Diseased Castle

The walls have pockmarks from centuries of disease; the Castel Sant’Angelo has measles. The archangel Michael is an insufficient protector against the disease of plunderers, looters: it is a miracle he stands at all.

We are surrounded by weapons, but Christina tells us it is a chapel. Chains and guns flank us: what a strange dichotomy of religion and violence. But this is no dichotomy at all, in a world of religious war. It only seems to be one.