July 17th: Vatican City
Where to begin?! I suppose I’ll start with our train ride, which once again started at 8am. I’m getting too old to sleep 5 hours and tromp around an ancient city in the blazing heat. Anyway, the train ride was uneventful, and we arrived at the stop near St. Peter’s Square around 10am. We (Jenn, Chris, and I) worked our sleepy selves to the outer walls with the intention of finding a tour group to join as to bypass the 2-3 hour wait. We were soon approached by a woman asking us if we wanted such a tour for 25-Euro each, and we proceeded in joining her small group. The tour started almost immediately with our group of 7 walking around St. Peter’s Square, probably my favorite part (aside from the Sistine Chapel). It’s fascinating how many obelisks from Egypt are strewn about Rome. Apparently, if an emperor liked a certain obelisk (pointy tower thing), he just snapped his fingers and had one delivered to his favorite square. The one in St. Peter’s Square is exceptionally cool with its backdrop of St. Peter’s Basilica. We then left the square, passing the Swiss guards’ apartments (and some dashing Swiss guards) and the 2-3 hour wait line for tickets, and made our way along the outer wall to the entrance of the Vatican Museum. The tour groups are exempted from the line outside of the museum, which alone was worth the 25-Euro. Once inside we passed through metal detectors and bought our actual entrance tickets, which were 8-Euro for students. Then we traveled upwards (literally) and onwards to the main gallery with the signs and directions to all of the galleries.
Our tour lady took us on a route straight through the main galleries, highlighting the most significant points. There were SO MANY STATUES. You could literally spend a year looking at the statues alone. Old, new, with fig leaves, without, and some without a need for fig leaves at all because of a certain absence thanks to a pope who was made uncomfortable by certain body parts. After rooms and rooms of statues (including torso man, Michelangelo’s model for his Jesus and Apollo), gorgeous frescos (often painted as 3-D illusions) and busts, we made it to a tapestry room. This part was really cool as well, as our tour lady explained to us the differences between the two walls of tapestries and the difficulties of cleaning the color silver (which was very commonly used). Two particular tapestries also included illusions, where it seemed as if Jesus watched as you walked by from all angles, and a soldier’s foot seemed to move in the same direction you were traveling. It was very cool, and so advanced for its time. Then we sort of breezed through a map room of ancient paintings of all of the Italian area, passed a million more statues, and crammed into a stairwell leading down, then up into the Sistine Chapel. Holy crap it was beautiful. Michelangelo really did this (well, most of it) in 4 years, lying on his back? I learned that he basically had one try with each of the sections, as painting frescos requires the material to be wet, so any mistake resulted in clearing off the whole section and restarting. I can hardly write my name without making a mistake. We snapped some illegal pictures (hey, everybody did) and made our way out. Our tour group disbanded, and the three of us went back to the beginning of the museum for lunch and exploring on our own.
On our own we discovered rooms and rooms of nick-knacks, closets of various popes, golden bibles, paintings, millions of candleholders, and, of course, more statues. We then found our way to the Egyptian gallery which contained several artifacts (often from B.C.), a couple preserved mummies (very cool!!), and ancient statues. It’s amazing that the Vatican owns pretty much whatever they want. Why does a Catholic church want Pagan artifacts? Just to show that they can get anything they want, I suppose. We wound our way to the famous Greek fresco with Plato and Apollo(?) with a whole mess of famous philosophers surrounding them on steps. I remember this one being a pretty big deal from high school. After further winding and aching feet, we were back at the Sistine Chapel, but this time breezed through in order to get out of the museum and into St. Peter’s Basilica.
Before entering the Basilica I was completely exhausted and needing a rest, but as soon as we walked in I was instantly revitalized. Whether or not the biggest or second biggest church in the world (our different guidebooks didn’t agree), I can see why people flock from all over the world to this amazing space. It was captivating. From the gigantic dark altar to the countless domes, tombs, statues, and arches, the Basilica in itself represented the wealth, power, and beauty of the Catholic Church. To make things even better, a mass was in session at the far end of the church, and every once in a while the organ would play, accompanying a choir. It was eerie, captivating, and beautiful all at once. The three of us finally pulled ourselves away from the Basilica after sheer exhaustion set in, and after a quick stop at the Vatican Post Office and St. Peter’s Square (one more time!) we walked the few blocks back to the train station (but not before a quick trip to a gelateria).
Our journey home began rather exciting. While we were trying to get the ticket machine to work our train pulled up, so we didn’t even bother with the tickets and instead ran across the first tracks (illegal) and boarded our train, sans tickets. Of our previous 5 times on the train, Jenn and I had only been checked for tickets once, so we figured the odds were in our favor that we would not be checked. We were right, so our trip home was gratis. Win! Leftover soup and cake greeted us at the villa, and after skimming some pictures and much-needed showers it is time to hit the sack. Tomorrow should be a lovely day of sleeping in and practicing. Goodnight!
Our tour lady took us on a route straight through the main galleries, highlighting the most significant points. There were SO MANY STATUES. You could literally spend a year looking at the statues alone. Old, new, with fig leaves, without, and some without a need for fig leaves at all because of a certain absence thanks to a pope who was made uncomfortable by certain body parts. After rooms and rooms of statues (including torso man, Michelangelo’s model for his Jesus and Apollo), gorgeous frescos (often painted as 3-D illusions) and busts, we made it to a tapestry room. This part was really cool as well, as our tour lady explained to us the differences between the two walls of tapestries and the difficulties of cleaning the color silver (which was very commonly used). Two particular tapestries also included illusions, where it seemed as if Jesus watched as you walked by from all angles, and a soldier’s foot seemed to move in the same direction you were traveling. It was very cool, and so advanced for its time. Then we sort of breezed through a map room of ancient paintings of all of the Italian area, passed a million more statues, and crammed into a stairwell leading down, then up into the Sistine Chapel. Holy crap it was beautiful. Michelangelo really did this (well, most of it) in 4 years, lying on his back? I learned that he basically had one try with each of the sections, as painting frescos requires the material to be wet, so any mistake resulted in clearing off the whole section and restarting. I can hardly write my name without making a mistake. We snapped some illegal pictures (hey, everybody did) and made our way out. Our tour group disbanded, and the three of us went back to the beginning of the museum for lunch and exploring on our own.
On our own we discovered rooms and rooms of nick-knacks, closets of various popes, golden bibles, paintings, millions of candleholders, and, of course, more statues. We then found our way to the Egyptian gallery which contained several artifacts (often from B.C.), a couple preserved mummies (very cool!!), and ancient statues. It’s amazing that the Vatican owns pretty much whatever they want. Why does a Catholic church want Pagan artifacts? Just to show that they can get anything they want, I suppose. We wound our way to the famous Greek fresco with Plato and Apollo(?) with a whole mess of famous philosophers surrounding them on steps. I remember this one being a pretty big deal from high school. After further winding and aching feet, we were back at the Sistine Chapel, but this time breezed through in order to get out of the museum and into St. Peter’s Basilica.
Before entering the Basilica I was completely exhausted and needing a rest, but as soon as we walked in I was instantly revitalized. Whether or not the biggest or second biggest church in the world (our different guidebooks didn’t agree), I can see why people flock from all over the world to this amazing space. It was captivating. From the gigantic dark altar to the countless domes, tombs, statues, and arches, the Basilica in itself represented the wealth, power, and beauty of the Catholic Church. To make things even better, a mass was in session at the far end of the church, and every once in a while the organ would play, accompanying a choir. It was eerie, captivating, and beautiful all at once. The three of us finally pulled ourselves away from the Basilica after sheer exhaustion set in, and after a quick stop at the Vatican Post Office and St. Peter’s Square (one more time!) we walked the few blocks back to the train station (but not before a quick trip to a gelateria).
Our journey home began rather exciting. While we were trying to get the ticket machine to work our train pulled up, so we didn’t even bother with the tickets and instead ran across the first tracks (illegal) and boarded our train, sans tickets. Of our previous 5 times on the train, Jenn and I had only been checked for tickets once, so we figured the odds were in our favor that we would not be checked. We were right, so our trip home was gratis. Win! Leftover soup and cake greeted us at the villa, and after skimming some pictures and much-needed showers it is time to hit the sack. Tomorrow should be a lovely day of sleeping in and practicing. Goodnight!