Note: This blog has a lot of pictures!! 🙂
In the dark and deprived of breakfast we got dressed (so not to disturb our roommates) and headed to the Metro station to catch the train to Ottaviano.
When we were walking to the flower shop to meet our tour guide Mike spotted a McDonalds, of course, now we had to have breakfast there. It wasn’t your average McD’s though, they gave me freshly squeezed OJ! We ate quickly and met up with our tour guide for the morning, Leonardo, and the other two people in our group. He gave us some quick instructions (ie. No pictures in the Sistine chapel – so all the pictures of the chapel are taken from the internet) and we were on our way!
We walked into what I would call the back of the Vatican City walls, where tour groups go and he gave us an introduction to the paintings of the Sistine Chapel. Did you know that the Vatican City is an independent state from Italy? Because I didn’t. They do there own taxes, they have a hospital with a maternity ward, they have a separate income, everything!
We walked through the hall of tapestries and the hall of maps first, and we were there before it was open to the public to we basically had the place to ourselves. Absolutely beautiful!
In the Sistine Chapel the main focus is the ceiling and the Last Judgment (by the altar), both painted by Michaelangelo, the first when he was young, leaving him almost blind, and the latter being painted when he was close to 60 years old (he died at 89). The main tiles of the ceiling depict the story of creation; Light, Planets, Land & Water, Creation of Adam (most famous), Creation of Eve from Adam’s rib, their temptation by the snake and their banishment from the Garden of Eden, and three final paintings based on Noah’s Ark story, the last being Noah himself falling over drunk from the fermented grape juice he brought on board the arc.
The final judgement centers Christ with people going to heaven (smaller book) and people going to hell (larger book).
The walls have the Stories of Moses on one side and the Stories of Christ on the other. All of which are Frescoes. Meaning the artists prepared plaster to put on the wall, when it was still wet they painted with certain dyes and once the plaster solidified the painting then becomes part of the wall, which is why they last for centuries.
The ceiling appears to have 3D frames around each picture, the genius is that it doesn’t. Michaelangelo could paint in such a way that it would give the illusion of 3D to the viewers ~20 meters below. He did optical illusions with other paintings and his statues, making certain things out of proportion that would look bizarre close up, but at a distance (how they were meant to be viewed) they would look accurate.
Part of the Noah’s Ark fresco (the ones painted first) was damaged during an accidental explosion and part of the image fell down and was destroyed!
Anyway, I won’t bore you with any more details (it was a 6 hour tour) but I can tell you that for such a small room (comparatively) it’s an explosion of colour and naked bodies (which were altered after Michaelangelos time as to not offend with their nudity, they were covered with extra clothes).
The rest of the tour we spent going through the extensive Vatican Museums, filled with Tapestries (unfortunately they don’t last like Frescoes and a lot of the colours have faded, but there is one that is a direct replica of Di Vinci’s last supper!).
Then statues, gallery of maps, paintings from Raphael (a couple rooms completely dedicated to him, my favourite being the “School of Athens”), frescoes and other artworks dating from the 1300’s through the Renaissance up through the 1600’s.
One of my favourite paintings is Caravaggio’s “Deposition”.
It is depicting the agony felt by followers and Mary herself after Christ was removed from the Cross. I can’t explain why I love it so much, but when you compare it to Michaelangelo’s “Pieta” it seems so much more realistic.
The statue shows Mary as almost a teenager, looking younger than Christ at the time of his death (when she should be middle aged). The painting brings in feelings, whereas Mary in the statue of “Pieta” looks calm and unreal. Its harsh reality is probably why people didn’t want to be reminded of it, and therefore why it’s not as popular as Leonardo’s statue.
We moved through the artwork into St. Peters Basilica, this place is so vast that the brain cannot comprehend how big it is when you first see it. I can’t remember the numbers have gave me for the height and length of the church, but I do remember that he said the black lettering on the golden banner is 9 feet tall, if you were to stand up on the ledge the letters would be twice your height!! What?!
Another incredible thing about the detail of this gargantuan place is that everything is mosaic, if you see a “painting” it’s not a painting, it is little pieces of marble placed one by one, with the right pigment, to create the image. Most of the paintings in this Basilica took ~15 years to make. NBD.
The last thing I want to say is that the Pope’s are all visible (besides John Paul II, who’s tomb is still sitting on the ground floor to be praised but you can’t see into it).
When you walk by all the resting places of previous popes, their caskets have a window on the outside so you can see in. They’re lit up and appear to be a grey-ish/silver colour. Apparently all popes are put through a process similar to mummification, where their outer surface (face and hands) are preserved with wax and they can be viewed by the public. I’ll be cremated thanks.
Here’s some more pictures of things from around Vatican City…
Once our tour ended Michael and I went back into the Basilica to sit with John Paul II for a while and try to take in the colossal building. It still seems surreal. After 30 minutes we headed back to the Hostel via Metro and relaxed our sore feet for a while.
We were back on the road headed towards the Colosseum not long after.
We only saw the outside of it, it looked old but pretty in the sunset.
We didn’t want to wait in line so we headed for the Roman Forum and got tickets there (12 Euro per person and it’s good for two days for both the Forum and Colosseum)
The Forum is old as well, most of it is similar to any other ruins and it gets familiar.
Passing the Arco di Costantino (covered in scaffolding) we head towards the Arco di Tito. Walking up towards Palatine Hill we got an incredible panorama of the city.
We walked through the Palatino and there’s that panorama!!
The Farnese Nursery was lovely, and finally the Imperial Palace (the place was about to close). Apparently this palace used to be so tall it made the Pyramids look itty bitty!
We headed for home and stopped into “La Vecchia Conca” a Trattoria nearby our hotel.
Mike had pizza, I had the eggplant parmesan. Mike had the hot chocolate pie, I had the nougat parfait, mine was better. I was complimented by elderly women on my beauty. I laughed and said “Ciao, Bella”, they loved that and we were on our way home for the night.
Tomorrow, Colosseo & relaxing before we fly home! 😀
Tales of a part-time traveler 