A word from the editor in chief: Yesterday evening, I went to the evening prayer held nightly at Santa Maria in Trastevere ... The gossip. The gold and the frescoes and the Raphael tapestries.

Ancient Rome blends once more with Catholicism at Santa Maria in Trastevere, the neighbourhood’s main church. Look away from the glittering, 13th-century mosaics and you’ll see 22 hulking ...