I'm working from the Vatican Observatory, the Specola Vaticana, this week. The Specola might seem focused on anything-but-earth science, but the meteorites that the earth sweeps up as she moves through the heavens are clues not only to the otherworldly, but to our own planet's history.
8 am
I've left Italy to go to work in another country, no passport control needed, I just opened the door with a key and walked in. The Specola is housed in the Papal Gardens in Castelgandolfo, where Popes John Paul II and Benedict spent the summers (and I understand why - it's decidedly cooler here than in Rome). An "extraterritorial" part of Vatican City State's, the gardens cover more area than the Holy See in Rome.
Cappuccino! The astronomers meet for coffee and conversation in a sunny room off the courtyard.
Working in my office under the eaves, the view is over the courtyard, the library right outside the door. It looks nothing at all like what Dan Brown described in The DaVinci code, despite the bearded Jesuit brother who directs the Observatory working downstairs. You know you are at home when the network recognizes your laptop as soon as you lift the lid.
UPDATES as I go today.
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