This morning we reoriented ourselves to our new city with our itinerary and maps, found our day’s tour tickets and headed for the Metro to pick up some passes. We’d been here less than twelve hours and technically we were already headed out of the country – to Vatican City.
We were very early for our noon start so that we could navigate entrances, security, and even ticket holders had their own lines, but we were informed that we couldn’t get into that line until half an hour before our reservation. So we walked around the block and found Produzione Artigiannale, a cafe where we were able to enjoy some coffee and croissants.
11:30am came quickly though and soon we were passing through Vatican security, exchanging our reservation printouts for actual tickets, and finding the right station to supply us with headsets. Our tour was conducted by Musei Vaticani and our guide’s name was Julie – she was funny, slightly irreverant, and a very well informed art historian with a crush on Raphael.
Our tour was just over two hours long and covered the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chappel. Julie started with an overview of the Chappel using a series of visuals and setting some context for what Michelangelo was doing (he didn’t know how to do frescos when he started). Apparently there is also a shared love of ninja turtle references at the Vatican.
The intro was quite detailed and specific, which was great as the Chappel is vast and the God and Adam panel is just one of the many Michelangelo painted in his work. It was also helpful to get this information early as we would eventually get to the Chappel where we were required to be silent, which of course meant that a guide couldn’t “guide” us here.
But the tour actually started with some of the courtyards and sculptures outside of the Vatican, and some stories about how they influenced the work of the Renaissance artists who were adorning the Pope’s palace. Also on display were more modern sculptures, such as the “death star” below (go look it up).
We moved from sculptures inside (apparently they all originally had glass eyes) through dense crowds of tourists in the tapestry hallway, where Julie was able to tell a bit about several of the significant ones. This included their commission by Pope Clement VII and their design by Raphael. Each is enormous and detailed and a work of art on its own.
Next we visited the Gallery of Maps, which contains many frescos of all of the Italian peninsula at up to 80% accuracy with major cities indicated, and sites of battles. Pope Gregory XIII commissioned them so that he could “explore” the land without having to leave Rome. Also visible from this gallery through a window is Marconi’s transmitter station where Vatican Radio started in 1931.
From here the masterpiece paintings began and we moved through successive rooms featuring most notably Raphael and his students. His works are now in what’s known as the Raphael Rooms, and include the private chambers of the pope. Two works that we looked at in some detail were the Disputation of the Holy Sacrament and The School at Athens, which create an interesting dialogue as they face each other in the Stanza Della Segnatura.
Julie left us with some commentary on the Borgia family and their papal role during the Renaissance, complete with references to the advances this made possible as well as the corruption it entailed (and a few Jeremy Irons allusions). She pointed us to the Sistine and we said goodbye.
Not surprisingly, the Sistine Chappel is quite overwhelming. It is an enormous space completely decorated with frescos from every period in Judeo-Christian history. It is easy to trace the stories and see how the context Julie gave us fits the work as a whole. But it is also a place where you can feel the impact of this place – on art history and of course on world history – in a concentration that really did reflect the centrality of Rome as influence on everything it could touch.
We moved eventually from the Sistine out into the remaining galleries, and quickly to the gift stores and cafeteria. We had a late lunch and reflected on some of what we had seen, and then eventually made our way down the Bramante spiral staircase and back out into Italy.
Our trip back to our room was quick, and we spent the late afternoon relaxing and catching up on our photos and posts.
In the early evening Mimi and I decided to go out and find some pasta, but Sharon had no appetite and decided to stay at our room, having slept poorly the night before. Mimi and I found Gli Angeletti, a nearby restaurant recommended by Scott and Lynn from their visit here, and were eventually rewarded with a delicious pasta dinner that we nearly couldn’t get all the way around – but some nice wine helped!
In the same neighbourhood we found many people hanging out with a drink and relaxing at the Piazza Della Madonna Dei Monti which is happily also the site of a Don Nino Gelaterria, so we enjoyed a small (“baby” – cheeky server 🙂 ) serving of gelato while appreciating the fountain and the evening.
When we got back to the room, Sharon was up and we had a look at our tickets for tomorrow to see what time we should be prepared to go back in time – to Ancient Rome!
