Ferrara cut through the clips holding the mesh panels taut. When he had done four he took handfuls of the mesh and lifted up the fence with all his might. De Luca was now able to scramble under the fence. He stood upright and brushed dirt from his palms.
“Good work,” he said patting Ferrara on the back, “Now let’s have a look around.”
They searched around the buildings. De Luca spotted another tyre track in some mud which appeared to match those Ferrara had already photographed.
“Photograph this,” the inspector said, “See if it’s a match.”
Ferrara took a shot from every angle.
“Send that through to Ezio as well. Tell him to get back to us ASAP and find out who is the agent for this site. I want to know who has been in and out of here recently. Someone bought a new padlock for that gate.”
De Luca left Ferrara to make his phone call while he explored the upstairs of the main building. He found the door to the main building heavily fortified. He went back downstairs. His assistant had just finished on the phone.
“The door upstairs has a new lock as well.”
“The Centauro letting agency is dealing with this site.”
“Do we have their details?”
“Ezio is looking into them as we speak.”
“Very well. We may need to pay them a visit. Now let’s check out that hangar.”
The main hangar was empty. In the corner against the wall was a large dustbin and a brush. De Luca tipped the dustbin up and emptied it’s contents onto the floor. He bent down and sifted through the rubbish with his pen, then stood up.
“Nothing.”
He glanced around the hangar. Then conceded that there were no more clues. They were just crawling back under the fence when De Luca’s mobile began ringing in his pocket. He looked at the caller display. It was Sonnenburg.
“Commandant,” De Luca said answering the phone.
“Cesare that police car you’re looking for has turned up.”
De Luca turned to look at Ferrara.
“Where?”
“Here. At the Vatican.”
CHAPTER TEN
Natalie, Dennis, Hutchinson and their guide Luigi Alberto all squeezed through the airport style scanners and into St Peter’s square to join the hundreds of tourists already there. They had spent the morning exploring ancient Rome and had left, in what was Alberto’s opinion, the best for last. Natalie smiled and pointed. They all turned to see the basilica of St Peter’s church towering above the square.
“Now that is a sight,” Hutchinson said, “I’ve always wanted to see it.”
“Vatican city is an independent state created by the Lateran treaty of 11 Feb 1929 which was signed by Pope Pius XI, the holy see and the Italian government. It covers an area of 108 acres on the hill west of the Tiber river. It is separated from the rest of Rome by high walls on all sides except at the Piazza of St Peter. Over one thousand people live within these walls. The Vatican issues its own coins, postage stamps and has its own postal service. The head of state is his holiness Pope Benedict XVI. He is the 265 Pope of the Roman catholic church. He has full legislative and judicial powers with freedom under the Lateran treaty to organize his armed forces. He is also free to move or live through Italy as he should so desire. The Pope reigns over one billion catholics throughout the world and is assisted by the college of Cardinals and synods of bishops, synods being church councils.
The building you are looking at now, St Peter’s church, is the largest church in the world. The Vatican palace has been the official residence of the Popes since 1377. The original building was built in AD 319 by the Roman emperor Constantine who built a basilica over the tomb of St Peter himself, the first bishop of Rome. In the fifteenth century the building looked as if it would collapse and in 1452 the reconstruction was begun. The whole project soon ran out of money though and it was abandoned for over 50 years until 1506 when Pope Julius II gave instructions for the entire area of buildings to be demolished and the new St Peter’s to be built. Pope Julius II commissioned an architect by the name of Donato Bramante to do the work. Though it wouldn’t be until 1626, another 120 years before the work would be completed. Bramante died in 1514 and four other architects would work on the buildings. Namely Baldassare Peruzzi, Antonio Sangallo, Raphael and of course the most famous of them all, Michaelangelo.
A year before Bramante’s death, in 1513, Pope Julius II commissioned Raphael to decorate the Vatican apartments and Michaelangelo to paint the Sistine chapel.
In 1527 Rome was sacked by the army of the holy Roman empire led by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the work once again ground to a halt. Over the next twenty years very little was done and then in 1546 Pope Paul II persuaded an elderly Michaelangelo to complete the building. Michaelangelo reverted back to the original plan of Bramante’s to create a church of Greek style cross plan. Do any of you know what that is?”
Natalie nodded.
“It means that the arms of the church are all the same length.”
“That’s good Miss Feltham. Have you excavated churches in Greece?”
“No. During the summer months the institute runs diving tours for extra funding from the island of Zakynthos. It’s just something I learned somewhere. The sort of thing one picks up.”
“What do you dive for?”
“Oh there are a few ancient shipwrecks off the coast, Roman mainly, though there’s virtually nothing of the ships left themselves. There is an amazing display of hundreds of amphorae all standing upright in the sand.”
“It sounds very interesting. You must surely love your work as I love mine.”
“You have a fascinating job,” Hutchinson added, “This tour is fantastic.”
“I live in one of the oldest and greatest cities in the world. I knew when I was just a small boy that I would dedicate my life to her. To me, she is the most beautiful city in the world.”
“I’d say,” Hutchinson concluded.
“Now,” Alberto said, bringing them back to his tour, “The best of Michaelangelo’s work on st Peter’s church would have been the dome itself but it was never completed during his lifetime and his plans were modified after his death by the architect Giacomo Della Porta. Later when we go inside I will tell you more about the church itself. Now in front of the church is the most beautiful, I think, architecture in the world, St Peter’s square. The Piazza Di San Pietro designed by Gianlorenzo Bernini. It was started in 1656 and completed in 1667. Now it’s called St Peter’s square but this is in fact wrong. It’s shape is not square but elliptical. You can see there are four rows of giant coloumns creating two collonades. Miss Feltham, Mr Dennis, if you would like to stand on either of the stone discs on the ground here and here,” he waited until they were in position, “We are lucky that the crowds aren’t too big. You’ll note that the collonades now appear to be single rows only.”
Alberto paused long enough for Hutchinson to have tried it also.
“That is amazing,” the American said.
“The Egyptian obelisk,” the Italian guide continued, “Is 25.9 metres in height or 85ft if you don’t measure in metric.”
“Never did understand metres,” Hutchinson said, “Pounds and inches are what I know best.”
“The obelisk was brought to Rome from Heliopolis in Egypt in 35AD by the Roman emperor Caligula. It was originally used in the circus and was moved to here in 1586 by Pope Sixtus V. The star at the top of the obelisk is the Chigi star named after Fabio Chigi who became Pope Alexander VII and under whose reign the Piazza was built. During the moving of the obelisk there was almost disaster when the ropes holding it began to break. A warning shout from a Genoese sailor saved the obelisk from falling and the palms used every palm Sunday thereafter came from his home town of Bordighera. They still do to this day.”