The Devil’s Clock!

Let’s head off to St Peter's today for a bit of Urban sketching! Did you know that on the facade there are two clocks,  here you can see them on the top row left and right. The clock on the left, tells the correct time and the one on the right is about 1/2 hour slow and is known as the ''Devil's clock'', legend has it that the clock is wrong so  that the Devil doesn’t know when mass is and can’t pop in. 

This sketch, like the one of the Colosseum, was really only possible because there were virtually no tourists or pilgrims milling around. Having been here a couple of times before when everything was full, the emptiness was quite eerie, perhaps the Devil’s clock worked and everybody was late for mass! 

There was a storm building that then broke over the Vatican (I got soaked ) and it all looked very apocryphal, unfortunately due to sketching I missed taking a photo of the lighting striking the dome! Speaking of missing things, I also missed the Papal audience that was taking place in an inner courtyard. Apparently, you can order tickets online and visit the Wednesday Papal audiences (which had just resumed after the first wave of COVID-19) I'll have to save that for another time. 

Taking advantage of the lack of tourists, I went down to the grottoes below St Peter’s where 91 popes are buried (this number appears to be very flexible, varying from 20 upwards!) and the last resting place of the Scottish royal family, the exiled Stuarts. Wow, I was very surprised to run in to the ex Scottish royals in Rome! I love discovering something new and the grottoes were fascinating. 

 In total there have been 266 popes and one of them, Clement II you won’t meet in the grottoes, he is buried in somewhere I know very well, Bamberg. The only Papal grave north of the Alps!