The layout of the museum is mostly linear, though there are detours to all sorts of interesting collections. Most people won’t see them, though, because they just want to head right off to the Sistine Chapel. We took our time. We went through a lot of areas and saw massive collections of all sorts. The collections of roman statues were particularly impressive, they had big famous figures like emperors and little sculptures of kids and rich families. A lot to take in. Also big collection of animal statues, from the exotic to the mundane.
Muscle statue!
The tapestries were another highlight. Rivaling some of the big paintings in the Louvre for size, they spanned the entire hall from floor to ceiling. And when you got up close, you could see some very impressive details in the stitching. Then we got to one of the other ‘things to see in the Vatican museum’, the Raphael Rooms. Very detailed and complex, and very full of people. It went for room after room. Pictures do it better justice than words, though.
Raphael Rooms: Now that's how you paint a wall.
Next up was the ‘modern art’ area, which most people passed because the Chapel was *so close*. We went, though, and I’m glad we did. There were a lot of neat pieces, including some by Dali and a few others that looked really nice. Then it was time for The Sistine Chapel.
Which was pretty uninspiring. Sure, it was neat to see *the* frescoes, but honestly everything else was way to distracting. All the people mulling about and taking pictures while curators repeated every 10 seconds “no pictures please be quiet” over and over and over again. Then the speakers came on and blasted “QUIET PLEASE” in 5 languages which would keep people silent for all of 10 seconds. It was a mess, and it wasn’t even as busy as it was when Jess saw it. At least we weren’t shoulder-to-shoulder with everyone.
The rest of the museum was pretty nice, too. I liked seeing some of the church artifacts: crazy old chalices and host-holders with ridiculous detail. The gift shop was fairly interesting, too. Aside from the normal bits and pieces, they also had replicas of the seals that old popes used to seal correspondence. If I was into seals, or popes, I might have gotten one. We passed the “Early Christian art” display because it was just a whole lot more Marble and we were getting pretty tired. So, MANY hours after entering, we left.
After a cafeteria lunch, we headed over to St. Peters basilica. There was a GIGANTIC line in front, and we were initially concerned, but it moved quite quickly and we got in with no worries. The church has a lot to see inside, though some of it was blocked. There was another famous ‘Mary and Jesus’ statue by Micaelangelo, this time with Jesus just down off the cross.
You could fit several significant other churches *inside* this thing if you wanted.
Then there were Mosaics, copies of famous paintings made with tiny, tiny pieces of glass. But the hall was generally dominated by these Preposterous statues, in marble, of old Popes or brothers or cardinals or something. It’s honestly a little off-putting, these brooding old men looking down on you with grumpy faces and condemning eyes. “How dare you enter my house, you sinner.” The altar, which is also huge, by the way, has a statue of St. Peter that you’re supposed to be able to kiss his foot. I’m not sure if they still let you do it, because it’s blocked off, but so many people have that his foot has been worn down to a nubbin.
After that we walked back through the catacombs which let us get a look at where, presumably, St. Peters original remains are housed, right underneath the altar. Pope Paul was interred down there too, still receiving flowers and prayers. After that we considered climbing to the very tip-top of the cathedral, but decided to pass. We shopped around a little bit for a Chalice, and we did find a store that would let us look at them, but after all that...churchitude...I was pretty burned out on holiness. It’s not accidental that I don’t go to church anymore, and I found the whole experience kind of upsetting, especially when I learned where all the money to build that church came from. Anyway, I decided to skip the cups.
Jess resting afterwords in the square out in front.
We got dinner at a restaurant where I tried Spaghetti Carbonara. Which, as it turns out, isn’t my favorite. Glad I tried it, though. We took the Metro back to our hostel in rush hour traffic, but nothing like as bad as Rush hour metro in Japan, so we managed. Back at the hostel, we planned out our next day a little, relaxed while it poured rain outside, and I gave Jessie a foot massage. I like being the best husband in the world.
-N
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