Rome: La Bocca della Verita

The Santa Maria in Cosmedin is a lovely church, but no one really cares much about the church itself.  It's big claim to fame is the Bocca della Veritas that sits under the church's covered entryway. It entered the realm of pop culture thanks to the movie "Roman Holiday" starring Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn and more recently "Only You" with Marisa Tomei and Robert Downey Jr.  While it is rumored to have been a cover for the ancient sewers it appears to be made of marble too fine and to be in much too good of a condition for that to be true.  According to legend it was used as an ancient 'lie detector' and someone that was untruthful would have their fingers cut off when they inserted them into the mouth.  Some say a swordsman was hidden behind the mouth do do the slicing and dicing honors.  (See this link for more historical info on  Bocca Verita History)  There are always long lines of tourists waiting to have friends take their picture while they insert their hand into the mouth.  We resisted (not that we were really tempted) but did go into the church.  There was some impressive stone work and and the skull of St. Valentine according to the sign (he evidently had a very small head!)  We also enjoyed watching the tourists that were inserting their hands although we did not see any get loped off while we were there.