On this episode of Neutral World, as many of you know, I spent three and a half years living in Rome while Callista served as ambassador to the Holy See.

In our time there, we met so many fascinating people, some of whom were American expatriates who now live in Rome full time.

My guest today is somebody who I didn't introduce us to Rome many years ago, a very close personal friend and a brilliant person. Elizabeth Love or Liz, as we call her.

She is someone we got to know long before we got to Rome officially. She's an art historian. She has an amazing TED talk on the Sistine Chapel.

She's been working as a guide in Rome for over 20 years and I recommend her very highly. And she teaches at Duquesne University's Italian campus, as well as the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas.

She is just a remarkable teacher who is great fun, has great energy, has a ton of ideas. And she's currently teaching a course on the Sistine Chapel.

And when she told me that, I begged her to join us for this conversation, to talk about our mutual love of Rome, its art, history, cuisine, and people, and encourage all of our listeners if you haven't been to Rome, add it to your bucket list. It is an unbelievable city.

Liz, welcome and thank you for joining me on Newt's World.

Thank you so much for having me and for inviting me to talk about my favorite subject.

Well, and as I understand it, you are on a tour today.

Yes, I was.

What is that like? You must have occasional stories about the tour. See you, lead.

I think after 20 years of tours, I think the stories of touring are what we might describe as Legion.

Today, I was taking around a group of priests. There are very few things as fun as taking around a group of priests because it allows us to talk about the secondary and the tertiary levels of understanding.

So instead of having to stop and explain, there was a guy named Jesus. Instead we can really start playing around with deeper meanings and what things might mean and how we can maybe have different prisms of how to look at the Sistine Chapel.

So that was a very lovely experience. But then being the person to take a young person to the Sistine Chapel for the very first time is another.

It's an extraordinary honor and privilege because it's that moment that really rare and special moment of seeing eyes open as they look at this work of art and it speaks to them.

So there are so many wonderful things that have happened in my really fun job. It's just a wealth of happy memories.

So you've got a degree from University of Chicago, then came to Bologna to graduate work there. And I gather you fell in love with Italy and couldn't leave.

Yes, I fell in love with Italy. It's true. I always loved Europe. I loved France. And then later Italy, I think sort of swept me off my feet. So I was always very interested in Europe. It just goes back to reading a lot of European based novels when I was young.

But the real seduction for me for Italy was the way that I was taught to study art in the graduate program at the University of Bologna, which was very different from the graduate program at University of Chicago.

The University of Chicago had a very formal analysis, which means that everything in how the work presents itself visually is what we talk about.

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