Copyright on the Sistine Chapel & an Audience with Pope Bono

Dear Faithful Followers,

Something I forgot to add after our day at the Sistine Chapel...... Did you know that Nikon, the Japanese camera company own the copyright to the artwork of the Sistine Chapel? Apparently in the late 70's or 80's Nikon paid the Catholic Church €18million to cover the cost of cleaning the chapel of candle soot and stuff and in return got the copyright !!!!! Now every time you see a picture of this place Nikon have benefitted !!!

Also another interesting fact, back in the day of Pope Julius and his uncle, the pope before him, some bloke called Pope Severis Sette, around 15 and 16 hundreds, they were short a few quid so they worked out a slight twist on the already accepted practice of making a donation for sins you HAD committed by way of atonement and forgiveness. Instead these two enterprising dudes decided you could buy Sin Insurance , whereby for a determined amount, paid by you to the Church, you could commit adultery, theft or murder and be re-assured of your place in heaven because you had the foresight to have taken out the comprehensive cover and could sin with impunity knowing that the Pope had absolved you of your crimes and sins in advance!!!! Our modern day entrepreneurs have got nothing on these blokes. What good and saintly men they were in the execution of their power!!!

With these fascinating facts swirling in our head we headed to our audience with the Pope- his weekly blessing of everyone at Saint Peter's Square. They have an amazing sound system that was playing beautiful music in the lead up to his appearance - very dramatic. There were a number of newlyweds in their recent wedding attire who if applying before hand, with proof of their recent marriage can get to sit up front near the main man. However, unlike the recently beatified Pope John Paul, who is on his way to Sainthood, the new bloke no longer individually blesses recently marrieds - apparently and I can't take this as fact, never having met the guy personally, but he isn't as sweet as the previous CEO of the Church. The gardeners made John Paul, a special praying place out of a beautiful old tree trunk because he used to come to the garden and pray as he loved being in nature but the new bloke insisted on a marble arrangement that is very grand. I think he likes the trappings of office with all the fancy bling and frocks very much and is less humble fisherman CEO and more of the Donald Trump/Sylvio Berlesconi ilk!!

And when he emerged , goodness, what a rockstar!!! Came out with the hands above the head like Bono at a U2 concert - did the whole 360 degree "I am here" "it's me you came to see" kind of thing, and the people - particularly the Germans went mad for him !!!!! It was all a bit much quite frankly! But we got our rosary beads blessed for Joyce, Dad and Margaret so that was the main thing.

I tried to buy some of that Sin Insurance because it is bound to come in handy when i return to work and may not be myusual serene self, but Pope Benny wouldn't be in it!!! So off to a great lunch at a place called Il Mattricianella- a long standing slow food trattoria that was simply heaven. Then more shopping.

Bless you my children

Kelly & Siobhan