#2713 vacation day 13: Rome

Friends, today’s sight-seeing has been magnificent! This is a long post because we saw a lot of stuff, including Vatican City, and I write about all of it!

We started early today, waking up at 5 am. I know, that is a sick time to wake up when you’re on vacation, but it has been totally worth it. You see, we had an early access excursion to the Vatican. We had to be there by 7:30. Of course we decided to walk, and the Vatican is about two miles from the hotel, so we left here around 6 am.

The best part of getting up early is that you mostly have the city to yourself. We did not see many people or much traffic, so it was wonderful to be able to enjoy Rome at this quiet time. We even got to see the Spanish Steps - without another person around!

We made it to the Vatican City area with plenty of time to spare. We were in a small group with two other couples, both from the U.S. Our guide, Fernando, has a Ph.D in archeology. He was intelligent, well-spoken, and full of knowledge and information. 

We entered through the Vatican Museums and the first thing we did was go out on a patio so we could see this:

I am not a religious or very spiritual person. I mostly consider myself agnostic - I don’t believe or disbelieve in a god or religious doctrine. When I was in college, I did attend Catholic services, so I know a little tiny bit about the Catholic rituals of mass, but that was a long time ago and I haven’t been back to any church for a long time. Yet stepping out on that terrace and seeing the dome of St. Peter’s and understanding the historical and religious importance of the place and seeing the sheer beauty of it brought me to tears. I was truly moved. (Spoiler - it would not be the last time that happened.)

We walked through the museums. There are so many different rooms dedicated to different objects by different popes. I will do a separate post on some of the art I saw there. I really liked having a guide to explain what I was looking at. Of course, we did not stop at each piece because it would have taken hours to get through the place. It’s a remarkable collection. I will say that the tapestry room might have been my favorite. I didn’t even take any photos in there because I was too focused on looking at the way Jesus’s eyes followed me from the tapestry. 

Needless to say, the paintings, sculptures, tapestries, and even the floors are unbelievable. We saw masterpieces by Raphael, Chagall, Bernini, and of course Michelangelo, to name a few. I am not very knowledgeable about art, and I don’t know the works of many painters to be able to say who painted or sculpted what. I have been learning a bit as we have gone through Florence and Rome, though! Mostly I am familiar with Picasso, who is from a very different time.

Of course, the Vatican is the home of the Sistine Chapel. Did you know it is the pope’s private chapel?There is no photography allowed, and silence is expected and required. I can tell you that I wasn’t sure how I would feel about the Chapel. I mean, I was excited to see it, but the ceiling is very high (44 feet from the floor, so nearly 38 feet above me!) and I don’t have great eyesight. Let me tell you something, though: it was amazing, better than I dreamed it could be. I didn’t want to leave the room. I think I was the last one to rejoin our tour group. I couldn’t get enough of it. 

There were a couple of things that I especially loved about the ceiling. The first thing is the Sibyls. There are five of them, and they are all strong, muscular women, who are all reading. My favorite is the Cumaean Sibyl. She kept drawing my attention. 

The second thing was “The Creation of Adam”. It is glorious. It is right in the middle of this huge ceiling. I, along with everyone else, I’m sure, absolutely love that tiny fraction of space between God’s finger and Adam’s finger. I love how God’s finger is straight and sure, and how Adam’s finger is slightly bent, as if trying to decide if straightening his finger is the right thing to do. I guess maybe that mirrors how I feel about a Higher Power. 

Whe I came out of the Sistine Chapel, my eyes were full, but I didn’t cry. I kept it together.

The next stop was getting into St. Peter’s Basilica. We had to wait in line for about 30 minutes - there were a lot of people there by then. We went into the Basilica around 11am. My first impression of the place is that it is ginormous. It is spectacular. It is breathtaking. When you first walk in and go to the right, you immediately see the jaw-dropping beauty of Michelangelo’s “Pieta”. It is breathtaking: the look on Mary’s face as she gazes down at her son, the way Jesus’s body is draped across her lap, the brightness of the marble, and the way the robes seem to flow. Just wow. My throat certainly tightened up and my eyes got hot, but I didn’t cry.

There is one chapel in the Basilica that is only for praying; no photography is allowed. I decided I’d go ahead and say a prayer, or something like it, so I could go see what was behind the curtain. Friends, my old Catholic habits came flooding back to me and a bowed/curtsied and made the sign of the cross before getting on my knees (padded kneeler) and putting my hands together. The energy in the room was intense and that’s when my eyes started watering and would not stop. I had all the feelings going on in there. I couldn’t stop looking at the angels. I really don’t remember much else about the room, just my feelings of thankfulness and those angels. 

After that surprisingly emotional situation, I was kind of tired. We walked around the rest of the Basilica. It is chock-a-block full of art, all of it extremely amazing. Our minds were getting worn out by all the beauty, so we decided to leave. It was noon-ish.

Straight down the road from St. Peter’s Square is the Castel Sant’Angelo with it’s bridge. We are staying at the Bristol Bernini Hotel, and I have become fascinated and enamored by the sculptures of Bernini. The bridge has 10 angels, all sculpted by Bernini. I love them.

We stopped for lunch at a typical and busy little restaurant in that neighborhood. We both had pizza and yes, it was delicious!

MT had prosciutto 

Mine was quattro formaggi (4 cheese)

Our next planned destination was the Pantheon, but we saw a couple of other things along the way. We stumbled onto Campo de’ Fiori which is an open air market. Everything from flowers to formaggio to fruits to textiles are for sale. There are restaurants all around the square and on the side streets and the place was hopping. 

We found Piazza Navona next. There are three cool fountains there; one of them was designed by Bernini. Of course, the square had many people. It is a holiday here in Italy; April 25 is Liberation Day, the day the country was liberated from the Nazis. Many businesses are closed, so it is extra busy out there today. 

This is the Bernini fountain

We had some gelato here, then moved on to find the Pantheon.

The Pantheon is free to enter, I’ve read, but there was a line and we were getting tired. I would love to see the inside. There’s a big dome on top of the building that is supposed to be some kind of miracle of engineering. Frankly, these Romans have me convinced about the awesomeness of their engineering. 

We decided we’d come back to the Pantheon tomorrow on our farewell tour of the city. We maneuvered  through the crowds at the Trevi Fountain - oh! I forgot to take a photo of the crowd! - and got back to the hotel. I’ve been writing and MT has been reading and snoozing. We’ll go back out for awhile this evening. Our hotel has a rooftop bar that opens at 7 and has a beautiful view of the city including St. Peter’s Basilica. We’ll go up for an aperitivo in a little while. As you can see from the photos, the sky was clear and it was sunny today, so hopefully we can get some great sunset photos. Plus Rome at night…mmmm. It could be awesome. 

If you read all the way through, thanks for hanging in there! About half-way through my Vatican description, I realized it would have been better to do that separately, especially since I want to share some of the art pics. Oh well, you got through it! Good job :)

Today’s step count: 20,586; 8.62 miles