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| Basilica di Sanit Peters, Vatican |
Today we ventured to the Sacerdotal Vatican City, the smallest country and city-state in the world.
This little trove of treasures covering a mere 44 hectares is quite the economic enterprise governed by its monarchal leader Pope Francis, first of his name.
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| Un-named handsome marble statue |
The night before, we scoured online for tips and tricks to make the experience more enjoyable since we were visiting at the utter most height of peak tourist season. Some sites said 'go early' others suggested to wait until all those early people were through and then missing the lines, just waltz in.
Haha! We went with option two, hoping most folks would be breaking for lunch and after a leisurely sleep-in we aimed our arrival for about 12.30pm. Taking our time traversing Rome we were horrified to realise that we didn't miss the crowds, not in the slightest. Haha!
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| Outside the South gate, Saint Peters |
We arrived at the city's impressive South gate outside the grand Saint Peter's Basilica and waddled and squeezed our way through the people and touts. With the huge Piazza San Petro in front of us the area looked so grand and mighty. Like huge arms coming out from the church, white columned colonnades wrap around the Piazza.
White painted lines radiate from a centrally erected 4400year Egyptian structure, supported by bronze lions and made of red granite. Deciding it might be a better option to rather walk North along the city wall to the Vatican Museum entrance further up the road, we left.
Although the walk is fairly speedy, the journey feels so much longer as aggressive South Asian touts are repeatably calling 'not this way, madam the Basilica is that way, do you have a ticket, this line's for tickets only, do you want tour? Sir, Sir I worked here! Where you from? Cold water, cold water! And our favorite, the insistent never ending: "Selfie stick?".
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| Jesus on the lap of his mother Mary |
Nothing short of harassment (surprisingly similar to our experience in India) the sellers just jump in front of you or thrust their items into your way, poking and prodding you for attention.
We were quite proud (fists clenched) for our self-restraint on this matter and low and behold there were NO lines to enter the Vatican museum, that is of course, when we finally writhed through shaking off the dozens of thorns that had told us over and over that we would be waiting for hours.
Approaching the Vatican from Rome was straight-forward with the monumental Basilica dominating the skyline and viewable from well over the Fiume Tevere river. The 'city' itself is really accessible and it's difficult to gauge where the border between Rome and the Vatican stands. In fact there's only a small painted white line indicating you've 'crossed over'. We took our passports and had them ready but we didn't even get a stamp! Let alone get checked. Later we were interested to learn that the Vatican was only formally considered a city state in 1929 and although it's independent, it's relationship with Rome is very complicated but supportive.
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| Stunning fresco! |
Once inside the museum, we bought our (comparatively expensive) entrance tickets and waltzed right on in!
We were pleased to find that there is so much more to see than just the most famous room, the Sistine Chapel. The museum winds its way up and down many different levels allowing you to explore their different sections.
Leading you through different exhibitions with signs indicating your distance to the Sistine chapel. It's crafted so cleverly in a way that you have no choice but to move like a herd of hot sweaty elephants through their maze.
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| Even the gift shop is amazing! |
Appreciative that we were in a religious building and assuming we would be viewing lots of dark Renaissance works we were startled to come across a HUGE and one of the best collections of Egyptian mummies, fascinating artifacts as well as Egyptian carvings, sculptures and treasures. As we toddled and shuffled on, mixing with and overhearing the hundreds of tour groups each room became more beautiful than the last. We were taken with the Raphael rooms, one after another, these alone were worth our steep 16euro entry fee. Thousands upon thousands of hours of work had gone into elaborate and detailed frescos dedicating hundreds of different scenes all over the roofs and walls.
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| Raphael rooms |
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| Raphael rooms |
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| Hallway after beautiful hallway! |
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| Sistine Chapel, Apostolic palace |
Actually reaching the Sistine Chapel in the Apostolic Palace was surprisingly not as grand as we thought it would be. This special room, although part of museum, is actually still used by the church and is the site of the Papal conclave which means this is where the 'team' goes to decide who the new pope is and pretty much hang out there until they have chosen a new monarch.
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| Michelangelo's Sistine |
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| Inside a Raphael room |
The chapel, although beautiful wasn't the grandest we had seen during our travels through the museum and everyone was squished like sweaty salty sardines in a tin can.
We could certainly appreciate that the paintings were beautiful and with narratives depicted from the bible they had significant meaning and value to many visitors. However, the stillness and any feelings of reverence get left at the door with the security men constantly shouting 'no photos, no videos' which every few minutes is also played over an intercom along with an angry: 'silence'. The security themselves were by far the worst offenders! The ceiling is also so high that you really need opera glasses to see the work clearly so we didn't really end up staying a long time. We did get a good gawk at the famous Michelangelo painting where God extends his finger to Moses and took a little sneaky photo here.
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| Another hallway! Amazing! |
Back outside we made our way around to the snaking lines entering the Basilica - ummming and ahing if it was really worth it. But, since Kara had bought a long modest summer dress for the occasion, that was stifling hot and uncomfortable in the afternoon heat, we joined the long line.
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| Waiting in the loooong line! |
We shuffled forward in line at the pace of dehydrated hedgehogs but once through bag check it was quick up the Saint Peter's Basilica dome! Climbing the stairs was quite an experience, the tight narrow stairs curved sharply and the higher up the harder it became! Until you were literally holding on to a hanging rope on hands and knees. Up the top was amazing with views out across the Plaza de San Pedro and further afield the flat city of Rome.
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| Views of Plaza de San Pedro and Rome |
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| Dome in the Basilica |
Coming down again you finish up inside the overwhelmingly large Renaissance themed Basilica, so we looked around in there, perhaps the most magnificent and certainly the largest church in the world. Really. The interior is lavishly decorated with marble and kind of scary looking sculptures looking down on us.
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| Mary and her son |
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| The pope's are watching! |
Tot Siens,
John and Kara
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