Illumination: San Giovanni in Laterano

Ah, Saturday mornings alone in my apartment. The sun is shining, Garden State Soundtrack is playing, and wobbly old Italians and children dressed up like Santa Claus are sporadically walking by my window. It's the perfect procrastination setting.

Awhile back I went to the Basilica di S. Giovanni in Laterano (St. John Lateran) on a sunny Sunday morning, and walked into the midst of Borromini's illuminated giants.














San Giovanni has a long and rich history in Rome. The first official residence of the Popes since the era of Constantine, the church was first built by Constantine over the barracks of the emperor's private guards. It was destroyed by the Vandals, restored in the fifth, earthquaked in the ninth, rebuilt in the ninth, twiced burned in the fourtheenth and twice rebuilt, and finally built in its current form in the seventeenth. The basilica hosted the meeting of St. Francis and St. Dominic with Pope Innocent III in the Middle ages and witnessed the Pope's approval of both their orders. Until 1870, it was the site of all Papal coronations.