Episode 12: CHESTERTON AROUND THE WORLD SERIES: "Chesterton and Italy"

In 1929, G.K. Chesterton traveled to Rome to attend the beatification of the English Martyrs, while there he had private audiences with both Mussolini and Pope Pius XI. 

From the Hotel Hassler at the top of the Spanish Steps, he had one of the best views of the city. For a man who never was at a loss of words, it seems it was hard for him to describe the Eternal City, however, he wrote and reflected on his time in room in his book “The Resurrection of Rome.”  In it he writes about: the outline of the city; the story of the status, the pillar of Lateran; the return of the Gods, and the return of the romans, finishing with a chapter about the Holy Land 

 He remarked: “Rome is too small for its greatness, or too great for its smallness.”   

"Roman civilization is at the heart of G.K. Chesterton’s historical imagination. Nowhere is this more evident than in his 1925 book "The Everlasting Man," which challenged a materialist, evolutionary perspective on history and highlighted the distinctive place of the Christian Church in the development of civilization."--Susan Hanssen, Dept. of History, U. of Dallas, Texas