The Pope's Pizza Oven

[james]

This might be my favorite photo from our trip. This oven is in the kitchens at the Papal Palace in Avignon, where the popes lived during the 14th century. At the time the pope's were pretty secular, and by all accounts threw some great parties. They still have the financial records from that time, and some of these guys had huge travel and entertainment budgets -- and a great wine cellar, which is still intact.

I have this mental picture of the pope sitting back with a few bishops eating pizza and drinking Chateau-Neuf de Pape.

The oven itself is in great shape, and the papal palace is a great place to visit and get a feeling for the medieval world.
James

[jengineer]

Pope's back in the day were not as stodgy prim nor proper!

[CanuckJim]

JE, James,

Lest we forget our chatechism: those pizzas (wine, too) would have had the papal blessing, and those parties probably had a papal dispensation. Therefore, your past life as a sinner would have been wiped, and you could start all over with a clean slate on the pizza and wine.

Jim

[james]

All of that from a good Irish boy.
James