If you think about the city of Rome very high on the list of images will be  Vatican City and St. Peter’s Square. Have you ever thought of who designed the buildings and square? If you have not, then reading Basilica by Rita.A. Scotti published by  Penguin Books, NY, 2006 will help you. The story starts in 1447 when Nicolas V returned the center of the Catholic church from France to Rome and wanted a building to both be a showcase for people around the world and be to the glory of God. The last major work was the columns around the square was finished in 1667 or more than 150 years from the start of construction. In between were wars, popes coming and going the average time of pope was 10 years – some less, some more. There were popes interested in power, popes interested in money, popes that were caretakers and popes that were doers. Many years ago, the best way to become a pope was to grease the palms of those who voted, now days it is different.

Being in Italy – the construction of the St. Peter’s Square attracted and used some of the world’s best known sculpture and painters, partly because at the time most of the population did not read and works of art communicated the message to the populace. Another reason is the artists of Bramante, Sangallo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Bernini were extra special in their visions and ability and at times the wealthy could employ them. The church and the senior cardinals had money to be spent on art, if desired. To learn  about St. Peter’s Square is learn about the Renaissance and Baroque periods of art.

An interesting part of the gold in St. Peter’s is after Columbus discovered the new world for Europeans and Spain became the wealthiest country in the world, gold and silver  from Mexican and Peru ended up in St. Peter’s as the rulers of Spain were catholic and paid tribute to the building. St. Peter’s was created by man for the glory of religion and even if you are not catholic – to see the building and the art work is a thing of glory as you consider when most of the building was built when engineering was in its infancy.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, if you use the expression of Rome was not built in a day, then you understand it took time to build the buildings, to decorate them, to do the square so when a person arrives at St. Peter’s his/her eyes are focused on the reason for the structures. It takes time to build an investment portfolio and with time, life happens and the world history changes at a regular pace. If you focus on why you are building your portfolio and it tends not to be rich overnight although you would take it. It takes time for compound interest to work, it takes time for the street to apply the multiple of your companies that you want them to; it takes time to be consistent about earning profits year over year. It takes time for you to look great.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.