Vatican & Home!

Well, it is the end of our wonderful journey. I am both sad to leave and anxious to see our fur kids. I know that their Auntie Rae has taken great care of them!

On Thursday I had booked tickets for the Vatican museums at 2:30, a good time as most of the big tours had been and gone. I had pre booked a taxi, but all I could figure out was to book it to Vatican City.

We were dropped off just outside the ‘Square.’ You can see in the photo above the arc of columns, so the Square is actually roundish. We wandered across a maze of roped passages towards security, heading for the Basilica di San Pietro; aka Saint Peter’s Basilica. We ran into the end of the maze which was by a car with police, so I asked how to get to security. They pointed out a long way of backtracking. I showed them my cane (I was dragging after a week of a LOT of walking), so one of them kindly let us through the barriers. I would be using the Italian word for thank you - grazie - a lot that day! After security, which was as thorough as the airport, we continued towards the Basilica. Not certain of where to go we showed our tickets to a guard, and she pointed out that the timed entry was actually for the museums. She sent us towards another bank of security gates, and they sent us to the right along the wall. We followed said wall, and followed, and followed… Although the air temperature was very pleasant, the sun was bearing down. We were getting extremely warm, and I was dragging more and more. Finally, after fighting the crowds in the ticket line (we had direct entry having pre booked), we got inside to yet another set of security gates. That museum is huge, and I knew I did not have the energy to explore much. A guard saw my cane and suggested a wheelchair, so he took Glenn down to surrender his driver’s license to get a wheelchair. The guard then gave a vague description of where to go to get to our desired destination, the Sistine Chapel. After quite a bit of walking we came to a pillar which had 2 directional signs. One said that the Sistine Chapel was towards the left, and the sign next to it said it was to the right. ??? So we asked another set of guards, and got another very vague answer. We went where we were directed, but that was obviously not the way. So back we went. That time the guard sent us to his colleague in the next office. Of course, there was no one in the next office. Back a third time, and yet another set of instructions. Miraculously we found ourselves on the right path. Glenn pushed me endlessly along a very long corridor of exhibits to a narrow, inauspicious corridor with 2 more guards, a staircase and a very ancient, clunky stair lift. Down we went, Glenn rather tersely directed to wait at the bottom,and me down the huge, less than comfortable lift, then through yet more of a narrow, dull yellow corridor. At long last, there was the right door!!!! The Chapel was crowded, but thankfully respectfully quiet. Glenn found a small spot on one wall with a bench, and we sat, completely in awe of Michelangelo’s masterpiece. At that point (and only at that point) I was extremely glad for the wheelchair as I could never have stood looking up at the stunning ceiling for more than a couple of seconds at a time.

In 1508 Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to paint the rather large ceiling. Michelangelo was aging, and reluctant to take on the job, but the wise Pope gave him freedom of composition. That did it! Michelangelo was on the job. With vignette panels he covered the story of the Creation through man's downfall and ultimate redemption. The centre panel's depiction of God and Adam reaching towards one another is the ultimate expression of beauty and intimacy.

Michelangelo by Daniele da Voltarra

Michelangelo worked alone for 4 years, lying on his back on a huge scaffolding. It must have been torture. He would let no one see his work, including the very anxious Pope. The result is magical. His genius allowed him compensate for the great distance from the viewer to the fresco.

The Sistine Chapel

The paintings on the walls are by such masters as Botticelli and Perugino. No photos are allowed, so these come from the World History Encyclopedia.

Here you see Michelangelo's depiction of the Last Judgement.

Just to the right of the upper central man, Jesus' left foot you see St. Bartholomew who was martyred by being flayed alive. He is holding his skin, the face of which many believe is Michelangelo's self portrait. How that is known I will not research, but I do not see it myself.

My time under this great masterpiece was worth all of the frustrations of the Vatican visit combined.

Leaving the Chapel required backtracking through the torturous passages, but at least by then we knew the way! The walk back along the seemingly endless wall was easier as the sun was low enough that we were in shade. Starting back in line to get into the Basilica we were pushed around by a large group of Japanese tourists. As individuals they are wonderful, but as a group they can be seriously annoying.

The first thing to see inside is another masterpiece by Michelangelo, the Madonna della Pietà (Our Lady of Pity), which is Mary, the mother of Jesus, holding his broken, dead body. When I was here in the 1970's we could get fairly close, with nothing to separate us from this piece of ultimate anguish, but now there is a plexiglass (?) barrier quite a ways away from the sculpture. We had to mostly gently elbow our way to the barrier once the people there had had what we felt was plenty of time there, considering the great crowd waiting. I wish that I could have spent a lot more time examining the masterpiece. Oh well...

Not having arranged a tour, probably not the best idea, we wondered around taking in the site, but with no knowledge of what we were seeing. The first stone of the Basilica was laid in 1506, but it took a century to complete. It was built in the Italian Renaissance style, the decoration of which I recognize as a truly stunning example of architecture and art of the period, to my eyes which were trained on pre-Renaissance English cathedrals, it is over the top. I apologize to my Catholic readers - it is not a criticism, merely my opinion from prior experience.

Back out of the Square we managed to find a precise location that the taxi driver could find, and after a bit of a harrowing ride through rush hour Roma, all but fell on the sofa back in our little flat. Glenn heated up some yummy leftovers, and I collapsed into the bed early to read and sleep.

Friday, our final day in the Italian capital, we packed our suitcases, washed what dishes needed to be washed, all of the chores of the last day. We also walked over to our favourite trattoria for our final lunch. Absolutely delicious. Our dear proprietor gifted us a serving of tiramisu. I shall miss him!

Saturday we were up at 3:30 to await our pre booked taxi to the airport. The Roma airport is very nice. We were early enough that it was almost deserted and the obnoxious announcements that I can never understand were almost non-existant. By 8:25 we had boarded our British Airways jet to fly to London, however, due to fog in London (surprise, surprise) our flight was delayed by 90 minutes. We only had a 2 hour layover in London, so I seriously doubted that we would make the flight. Somehow, the pilot managed to shave 30 minutes off the regular flying time, so we had an hour to make it through ginormous Heathrow. Darned if we didn't have to go through security yet again! I have lost count of how many times we have had to do that. We did manage to make our flight, by the skin of our teeth, but naturally our luggage did not. The 9 hour flight seemed endless. Thankfully, both the lunch, which was a typical English Christmas lunch, and the sandwich 2 hours before landing were very tasty.

Home again, with no luggage and no fur kids. Rather sad! Rae needed to be at her home in the mountains that evening, so she brought the dogs down on Sunday for a very joyous reunion! British Airways called Glenn to say that our luggage would be delivered sometime between 9:30 pm and midnight, so Glenn struggled to stay awake. By midnight he was nodding off, but the doorbell rang at about 12:15, and there, in perfect shape, was our luggage!

Two days later I can look back and ignore the frustrations of the end of the trip, and marvel and the absolutely wonderful time that we had, both on the cruise and on our own in Roma. Viking was great, my research and preparations for Roma turned out very well, so all in all it was a fantastic experience!

I hope you will join us on our next trip, where ever and whenever it may be!