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When in Rome: A Journal of Life in the Vatican City
Robert Hutchinson is on a mission: to explore the living center of the Roman Catholic Church. "Twenty years after my first visit to Rome I set out to rediscover the Vatican. I wondered how it would all seem, to a smart-aleck American writer and confused Catholic, to really poke around the place, talk to the people who actually run it." When in Rome is not a book of theology or politics, it's a compilation of the nitty-gritty, day-to-day inside stories of what really makes the Eternal City tick. "I wanted to know how much money a cardinal made, what those silly capelike outfits were called, where the Swiss Guards went drinking on their days off, and so on," explains Hutchinson.
This book is a collection of the best of his discoveries. Always with a sense of humor and a bottomless curiosity (sometimes irreverent, but never disrespectful), Hutchinson reveals how archaeologists found, then lost, the bones of St. Peter; he seeks erotic literature in the Vatican library to help him brush up on his Italian (when studying foreign languages he finds this genre increases his motivation to look up new words in the dictionary); he learns that "relics" in Rome range from right arms to foreskins; and devotes an entire chapter to the sex lives of the popes.
If Rome is on your itinerary, When in Rome is an excellent take-along read that will help make the Vatican City come to life. --Kathryn True
304 pages, Paperback
First published June 15, 1998
8 people are currently reading
225 people want to read
About the author
Robert J. Hutchinson
12 books48 followersRobert J. Hutchinson is the author of
What Really Happened: The Death of Hitler
(Regnery History, August 2020), which settles the question once and for all about whether Hitler escaped to live in Argentina, and
What Really Happened: The Lincoln Assassination
(Regnery History, April 2020), a step-by-step recreation of the final week of Abraham Lincoln's life. Hutchinson is also the author of
The Dawn of Christianity,
(Thomas Nelson, 2017), a journalistic retelling of the last week of Jesus’ life and the twenty years that followed;
Searching for Jesus: New Discoveries in the Quest for Jesus of Nazareth
(Thomas Nelson, 2015), a pioneering work that challenges older scholarly ideas about who Jesus was and what he was trying to achieve;
The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Bible
(Regnery, 2008) which argues that the ideas embedded in the ancient Biblical texts gave rise to such developments as modern science, the recognition of universal human rights and constitutional government;
When in Rome: A Journal of Life In Vatican City
(Doubleday, 1998) which recounts the adventures of his family when they lived in Rome and Hutchinson researched the inner workings of the Vatican; and
The Book of Vices: A Collection of Classic Immoral Tales
(Putnam, 1996) which is a light-hearted attempt to poke fun at William Bennett's The Book of Virtues and is full of excerpts from ribald classics.
Hutchinson has been a professional writer and author his entire adult life, working both for Christian publications, such as Christianity Today and U.S. Catholic, and for secular magazines and newspapers. He was once the managing editor of Hawaii Magazine and the Hawaii Bureau Chief for The Hollywood Reporter. Hutchinson attended Catholic schools, studied philosophy and French as an undergraduate, moved to Israel to learn Hebrew, and earned a graduate degree in New Testament studies in 2004. He is currently pursuing graduate studies in philosophy at the University of Innsbruck, Austria.
Hutchinson has been a professional writer and author his entire adult life, working both for Christian publications, such as Christianity Today and U.S. Catholic, and for secular magazines and newspapers. He was once the managing editor of Hawaii Magazine and the Hawaii Bureau Chief for The Hollywood Reporter. Hutchinson attended Catholic schools, studied philosophy and French as an undergraduate, moved to Israel to learn Hebrew, and earned a graduate degree in New Testament studies in 2004. He is currently pursuing graduate studies in philosophy at the University of Innsbruck, Austria.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
August 24, 2017
A fun and informative read for my Around-the-World Reading Challenge (Vatican City).
January 24, 2011
This book was both hilarious and extremely interesting. I read it after a conversation with my husband’s Godfather, a Brother in the Roman Catholic Church who mentioned loving the Church in spite of its many, many flaws.
It is the story of an American journalist (a Vatican correspondent for 15 years) and "confused Catholic" who decides to spend a year in Rome researching the Vatican through "asking lots of dumb questions". For instance, who has to clean all those statues? Where do the curia go shopping for huge rosaries and funny-looking red hats? Is Saint Peter really buried underneath St. Peter's? Are the Swiss Guard armed with anything that didn't come from the 16th Century? Does the Vatican Library really have the world's largest collection of erotica? What's with all the relics?
Along the way, he researches other stories of lesser-known parts of Church history, such as Queen Christina of Sweden, the freethinking Lutheran-raised lesbian who is buried next to the popes. Or the various scandals that are detailed in Chapter 15, "Sex Lives of the Popes".
This book was a pleasant surprise. I picked this up on a whim and it quickly became a favorite. Part travelogue, part history book and surprisingly funny. You don't even realize you are getting a history lesson. I adored this book! In short, it’s a hilarious run-down of the papacy through the ages.
It is the story of an American journalist (a Vatican correspondent for 15 years) and "confused Catholic" who decides to spend a year in Rome researching the Vatican through "asking lots of dumb questions". For instance, who has to clean all those statues? Where do the curia go shopping for huge rosaries and funny-looking red hats? Is Saint Peter really buried underneath St. Peter's? Are the Swiss Guard armed with anything that didn't come from the 16th Century? Does the Vatican Library really have the world's largest collection of erotica? What's with all the relics?
Along the way, he researches other stories of lesser-known parts of Church history, such as Queen Christina of Sweden, the freethinking Lutheran-raised lesbian who is buried next to the popes. Or the various scandals that are detailed in Chapter 15, "Sex Lives of the Popes".
This book was a pleasant surprise. I picked this up on a whim and it quickly became a favorite. Part travelogue, part history book and surprisingly funny. You don't even realize you are getting a history lesson. I adored this book! In short, it’s a hilarious run-down of the papacy through the ages.
May 2, 2025
My response to this book was - mediocre - a collection of stories and anecdotes that could have been written any time in the last hundred years by any foriegn correspondent accredited to the Vatican - and probably has been. If you read nothing, or very little, about the history of the Pope's and Roman history since it became the home of the papacy, then you may enjoy this book. Otherwise the relentless procession of clichéd stories and potted history - none of it 100% accurate - is bound to become tiresome and annoying. It is just hard to understand why such a book was thought necessary or useful. Considering it's lack of any deep analysis of an institution about suffer decades of devastating reversals with scandals over money, sex and all sorts of other things it makes you seriously question what kind of journalist the author is.
September 8, 2009
This book was both hilarious and extremely interesting. I found it a few weeks ago at the library after my pastor mentioned it in a homily about loving the Church in spite of its many, many flaws.
An American journalist and "confused Catholic" decides to spend a year in Rome, researching the Vatican through "asking lots of dumb questions." For instance, who has to clean all those statues? Where do the curia go shopping for huge rosaries and funny-looking red hats? Is Saint Peter really buried underneath St. Peter's? Are the Swiss Guard armed with anything that didn't come from the 16th Century? Does the Vatican Library really have the world's largest collection of erotica? What's with all the relics?
Along the way, he researches other stories of lesser-known parts of Church history, such as Queen Christina of Sweden, the freethinking Lutheran-raised lesbian who is buried next to the popes. Or the various scandals that are detailed in Chapter 15, "Sex Lives of the Popes".
An American journalist and "confused Catholic" decides to spend a year in Rome, researching the Vatican through "asking lots of dumb questions." For instance, who has to clean all those statues? Where do the curia go shopping for huge rosaries and funny-looking red hats? Is Saint Peter really buried underneath St. Peter's? Are the Swiss Guard armed with anything that didn't come from the 16th Century? Does the Vatican Library really have the world's largest collection of erotica? What's with all the relics?
Along the way, he researches other stories of lesser-known parts of Church history, such as Queen Christina of Sweden, the freethinking Lutheran-raised lesbian who is buried next to the popes. Or the various scandals that are detailed in Chapter 15, "Sex Lives of the Popes".
June 4, 2014
“Like most Catholics, I spent most of my life knowing practically nothing about the Vatican, despite twenty years writing, off and on, about religion in general and the Catholic Church in particular.” When in Rome is Hutchinson's remedy to that deficiency, a delightful romp through the mores and politics of the Holy See.
It's ironic that being a Catholic you get to see a lot of beautiful naked women. "It's true. You may never have realized it before. I never could understand why thickheaded, drooling Protestants would accuse us of being prudes when they gave the world the Puritans and the Moral Majority and we gave the world Rodin's The Kiss.'The fact is that everywhere you go in the Vatican you find nudity. From the Sistine Chapel to the papal apartments are busty young women and tumescent young men in murals and paintings that would cause an immense ruckus if found on the walls of any university or public library.
Hutchinson set out to write a book about the Vatican that would answer the kinds of questions that tourists might ask, e.g. How much do cardinals make? or Where do prelates buy their clothes? He soon learned that the Vatican is still very tight lipped and secretive. In fact, they distrust book writers more than magazine journalists, because threatening to deny them future access can control those who write for periodicals. Book writers, on the other hand, often write only one. And "reporters are trained to expect politicians to lie to them, but even politicians will tell you something, if only so they don't look as though they are covering things up. But avoid expressing an opinion about any person, place, or thing, unless absolutely necessary to further one's own interests. This timidity breeds an atmosphere of secrecy and paranoia that outsiders find pathological but which curial insiders believe to be the noblest kind of discretion." This means a reluctance to respond concretely to questions leading to this type of fictitious response from a cardinal who has been asked if the sky is really blue. 'The issue is not perception as such, but whether the apparent blueness of the sky to some people, at certain times and under certain conditions, reflects what they are actually perceiving or merely what they appear to be perceiving. You can't, on this basis alone, simply make the bare assertion that the sky is blue. It's a very complex question, one on which many experts disagree." At this point, you begin to develop a throbbing headache at the base of the skull.
The Vatican State as we know it today is of very recent origin. Until the mid-nineteenth century, the Papal States covered territory in Italy the size of Denmark. Rome and the Vatican were protected by foreign nations, notably France, until the Franco-Prussian War, when all the French troops were withdrawn from Italy and the Italian nationalists attacked and conquered Rome, in effect, imprisoning the pope in the Vatican. In 1929, Mussolini codified the uneasy truce, and Vatican City became recognized by international law. A second treaty was formalized only as late as 1985. Despite the pope's perpetual support for
democratic nations, the church is a highly structured monarchy. The pope's the boss, no doubt about it. He answers to no one - at least no one who's willing to show him/herself politically. Still, every day at noon, a cannon is fired to celebrate the Italian victory over Rome and the pope.
Hutchinson's book is filled with delightful little pieces of information such as how the Swiss guard uniforms were designed, how many uniforms have to be tailored, the contents of the Vatican library, and most interestingly his tour through the secret archives that contain documents of extraordinary historical value. "The dominant trait [of the Curia and Vatican staff] is circumspection - the ability to documents of extraordinary historical value. "The Secret Archives is also responsible for the Vatican's overseas diplomatic missions as well as the staggering amount of material that is received directly from the 2,700 metropolitan sees, 212,000 individual parishes, heads of states, scientific organizations, non-Catholic religious bodies, cultural leaders, and so on. The sheer amount of paper that washes over the Vatican. . . boggles the mind."
The Vatican has been responsible for many scientific discoveries and we owe our calendar to Pope Gregory who- in order to correct errors of the Sosigenean calendar that was off by eleven minutes and fourteen seconds per year- simply declared in a 1582 Papal bull that the day after October 5 would officially become October 15 and that the year would now be 365.2422 days long, making the calendar off only 3.12 days every 400 years. Hence leap years. It was from the Meridian Room (more naked cherubs on the ceiling) atop the tall Tower of the Winds built by Gregory that the astronomical observations were made to provide the corrections.
The story of Queen Christina of Sweden, her abdication and conversion to Catholicism, is fascinating. Particularly as she scandalized Rome by her licentious behavior - she was a flagrant lesbian, and the story of how she came to be buried with the popes reveals a great deal about how attitudes have shifted in the past few centuries.
This is a delightful little volume that makes want to grab the next flight to Rome to indulge in the majesty and glory of living history.
It's ironic that being a Catholic you get to see a lot of beautiful naked women. "It's true. You may never have realized it before. I never could understand why thickheaded, drooling Protestants would accuse us of being prudes when they gave the world the Puritans and the Moral Majority and we gave the world Rodin's The Kiss.'The fact is that everywhere you go in the Vatican you find nudity. From the Sistine Chapel to the papal apartments are busty young women and tumescent young men in murals and paintings that would cause an immense ruckus if found on the walls of any university or public library.
Hutchinson set out to write a book about the Vatican that would answer the kinds of questions that tourists might ask, e.g. How much do cardinals make? or Where do prelates buy their clothes? He soon learned that the Vatican is still very tight lipped and secretive. In fact, they distrust book writers more than magazine journalists, because threatening to deny them future access can control those who write for periodicals. Book writers, on the other hand, often write only one. And "reporters are trained to expect politicians to lie to them, but even politicians will tell you something, if only so they don't look as though they are covering things up. But avoid expressing an opinion about any person, place, or thing, unless absolutely necessary to further one's own interests. This timidity breeds an atmosphere of secrecy and paranoia that outsiders find pathological but which curial insiders believe to be the noblest kind of discretion." This means a reluctance to respond concretely to questions leading to this type of fictitious response from a cardinal who has been asked if the sky is really blue. 'The issue is not perception as such, but whether the apparent blueness of the sky to some people, at certain times and under certain conditions, reflects what they are actually perceiving or merely what they appear to be perceiving. You can't, on this basis alone, simply make the bare assertion that the sky is blue. It's a very complex question, one on which many experts disagree." At this point, you begin to develop a throbbing headache at the base of the skull.
The Vatican State as we know it today is of very recent origin. Until the mid-nineteenth century, the Papal States covered territory in Italy the size of Denmark. Rome and the Vatican were protected by foreign nations, notably France, until the Franco-Prussian War, when all the French troops were withdrawn from Italy and the Italian nationalists attacked and conquered Rome, in effect, imprisoning the pope in the Vatican. In 1929, Mussolini codified the uneasy truce, and Vatican City became recognized by international law. A second treaty was formalized only as late as 1985. Despite the pope's perpetual support for
democratic nations, the church is a highly structured monarchy. The pope's the boss, no doubt about it. He answers to no one - at least no one who's willing to show him/herself politically. Still, every day at noon, a cannon is fired to celebrate the Italian victory over Rome and the pope.
Hutchinson's book is filled with delightful little pieces of information such as how the Swiss guard uniforms were designed, how many uniforms have to be tailored, the contents of the Vatican library, and most interestingly his tour through the secret archives that contain documents of extraordinary historical value. "The dominant trait [of the Curia and Vatican staff] is circumspection - the ability to documents of extraordinary historical value. "The Secret Archives is also responsible for the Vatican's overseas diplomatic missions as well as the staggering amount of material that is received directly from the 2,700 metropolitan sees, 212,000 individual parishes, heads of states, scientific organizations, non-Catholic religious bodies, cultural leaders, and so on. The sheer amount of paper that washes over the Vatican. . . boggles the mind."
The Vatican has been responsible for many scientific discoveries and we owe our calendar to Pope Gregory who- in order to correct errors of the Sosigenean calendar that was off by eleven minutes and fourteen seconds per year- simply declared in a 1582 Papal bull that the day after October 5 would officially become October 15 and that the year would now be 365.2422 days long, making the calendar off only 3.12 days every 400 years. Hence leap years. It was from the Meridian Room (more naked cherubs on the ceiling) atop the tall Tower of the Winds built by Gregory that the astronomical observations were made to provide the corrections.
The story of Queen Christina of Sweden, her abdication and conversion to Catholicism, is fascinating. Particularly as she scandalized Rome by her licentious behavior - she was a flagrant lesbian, and the story of how she came to be buried with the popes reveals a great deal about how attitudes have shifted in the past few centuries.
This is a delightful little volume that makes want to grab the next flight to Rome to indulge in the majesty and glory of living history.
August 1, 2021
Wonderfully interesting and informative story about a writer’s year in Rome with a focus on the Vatican City. A bit dated (published in 1998) but generally spot on. Reads like the travel version of a Mary Roach book.
November 5, 2021
Entertaining read. Not really as funny as the cover illustration and blurbs imply. More jaw-dropping at the intransigence and opacity of the Vatican bureaucracy. Hutchinson strikes a pleasing balance between his devoutness and exasperation.
September 11, 2024
Interesting read with a lot of insider details which I found fascinating as a backdrop to a week's holiday in the eternal city. The more I read, the more I wanted to find out & ended up planning another trip before this one was even over & buying a few more Vatican /Rome books to read!
December 27, 2024
3.5 - Very interesting and informative.
March 16, 2025
Great overview of the Vatican and Roman life. Funny too!
March 9, 2017
Excellent book! I'm not Catholic, but I very much enjoyed the author's discovery of life in Rome, and his explorations of Vatican life. Easy-to-read, well-written, and quite funny.
August 4, 2011
Despite the times that I did laugh or learn a particularly interesting tidbit of information during Hutchinson's travel log, I found the majority of the book to be extremely dry and boring.
Hutchinson smacks the reader in the face with street names and bus stops and a whole bunch of useless information to the general reader ... unless, I suppose, his general reader is someone who actually has been to Italy and the Vatican before.
If I wasn't transferring over my reviews from the other "Books" application, I honestly would have forgotten all about this waste of time, so I suggest that you don't even bother picking this one up. Wikipedia's page on the Vatican is probably more worth your time than this book.
Hutchinson smacks the reader in the face with street names and bus stops and a whole bunch of useless information to the general reader ... unless, I suppose, his general reader is someone who actually has been to Italy and the Vatican before.
If I wasn't transferring over my reviews from the other "Books" application, I honestly would have forgotten all about this waste of time, so I suggest that you don't even bother picking this one up. Wikipedia's page on the Vatican is probably more worth your time than this book.
May 30, 2016
Delightful. Hutchinson gives a funny, interesting view of life in Vatican City, focusing short chapters on different aspects of the smallest country in the world, many of them stemming from gaining unusual access to a particular person or place. He gives a good feel for the people--the Italians, the Vatican Guard, the average Joes who maintain St. Peter's, the paranoid, tight-lipped Vaticani; he tells a good story--how St. Peter's bones (maybe) were discovered, how creepy the bone house of the Capuchin monks was; and he shows how everything is steeped in history with stories like the independent Queen Christina abdicating her throne and converting to Catholicism. Such a huge topic, but Hutchinson does a great job of distilling it into a fascinating, readable travel book.
February 8, 2011
Let me quote someone else for a good review of this book: "When in Romne is a witty, delightfully disrespectful travelogue through the Vatican, done by a loyal Roman Catholic who has had his eyes opened long ago about goings on in the Church and still loves it. His loyalty, however, does not prevent him from ridiculing the ridiculous, poking fun at the pompous, aiming his laser at things long hidden in darkness, laying bare the secret, pricking the balloons of the inflated. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, but you have to have a good sense of humor. What is uncanny is that I learned so much about so many things I thought I would never know." --Fr. J. Girzone
Amen!
Amen!
June 24, 2015
I picked up this book in prep for our trip to Rome. I read the first 100 pages on the flights over. By then, it was getting boring and repetitive about the Vatican culture and we were busing seeing the sights, so I moved on to my next book/destination (Under the Tuscan Sun).
Still, what I read was helpful, because it describe a cynical journalist of the 90's take on what it was like to live as an expat in Rome. It's not flattering, but it was relatable and interesting and allowed me to be happily surprised when I got there -- and to appreciate that I was arriving as a tourist, not moving in.
Still, what I read was helpful, because it describe a cynical journalist of the 90's take on what it was like to live as an expat in Rome. It's not flattering, but it was relatable and interesting and allowed me to be happily surprised when I got there -- and to appreciate that I was arriving as a tourist, not moving in.
June 19, 2007
I read this to get in the mood for my visit to Rome and the Vatican. I was looking for an light, easy starter (but not too fluffy!) before tackling any dense historical treatises (which I never got around to anyway). It turned out to the perfect (and funny!) introduction to the Vatican, its rituals, and even pontifical fashion... all written in a witty, self-deprecating, and respectfully irreverent way.
July 16, 2007
A very personal account on the author's staying in Rome and the Vatican. Light and funny reading. Gives an intimate feeling about the City, the Italian attitudes and behaviours towards foreigners or foreign cultures. Although not all of them are true according to my own experience.
I learned more about the the Vatican: their inner politics, behaviour, and its history. Not to mention, the bisexual Swedish queen whose convertion to Catholisms arose controversies.
I learned more about the the Vatican: their inner politics, behaviour, and its history. Not to mention, the bisexual Swedish queen whose convertion to Catholisms arose controversies.
Currently reading
March 12, 2012I was raised and educated Catholic so the subject material of this books was of great interest to me. This is a light-hearted(at times) and factual book about the history of the papacy and Vatican City and its importance to the city of Rome. I had just returned from a trip to Rome and this book explained many questions I had about the Vatican. I would recommend reading this book before a trip to Rome.
October 23, 2008
This book was a pleasant surprise. I was looking for some light reading to counterbalance the sci-fi I have been getting into, so I picked this up on a whim and it quickly became a favorite. Part travelogue, part history book and surprisingly humerus, you don't even realize you are getting a history lesson. Who know there were bisexual Popes? Now I do.
July 22, 2009
Read this after our trip to Rome and Italy in January of 1999. The author has written alot on the Vatican and this book is an insiders look at that institution.
Loved the author's detail about his experience living in Rome along with his wife (and baby?).
I think this is a good candidate to go on my re-read shelf.
Loved the author's detail about his experience living in Rome along with his wife (and baby?).
I think this is a good candidate to go on my re-read shelf.
February 17, 2010
A really great account of the author's experience living in Rome and working within the Vatican. This book is a lot of fun to read - It has a ton of interesting historical information that really put things into context on our recent trip. I'll probably read it again at some point now that I've seen a lot of the places mentioned. Highly recommended!
October 7, 2014
He had me laughing out loud. If you've ever been to Rome, if you've ever planned on going there, if you've ever been Catholic, then this book is for you. A real inside look at the Vatican with lots of chuckles. Written in 1998, I doubt much has changed. And he mentions lots of unknown places it would be fun to check out.
October 3, 2016
This is at times an interesting tour of Vatican City that has a lot of small factoids peppered throughout, but it never really elevated into anything that really grabbed my attention. If I hadn't read this for a class in college, I doubt I would have ever picked it up. That being said, my father is really interested in the Vatican, so he found this book really enjoyable.
February 16, 2025
Vatican City
My selection for Vatican City in my around-the-world challenge. This book was lighthearted and fun, and I really enjoyed it, so much that I read it very nearly in one sitting. I learned a lot more about Rome and the Vatican City than I thought I would have, especially the more mundane and day-to-day aspects which were highly interesting.
My selection for Vatican City in my around-the-world challenge. This book was lighthearted and fun, and I really enjoyed it, so much that I read it very nearly in one sitting. I learned a lot more about Rome and the Vatican City than I thought I would have, especially the more mundane and day-to-day aspects which were highly interesting.
November 23, 2012
I expected an exploration of Rome, but I got an intimate and slightly irreverent look at the Vatican. Hutchinson, like me, is a committed Catholic but one, again like me, whose eyes are wide open. He writes with wit - occasionally laugh-out-loud funny - and perception.
February 10, 2013
A light, funny look at life in the Vatican and what it means to be Catholic today. Sometimes it was hard to believe the author is Catholic, but it seems that only a Catholic could really make fun of the inner workings of the church the way he does without it being offensive.
December 27, 2016
Very interesting, but HUGE historical gaffe when he mentions that Mary Tudor (!) was beheaded by Elizabeth I. I enjoyed his observations of the Italian personality and philosophy in the small businesses.
February 24, 2007
I adored this book. It’s a hilarious run-down of the papacy through the ages. The author was a Vatican correspondent for 15 years.
Currently reading
July 13, 2007So far, so good -- a kind of Bill Bryson look at the history of the Vatican. Haven't had enough time to sort through it.
Currently reading
August 20, 2007thanks for the loan Kim Marie!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews