‘From Tourist to Pilgrim’: Let yourself be transformed!

By Linda Bordoni

“From Tourist to Pilgrim” is a Vatican Media podcast series featuring the knowledge, ideas and presence of Liz Lev, designed to help us prepare for the 2025 Jubilee by accompanying pilgrims on their journey through the basilicas, holy places and works of art in Rome.

The original music was composed by Mara Miceli of Vatican Radio and Umberto D'Auria. Mara also produced the podcasts directed by Johana Bronkova.

But to learn more about the content of the 16 podcasts that make up the series, Liz Lev agreed to appear on Vatican Radio to explain how she hopes to help visitors to Rome travel with the eyes of a pilgrim and experience this Jubilee Year to come like true pilgrims. of hope.

See with the eyes of a pilgrim

Liv told me she was so honored and excited to be asked to “transform some of the many, many visitors who come to Rome and help them see with the eyes of a pilgrim.”

She explained that one of the reasons she found this project so intriguing was that so much of it related to her own journey to and within the Eternal City.

“I guess I was a tourist when I got here, but I was also an art historian,” she said, and the way she was taught to study art and understanding art “really prevented us from looking at its spiritual side.”

But living here in Rome and being part of this world has led her to try to see works of art in the light in which they were made and for whom they were made.

This perspective, she said, opened up “a whole new beauty to this work.”

See beyond the surface

Liz said her podcasts aim to help the pilgrim see beyond the surface.

“Being able to open up the artwork and lose yourself in all of its spectacular facets,” she explained, is something she feels privileged to be able to promote.

The art historian told me that the podcasts, with a new episode broadcast every Tuesday, take us on a pilgrimage inside the papal basilicas as well as in front of the fountains and frescoes, on the squares, on the steps and roads.

One of the reasons this project intrigued her so much, Liz said, is that so many people who come to Rome don't realize how many of these spectacular things we come to see were made specifically for pilgrims: “Everything , from the location of the obelisks in the squares around the city, the monuments of Michelangelo Pieta – it was made for a jubilee – Caravaggio made his debut for a jubilee!

She explained that at the heart of a pilgrimage is the notion of renewal, of rebirth:

“This idea of ​​coming to Rome to renew oneself, to become new again, was reflected in art, and looking at it with the lens of a pilgrim, we can see this art with new eyes,” a- she declared.

The experience, she added, was intended to help us “transform ourselves in an inner spiritual way.”

Hope and beauty

The theme of this Jubilee Year is “Pilgrims of Hope,” a poignant subject in a time of global conflict and darkness. I asked Liz if she thought beauty and art could save us.

“Absolutely…” she said, and “What a great idea: “Pilgrims of Hope” reminding us that when half of the things on this list were done, Rome had suffered terrible things.

“There was a jubilee year during wars, there were jubilee years during epidemics, during floods, disaster after disaster…. And the disasters will always be there,” she said, emphasizing that what we are left with is not the memory of the bad things that happened during this period, “but the work of beauty that we were able to achieve, even in our darkest moments.

It's a good reminder, Liz continued, that “beauty helps us see beyond it, and while it's important to confront the terrible things happening in the world right now, if we focus on it We lose too much, we lose hope. But when we look beyond and we see the greatness and we get a glimpse of a bigger story, that's part of what gives us hope.

Art in action

And with a concrete example, Liz's words became an image in the making: “I just left the Sistine Chapel a few minutes ago, and I was looking at this image of Noah drunk: it's a dark scene, and it's is the last scene of the ceiling; Noah was supposed to save everyone and now he's passed out, drunk, and “damn, doesn't that stink!” »… and (next to him) Michelangelo put a brightly colored prophet, with emerald green and topaz yellow. Your eye is drawn to cheerful colors. What does this profit say? “I see a light coming from the east.”

It is, she says, about how these two small panels take the viewer out of the darkness and into the promise of a light of hope.

Let yourself be transformed

As a Roman, Liz concluded, she looks forward to seeing crowds of pilgrims passing through the city, even if it promises to be busy. And she had words of encouragement for the pilgrims and the Romans:

“I would say this is a moment of transformation: let yourself be transformed! The great graces that will flow through the city, the beauty of art, so many people side by side are experiences to share: make sure you make the most of this jubilee year!