The Vatican Tour

Today we did the wonderful Vatican Tour: the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s. It was awesome.

Our Tour Guide, Chiara, met us somewhat in front of the entrance to the Vatican Museum – although there was a growing crowd of tourist visitors that must have numbered more than 2,000 waiting to get in. Luckily we had a reservation and were able to pass the lines and go directly to the check-in area. The bad news was that the Vatican only allows reservations for groups of 11 or more and our guide was free. SO… Jackie and I were our own tour party of 11, making a donation to the Vatican for their overhead. The Vatican is an independent country that counts less than 1,000 citizens around the world: Cardinals, Bishops, Political figures and, of course, the Pope.

There are so many things to see at the Museum and it would take hours to go through all the halls and rooms. There are over 4 miles of displays. Most of the art owned by the Museum as paid for by grants and commissions to the artists. Raphael, Bernini and Michelangelo were among a large group of artists regularly under commission to paint, sculpt, or build artistic works. There are huge early Greek works (100 BC) as well as early Roman copies of early Greek works. There are long halls that have huge tapestries, hand-made wonders extolling the virtues of Christianity as well as very accurate maps of the known world.

We spent a good amount of time in the Raphael rooms – where Raphael was actively working at the same time Michelangelo was downstairs working on the Sistine Chapel – and they both added features to their work honoring the other. In one of Raphael’s frescos he paints a figure of Plato that is actually Leonardo di Vinci.

The Sistine Chapel was amazing – and now fully restored to its original brilliance. The Chapel is the Pope’s personal chapel, although he only uses it three or four times a year. The crowds were huge. They seemed to just stand and look for long periods of time: and talk, and talk and take pictures. Michelangelo’s work depicts the story of creation – with the famous scene of God reaching out and not quite touching Adam’s finger. But each of more than 40 scenes around the ceiling tell the story of Creation, the Fall, the Pain, the Birth of Christ, the Last Supper, Cruxifiction, the Resurrection and the Last Judgment (which alone takes an entire wall).

St. Peter’s Basilica is a wonder all its own. It is the richest, largest and most impressive Church in the World. There are marks in the center aisle to show where the next-largest churches would fit. The main altar of the Church, where the Pope says Mass, is located directly above the tomb of St. Peter who was crucified up-side-down just outside the front door of the Basilica. Peter was crucified for his love and devotion for our Lord and he did not feel it worthy to be crucified as Jesus was…so he chose to be crucified upside down. It has been amazing to walk the steps of Paul and Peter after so many years of following them through Bible Study and truly getting a sense of all they went through in Rome, during that time, to tell others of the love and forgiveness of Christ.

There used to be beautiful frescos on the wall, but they’ve been removed to the Museum and replaced by ornate mosaics. And of course, there’s the spectacular Pieta of Michelangelo: Mary holding Jesus after His being brought down from the Cross. It’s amazingly real and very moving. Michelangelo finished the Pieta when he was only 24 years old.
We left St. Peter’s and walked out into the square where hundreds of thousands of people have gathered over the years to hear and see the Pope – and celebrate various Holy Days. It’s a huge area and it’s also hard to imagine all the people that can gather there to hear the Pope speak.

After our four and a half hours at the Vatican, we said a sad good-bye to our guide and driver (they were great!!), walked back to the Campo de Fiori for lunch and a very long walk back to the hotel. As you can imagine, we are becoming a little weary! Today is the last day in Rome and the last full day of our wonderful trip. Tomorrow we’re off to a short stop-over in London and then the flight home on Sunday afternoon.

Thanks to all who have followed our trip. We hope you have enjoyed it. We certainly have and it has been a fantastic way to celebrate 25 years of marriage.
See everyone next week….. CIAO!