La Bocca dela Verita

I remember the La Bocca dela Verita or "The Mouth of Truth" most vividly from Robert Downey, Jr. and Marisa Tomei's movie "Only You." It was also used in the movie "Roman Holiday" which I unfortunately have not seen yet. Usually when movies are set in Rome, the La Bocca dela Verita is one of the Roman attractions frequently shown. So when I finally had a chance to visit Rome, this landmark was definitely a must-go.

The attraction is quite isolated from the other ones. It was a fifteen minute bus ride from the center which turned out longer for us because we missed our stop. The bus kept going and so we had to walk another fifteen minutes to get there.

The marble frieze was located in the portico of the Santa Maria Cosmedin Church. A person would place his hand inside its mouth. If one told a lie, then the mouth would bite the hand off.

The line to see it was already long when we got there with about thirty people ahead of us. I consider ourselves lucky when just give three minutes after arriving, a bus load of Japanse tourists arrived. Imagine how much longer we would have to wait if we were behind that line! Of course, people wanted their photos taken with their hands inside the mouth. Obviously, I was one of those people.

It was only after I had my photo taken that I realized I should have told a lie in my head (I am the most beautiful woman in the world!) to see if the mouth would have bitten my hand off. :p