Vatican City, Italy 11.08

Piazza di San Pietro

The Vatican Museums
Wemmm had been planning on leaving Rome today, but we were having trouble fitting all of Rome's amazing sights into the little time that we had allocated. We decided to spend an extra day here, as we still had the Vatican Museums and St Peter's Basilica to see. On our way there, Artur realised that he was wearing shorts, and that the dress code at St Peter's Basilica is very conservative. We panicked and decided to try and buy a pair of pants for him. When we got off the metro, we rushed around to all the nearest stores, to find some suitable pants. Artur didn't like anything he found, and they were all a bit expensive for something that he was probably only going to wear once. Eventually we found a street market stall, selling cheap imported clothing. We could only find long shorts there, but when we asked the man for long pants, he found a pair of tracksuit pants for us. They looked like they might have been girl's pants, but they were good enough for our purpose, and only 3 Euros!

Armed with a sexy new pair of tracksuit pants, we headed towards the Vatican City. We had been planning on taking a tour around the Vatican Museum, because that's the only way to skip the long queue. We were approached by many people offering tours, but we weren't sure who to go with. As we rounded a corner looking for one of the tour offices, a guy approached us and offered us a tour. When we hesitated, he offered to get Loren into the tour for only the price of the ticket to the museum. This seemed like a great deal, so we went with him. We met the rest of the enormous tour group in a cafe, and soon we were on our way to the museum.
As we approached the City, we were shocked at just how long the queues really were. The line literally stretched around several blocks. The sun was really hot, and the queue would have been at least 3 hours. We could't understand how anyone could have the patience and stamina to enter that way. The sun was so hot that the tar on the street was soft under our feet. Loren made the most of the opportunity to leave her footprints in Rome - permanently. Soon we were inside the airconditioned building, and very grateful for our tour tickets. We were equipped with headsets, so we could hear our guide speaking into a microphone. We were very grateful for the headsets, as the group was quite huge.
The entrance hall to the Vatican Museums was quite impressive. It was redesigned for a special occasion, and has quite a modern feel to it. There is a huge spiral ramp leading to the top level, so that people in wheelchairs can still access the top levels. Our guide told us about the Vatican City, and how it is the smallest sovereign nation in the world - only 900 people. It is quite tiny, only one square kilometre, but within its walls is the most important Catholic collection in the world. We also thought it was pretty funny and cool that they have their own currency, postal service, newspaper, radio station and even an army of Swiss Guards! While this is kind of funny, it's also quite striking to realise how much influence this state has over the rest of the world. Especially in Europe, where the Catholic influence is extremely strong. Europe shocked Loren in this way, as Australia is virtually a secular state. It is known as a Christian country, but compared to Europe, religion almost doesn't exist there.
Soon we began touring through 6 of the 22 museums with our guide. As we entered, we were absolutely amazed at just the building itself. It was so enormous, it looked like a Palace, and every surface was made of marble or another precious material. You can see just from the building, how much wealth the Vatican has, so much that it doesn't know what to do with all of its precious pieces. Popes over the years were big fans of art and culture, and because they were very rich, they bought many amazing pieces.

A huge quantity of marble was donated to the Vatican by rich families, along with sculptures and other precious artifacts scrounged from the ruins on Palentine Hill. There was so much on display in each of the sections of museum, it was hard to take it all in, and it was hard for them to fit it all in. We had never seen such wealth and splendour on display in one place, not even in royal palaces. Even the ceilings of every room were covered in spectacular murals, which were worth the visit on their own.

One of the museums was called 'Museo Pio - Clementino', and it displayed an enormous collection of Greek and Roman antiquities. In an outdoor courtyard, there were several amazing sculptures. It is one of the most amazing collections, and students used to come to study the original Greek sculptures in the Renaissance period. There was one incredible sculpture of a man fighting with a huge serpant, which was trying to devour his children. The sculpture was discovered in great condition, except that it had one arm missing. The pope who bought it, wanted the arm to be remade and attached. He hired one sculptor to make it, and he made the arm outstretched. Years later, after that arm was in need of repair, another sculptor was asked to make the arm. He made the arm flexed, which was different to the other one. At some point, an arm was found in an antiquities shop, and someone recognised that it might belong to that sculpture. It turned out to be true, and the real arm was flexed. So one of the artists must have been pretty in tune with original sculptors intentions, or maybe he saw the real thing when it was still in one piece.
There was another great section of sculptures and ceramic pots from the Greek and Roman times as well. It was in a huge hall way, and was filled with sculptures of every shape and size. There was also a huge circular shaped room, with sections for sculptures in the walls. One of the big statues was of Hercules, and it was a pretty famous one.The crowds were so thick all throughout our tour, that it was extremely difficult to move. It was also difficult to get photos of things, as the crowds were pressed right up in front of everything. Despite this, we really enjoyed our tour in this museum.
One of Artur's favorite museums was the 'Galleria delle Cartegeografiche', or the Map Gallery. The walls of this enormous hall were covered in huge maps of every region in the world. There were some detailed maps of Italy as well, with names of the little towns that existed back then. Nowadays, people can bring their grandchildren here and show them the towns where their ancestors lived, as they don't appear on maps today.
There was another museum displaying tapestries, 'Galleria degli Arazzi'. The tapestries mostly depicted religious scenes, and scenes from the Bible. Some of them were so well made, that as you walked past, you felt like you were really viewing the scene from different angles. They seemed more 3D than 2D. You could only look at them in semi-darkness though, as they were trying to preserve the colours in the tapestries.

The Vatican Museum Courtyard

At one point we found ourselves outside in a huge lawn covered square. The buildings on all four sides were quite imposing, with huge columns. One of the buildings was different from the others, and had a huge arch with a giant pine cone sculpture sitting in front of it. At one side of the square, there is a huge sculpture of a head. It was part of a Colossus sculpture of a Roman emperor, and it is absolutely enormous. The original statue must have been huge. In the very center of the square, there was a modern, giant globe of the world. On part of it was cut away, an there was a smaller sphere inside it. The whole globe slowly rotates, and apparently there is another one like it at the UN building in the United States.

Sistine Chapel We also saw the amazing Sistine Chapel, which is a private papal chapel built in 1473 for Pope Sixtus IV. Michelangelo was asked to paint the frescoes on the ceiling and main walls of the Chapel. He wasn't too thrilled, as he was a sculptor, and didn't really like doing fresco work. When they finally convinced him to do it, he hired a team of people to assist him. They started doing the preparations for all of the frescoes that Michaelangelo designed, however when they were all finished, he tore it all down and fired them. He decided to do it all himself. It took him four years to paint the chapel, and he really put himself into his work.
The frescoes depict scenes from Genesis in the Bible. The first one he painted has very small size people, but all the rest have much bigger people. They think he must have been unhappy with the visibility of the first one, and changed to make it easier to see. Many of the figures in and around the frescoes are nude, and look a lot like sculptures. You can see from the effort that he puts into portraying the muscles and body shapes, that he is truly a sculptor.
24 years later, Michelangelo was asked to paint 'The Last Judgement', which is the huge fresco behind the altar, which covers the entire wall. It is the masterpiece of the Chapel, and you could spend all day staring at it. The figures in this painting are also nude and have well sculpted bodies. There are angels and holy people at the top of the fresco, and evil people being sent to hell at the bottom. One important figure in the Vatican at the time, was not impressed by the fresco at all. He was not happy that they were nude, and said it looked like a huge orgy, not a religious fresco. Michelangelo was not happy with the criticism, so he painted this man into his fresco. He gave his face to one of the demons who is responsible for sending people to various levels of hell. He has a long tail that wraps around him, and the number of times it is wrapped around indicates which level of hell you are being sent to. This infuriated the man, and he demanded that Michaelangelo remove it and complained that it was all blasphemy. He was overruled though, and had to deal with seeing himself in the painting all the time. The other walls in the chapel, were painted by other famous artists, including Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Pinturicchio and Signorelli.
Not too long ago, the frescos in this chapel were seriously in disrepair and were covered in thick layers of grime, and the colours were not very bright. A major restauration project was undertaken, and the dirt was removed. Now they look just as bright as they were when they were painted, and they are just incredible to look at. Michelangelo used such beautiful, strong colours to depict the scenes, and we were so lucky to be able to see the frescoes in all their brilliance.

Further into the Museum

After we finished seeing the Sistine Chapel, we left our tour group and continued exploring the Vatican Museums. The tour group was continuing on to see the St Peter's Basilica, and once you leave the Museums you can't get back in. There was still so much to see inside the Museums, and this was probably a once in a lifetime experience, so we decided to stay. We re-entered the Museum, and made our way down the other side of the building. We wanted to see the Raphael Rooms, so we kept following the signs trying to get there. We ended up back at the beginning of the museum again, so we decided to have lunch there.
We saw some amazing museums on the way though. There were several displaying paintings, and some of them had been recently restored, and were glowing with bright colours. Most of the pictures were along the same theme. Most depicted the saints lives, Jesus being nursed by Mary, and various other Biblical images. There were a couple of pictures of animals, and pictures of mythical landscapes that may have been Eden.
We also saw a display of sculptures of animals. There were some of animals living happily together, and others of things like lions attacking a horse. The range of sculptures was quite amazing, and it was quite unlike any other display of sculptures we had ever seen.
After lunch, we started our search for the Raphael rooms again, and started the circle of the enormous museum again. We went past the things we had seen before, and admired many of the other beautiful things that we had missed on our way. It was a long walk around the museum, and eventually we found ourselves back at the Sistine Chapel, without having seen the rooms we were looking for. We left the chapel again, and went for another search around the museum.

Egyptian Museum
On our way down the other side again, we came across a section we had missed. It was a display of artifacts from Egypt. We hadn't noticed it before, but we were very interested in seeing it. We had plans to visit Egypt, and Loren was very excited to see a preview of the things that we might see there. We were quite shocked by the amount of things on display there. This was the Vatican, but they had so many things from Egypt!
There were huge blocks carved with hieroglyphs and pictures of the Pharoahs. There were many sculptures of kings and queens and Egyptian sacred animals. There were a couple of coffins, covered with paintings, symbols and hieroglyphs. The coolest things of all were the mummies! It was amazing to see the black shrunken skin, and the way the bodies were wrapped. It was incredible to see the body of a human on display in a museum, let alone one that lived thousands of years ago. The mummy was probably the oldest thing we had ever seen.
There was another room as well, which displayed big statues of kings and gods. The statues were larger than life, and were quite impressive. They were in pretty good condition, and we were thrilled to see so many amazing pieces from Egypt. The mummies were by far the best thing on display, but the other sculptures were pretty incredible too.

Raphael Rooms
After seeing the Egyptian Museum, we eventually found the Raphael rooms. We didn't actually know what these rooms were, but we'd heard people asking for directions to see them, so we figured they must be worth seeing. We were quite in awe when we actually made it into these rooms. The rooms were covered in frescoes on every surface and were absolutely amazing to look at. These rooms were originally the private apartments of Pope Julius II, and the frescos were painted by the artist Raphael.
It is a strange feeling to be in a room where the ceiling above you and every wall around you is filled with colourful pictures and scenes. There are people and faces on every surface. It must feel strange to live in a room like that. The whole place had an extremely decadent feel to it, almost like you were in an art gallery, but every white space on the walls had been filled with another painting.
After finally seeing the rooms that we had been searching for, we tried to find our way out. The direction of travel in the museum was strict, and we couldn't turn and make our way back to exit, so we made our third full loop of the museum, and finally made it outside. By this time, we were absolutely exhausted, but we were still keen to see the St Peter's Basilica.

St Peter's Basilica This church is one of Rome's biggest attractions. The church was built on the place where St Peter's body was buried. Michelangelo was responsible for the design of teh Grand Dome, which reaches 120m above the altar, but it was finished in 1590, long after he had died. The enormous interior of the church contains many more treasures, including Michelangelo's 'Pieta' sculpture. This sculpture was completed when he was only 24 years old, and it is the only one of his sculptures to bear his signature.
The interior of the church was absolutely breathtaking. It was Loren's first time to see it, and she was amazed by both the size of the church and the number of sculptures and art pieces on display there. There were sections set into the walls all over the church, just for displaying huge sculptures of saints and popes and other religious figures.

The ceilings were so tall, yet you could see the detailed, gilded and painted work on the ceiling. It would have been amazing to see them up close as well, it looked like there was so much work involved in making it. There were hundreds, maybe even thousands of people inside the church, but it didn't feel crowded because it was just so big.
The most imposing structure in the church, is the 25m sculpted altar. It dominates the space under the huge dome. Its pillars were huge and spiralled, and the whole structure appeared to be made of some kind of metal. It was simply enormous, but somehow it manages to look normal in size, within this huge building.
There was a statue of one of the Saints, I think it was St Peter, and it was the object of many pilgrimages. People have come to the Basilica for hundreds of years to touch the toe of the statue. It's quite amazing how worn down the foot is now. It is less than half the size of the other foot now, ans eventually it will probably be as thin as paper.
We saw lots of nuns inside the church, and in the museums. It must be a pilgrimage for most nuns to one day come to visit the Vatican City. Loren doesn't see many nuns in Australia, so she was very fascinated by them, and took many discreet pictures of them.

Catacombs and Cuppola
After seeing the Basilica, we decided to see the Catacombs. Down under the church, there are the tombs of all of the Popes and St Peter. Most of the sarcophagi were quite fancy, with carvings and decorations all over them. However, there was a very simple style Sarcophagus down there as well, and this one was surrounded by people. It was the tomb of Pope John Paul II, the Polish Pope. There were so many people constantly in front of this tomb, that they had a section with rope in front of it, to allow people enough room to stand there. There was even a girl crying there, we think she was Polish.
After this we decided to see the view from the Dome. We took the lift most of the way, but then we had to continue up the stairs on foot. It was actually still quite a long climb. At one point the stairs became really steep, and the ceiling was quite low. It was a pretty claustrophobic place, but eventually we made it to the top. We were not disappointed by the view. We could see out over all of Rome, and most of the buildings that we had visited. The most impressive from above was the Piazza di San Pietro, as it was just in front of the church. The avenue leading out from it looked pretty impressive too.
When we reached the bottom again we saw our first Swiss Guards. They were guarding some of the side gates to the Basilica. Their clothes looked quite funny and out of place in modern times. They were extremely colourful, with puffy pants and stockings. It was probably extremely fashionable in the middle ages, but now it looks a bit silly. They stand guard like the British guards, with little booths behind them, for protection from the weather.

Piazza di San Pietro The last thing that we saw for the day was the Piazza de San Pietro. We had already admired it from above, but it was even more impressive up close. It was designed by Bernini and was built in the 17th century. It is a huge circular piazza, bound by two semi circular collonades, each with four rows of columns. At the very centre of the square, there is a huge Obelisk that was brough to Rome from Egypt, by Caligula.The Pope usually gives his public audiences there, and the huge square fills up entirely with people. We were very impressed by the size of the piazza and the view of the St Peter's Basilica was really great from there.
We were very happy with our trip to the Vatican City, and we saw so many beautiful things inside the museums and the Basilica. It was definitely one of the coolest things we had seen in Rome, probably because all of Rome's treasures seem to end up in the hands of the Vatican. By this point we were fairly exhausted, so we headed back to Olgiata. We had planned to drive to Siena that night, but we were so tired that we decided to leave in the morning.

To see the photos from the post in slideshow mode, click on on the link below:
Vatican City pictures