emerge, chatting with fellow journalists (I was in the press corps) and the bishops’ drivers and secretaries a couple of bishops who had simply fled the hall in desperate boredom. I had just been to a Eucharistic procession the day before for Corpus Christi held by the Teutonic College that went through the Vatican gardens, Swiss Guards carrying the canopy, … stunning. Deep in his chest one old bishop rumbled “Meno chiacchiere – più processioni. … Less jabbering – more processions.” Exactly. Let’s do REAL “Walking together” instead of all this eternal process B as in B, S as in S.

As you look at this, you will see on the right of the “cover image” of the tweet, a painting by Caravaggio of a boy pealing a piece of fruit.

A small taste of the Caravaggio blockbuster, hailed as one of the most important, ambitious exhibitions ever dedicated to the Baroque master, opening in Rome on Friday. pic.twitter.com/n8t8Qpr9s0

— Wanted in Rome (@wantedinrome) March 6, 2025

I know this painting well. It used to hand in the apartment of a good friend, a distinguished art historian and great expert on Caravaggio and Velasquez. He had obtained this painting in a sale and authenticated it. He apartment was filled with great masters, many Velasquez, El Greco, Poussin, Reni, Bernini, a HUGE Artemesia, etc. I learned so much from him. When he died his widow took charge of the collection. She, clearly, has lent this to the exhibition in question. It will be a pleasure to see it. I should look her up when I am in Rome (soon). I haven’t seen her for several years. She had had a battle with cancer and various other adventures.

I have to share this…

The Pink Panther was released OTD in 1964, which launched one of the funniest franchises in cinema history. Peter Sellers’ Inspector Clouseau is a work of comedy genius and The Pink Panther movies will continue to be hilarious as long as the world keeps spinning. pic.twitter.com/IZ7XlgaLjX

— The Sting (@TheStingisBack) March 20, 2025

Hard puzzle.  White to move.  There’s a mate coming up if you can find it.

NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

In St. Louis, Hikaru Nakamura defeated Fabiano Caruana in blitz tiebreaks to win the Champions Final of The American Cup 2025.  Alice Lee an endgame Tatev Abrahamyan. She waits for her Grand Final opponent to be determined.   In the Elimination Bracket, Levon Aronian eliminated Sam Sevian, and Irina Krush defeated Nazi Paikidze.  Today we have only the Elimination Finals: Caruana v. Aronian and Krush v. Abrahamyan.