Roma Day 2 Vatican Morning

I forgot to mention my Schiphol hero yesterday in the last blog.  As they were unloading the plane arriving from Rome which I was waiting for to take to Rome, a truly dumb/extraordinary event occurred.  As you are unloading off the plane, they make a lot of announcements about how Schiphol is a smoking free zone, except in designated areas, which are not outside the plane.  There are very clear no smoking signs as you exit all over the ground coming off the stairs.  It's not difficult. Have I mentioned that a lot of Europe is like the US in the late 80s, early 90s?  They haven't gotten the message yet that smoking isn't cool and it will kill you (not that other things won't, but why do something you know leads to it?).  Anyways, this guy gets off the plane, walks down the front steps, and proceeds to light a cigarrette, no less than 10 feet from where they are refueling the plane!  I watched this happen, thinking, uhhhh, friend, your right to smoke is impeding my right to not die in a fire ball.  Luckily just as I was saying my ending prayers, a bad ass woman (no other way to describe it) tackled the guy, pulled the cigarrette from his mouth and stamped it out.  She then proceeded to yell all kinds of nasty things at him, point at the fueling in progress and ask him if he was stupid.  He looked shocked and then yelled at her for costing him a cigarette.  She responded by confirming to him that he was in fact stupid.  She is my hero.

Ok, my Vatican morning awaits...

1.  I got up relatively early and headed out to enjoy Rome while it was still quiet.  It was serene to walk where I had been the night before in relative calm and enjoy monuments mostly to myself.  I made the decision the night before on my hot date with Rick Steves to do most of Rome on foot as I felt like the metro was a useless 2 line mess that didn't run anywhere close to my hotel, so why not just hoof it.  It was a great decision as I got to see a lot more of Rome on foot than I would have seen normally.  And since I've built up my stamina, I only really got tired at the very end of the day.  Score!

2.  I walked first over what I thought was Pont Sant'Angelo bridge, but turned out to be the one before it.  I got some great shots:

I'm not sure what the first building is, but that's on the opposite end of the bridge I accidentally went down.  The second was my first view of St Peters.  What a site.  It also looks super far away, which made me second guess my decision to walk.  Fortunately the walk was really pleasant along the river.

2.  I also saw Castel Sant'Angelo:

I didn't go into the museum, but it looked great from the outside.  During the years, it served as a mausoleum to the emperors, a refuge for the pope during sieges, a prison, and storage for the Vatican.  It's on the list for next trip.  RS gives it one pyramid, but from the description it sounds like it could easily be 2.

3.  After rounding the Vatican, I rounded to St Peter's:

I'll get into this more later, but the whole Vatican experience was my first real experience with the sub-culture of Rome hawkers.  I couldn't believe how many street vendors there were....I guess I didn't notice it as much at the Pantheon, but now that I think about it, there were a lot there as well.  They are pretty aggressive, although most wouldn't follow you if you stayed focused and didn't make eye contact.  I don't know who buys from them the junk they are selling, but PLEASE stop for the love!  I don't want to see them starve and for the most part, it's not their fault.  But what you are supporting when you buy from these guys is extremely questionable in nature.  The wholesale of what they are selling is uncouth and most likely is connected to some type of organized crime.  I didn't see anyone completing a sale....for the most part, these guys just ruin the ambience of one of the most historical cities in the world.  Ok.  Rant over.  More on that later...this was not the first encounter with these vendors.

After arriving at St Peter's I decided to do the Vatican Museum first.  Another interesting culture pops up on the way to the museum, which is a half mile from St. Peter's square.  This culture is the fake tour guide culture, where anyone who knows how to use a printer will come up with their own "official" creditentials to get give you a tour of the museum.  They are aggressive as well and numerous.  I had 6 different woman yell from across the street at me "LADY, ENGLISH?".  I didn't acknowledge...most of them probably give ok tours and probably help you skip a line somewhere, but again, who knows what you are supporting and how much they are going to charge you at the end.  I didn't really care about the wait as I was really only expecting to do the Vatican on Saturday, so I was comfortable with whatever the wait was.

After turning the corner for the Vatican Museum, I was almost run over by 5 street vendors running in the opposite direction back to the square.  I saw a police officer down the road, just having a relaxing stroll, which caused all this severe commotion.  It was highly ineffective, because as I continued to walk, the police officer disappeared and all of the vendors slowly came back out to the sidewalk.  I made it to the museum in relative peace.  Thankfully, once you are inside, those trying to hawk a scarf and a guided tour don't go beyond the front entrance.

4.  I expected to wait in line for an hour, at least.  RS said that on a busy day, 2-3 hours even if arriving early.  In actuality, I walked almost directly up to security (which proved a bit of a challenge with the money belt) and went right up to the desk, bought a ticket and I was in the museum in less than 10 minutes.  Not bad!  The museum has 4+ miles of art and artifacts, so I was content with just doing a fly through.  It started with Egyptian artifacts and progressed through the ages up to Raphael and Michaelangelo, including the Sistine Chapel.  Here are a few pictures/videos.  I took the videos in some because I just didn't think the pictures did it justice (not that my videos do either).

 

 

I had no idea the amount of art and shear ornateness I was going to see at the museum.  I started taking pictures way too early in the museum because it just kept getting more outlandish.  By the time you finish in the Sistine, it's a bit disappointing because of everything else you have seen. 

 

 

They don't let you take pictures in the Sistine as they just finished restoring it.  The company who did the work added to the contract the picture clause, which I believe means they own the visual depiction rights to the chapel...which must be priceless.  They were very serious about it.  There must have been 400+ people in the chapel and there were at least 20 guards who once every other minute would yell "no pictures" and run to grab someone's camera to delete the image.  It was a bit disturbing to the peace the place is supposed to represent.  My favorite painting is the picture of God reaching out to man with the two hands almost touching, but not quite.  It's a really small picture in the jumble of other paintings, but still incredibly powerful in the message it conveys about God's divinity, the Fall, and His grace to reach back through the divide to take us as His own.  At least that's my humble interpretation.  Picture stolen from another website:

 

 

 

Overall, I agree with RS giving the Vatican Museum 3 pyramids.  In fact, I would go off the scale to 4.  However, not being Catholic, I'm sure there were significances that I missed or wasn't particularly interested in.  Catholics would probably give this a 5.  Which brings up an interesting point.  When the world looks at churches, I know a common conception is that most are nothing more than corporations hawking a brand.  In fact, sometimes they are worse in how they use their money.  I've seen churches with better technology equipment than what I use at work...and I work for a very well known international company.  What used to get under my skin doesn't bother me nearly as much as seeing the shear wealth of churches I've seen in Europe.  The priceless works the Vatican OWNS could feed a country of orphaned children in Africa.  It could provide enough education to the entire continent of Africa to prevent the further spread of HIV.  It could literally change the world.  I think God must look down and wonder what we see that's so great in visual image of Himself created by a mortal man that we should turn our backs on the man standing in front of us in need.  I don't get it.  I guess I can see that the art and historical significance of the sight brings the world to the foot of the church, but not once did I see active evangelizing occurring or anywhere describing what the church believes.  What a missed opportunity!  People are paying to see your art...the very least you could do is share the gospel with them too!  Maybe that oversimplifies the situation, but what I saw, while grand, in my mind stands in stark contrast to what we are called to do as Christians...Go and make disciples of all nations.  Street vendor and CEO alike.

 

Goodness, I'm ranting a lot in this post.  Apologies.  Rome makes me over extend my vowels and rant apparently.

 

At the Sistine chapel, after observing for 30 minutes or so and people watching, RS said there would be a secret exit that would lead you into St Peters so you could avoid the line and second security station.  He also mentioned that sometimes it was closed...this was one of those times.  I wandered back to the entrance through more paintings, statues and about 200 gift shops, all selling 4000 different kinds of rosaries.  Goodness...about to rant again.  Resisting the urge.  Let's just say, Jesus would have been turning up some tables.

 

After exiting, I found this great place RS recommended for a quick bite.  I grabbed some Parma ham and pasta to replenish for the afternoon:

 

5.  I then went back to the square through the gauntlet of vendors and unauthorized tour guides to get in the super long line for St Peter's.  The vendors weren't bold enough to hawk in the line, but the tour guides were.  It didn't take that long to make it to the front, but I did see one family give up and go with an unauthorized guide.  They had a 3 year old, so not sure I could blame them.  I wouldn't have brought a 3 year old, but if I had, I would have just let her run wild on the square.  With one parent in line, you could easily have let her chase pigeons for the 30 minutes we were in line....she would have slept right through St Peter's then.  Anyways, I grabbed this picture while waiting:

 

6.  After making it into St. Peter's here's what I got on film:

Just incredible.  I didn't realize how massive it feels until you get inside it.  It's unreal.

This is one of 4 of Michaelangelo's Pietas - an image of Mary with the dead Jesus (not for long).  This is the best sculpture I've seen.  I couldn't believe how sad Mary looks, how dead Jesus looks and how much sorrow there is in this rock.  I think it misses the reality of the good news to come, but to think about how dark and desperate those three days must have been, even with hope that He would return based on His previous words.  It must have nearly killed Mary to see her son die in such a way, particularly a son she knew to be God as well.  What a disappointment it must have been to hold the lifeless body of Jesus.  And then what joy on Easter!  Unfortunately, no Easter pictures...I couldn't find a great one with a depiction of Christ's resurrection.

The altar at St. Peter's where supposedly below, St Peter himself is buried.  If it's true, wow.  There's some archaelogical evidence to prove that at the very least, someone who was highly revered by popes just after Peter's death was buried there. However, who knows with the madness that was going on in Rome during the time of Nero.  It's just as likely that the bones were some other poor soul who ran amuck with the Roman emperor and rumors were started like in the game telephone.  I'm skeptical.  The canopy over the altar is made of bronze.  Also beneath, is the crypt, which I didn't go in, but apparently there are 100s of Popes from the centuries buried in there with well known Christian martyrs.  I did see:

 

Which I believe underneath that painting is the internment of Pope John XXIII.  I also saw, but did not take a picture of, the internment of Pope John Paul II.  It's actually in a prett low key dark chapel off to the side with big iron gates in front.  You couldn't see a lot, but he's in there with a huge picture of his favorite Saint (or so RS says)...St. Sebastian.  I appreciated the simpleness of where he was placed, even if it's still in St. Peters.  On the next visit, I'll go down to the crypt and climb the dome.  I was saving my legs for my Ancient afternoon.  I saw some Swiss guards as I was leaving.  Love the unis!

 

 

Overall, RS did a good job on giving hints about short cuts and what to skip versus must see.  The guided walk of St. Peter's was a bit of a mess to follow, but I wasn't in a rush, so I got there eventually.

 



Ancient Saturday afternoon/evening to follow!