An Italian friend I made while diving in Honduras, Marco, took me on a great private tour of Rome. It included many things that he thought were really unique and worth seeing, but not often included on a whirlwind tour of the city. The keyhole at The Knights of Malta was one of those things.
As we drove up to a nondescript building in a pretty normal looking neighbourhood of Rome, there seemed to be nothing spectacular to see. But Marco explained to me that there was a little surprise. Without further explanation, he told me to bend down and look through the old fashioned key hole on the front door.
I was understandably nervous to peer through the unknown keyhole since our last stop had been the Bocca della Veritá, the Mouth of Truth, where accused liars of ancient Rome would stick their hand through the mouth of a stone carving and have it severed off by a sword bearing soldier concealed behind the wall in which the carving was housed.
With Marco’s assurance that I wouldn’t be poked in the eye by someone behind the door, I reluctantly peeked through the keyhole, and what I saw was the secret of The Knights of Malta.
The Sovereign Military Order of Malta, also known as The Knights of Malta, are headquartered in Rome. They designed this building with a long entrance corridor leading to a large open window. Through the window there was a spectacular view of Basílica de San Pedro, or St. Peter’s Basilica as it’s known in English, at Vatican City. But their secret is that you don’t have to be inside the building to enjoy the view, since it’s clearly visible by just peering through the keyhole on the locked front door of the building.
Since Marco had been here many times, he knew the best timing to see the view was at sunset. We had a beautiful sunset that evening so I was treated to this stunning view of St. Peter’s Basilica through the keyhole.
This photo is a composite of two images. Using a tripod, I focused on the keyhole with the first exposure, and then another exposure focused on St Peter’s Basilica in the distance. I laid them over each other and erased the non-focused portion of each image to create the in-focus version that you see here.
Location: Rome, Italy
Related Link: Sovereign Military Order of Malta on Wikipedia