Today we took a cab to the Vatican Museum. The entrance is surrounded by high stonewalls like a fort. As the cab approached we were shocked to see hundreds of people cued up for entry. Many of the sights have private tour guides that for an additional fee will get you into the museum faster as a group than as an individual. We had a very good British guide. You can’t believe the crush of people entering the Vatican Museum. The lobby is a mass of confusion of people moving every which way. There are long lines everywhere. We began our tour in a beautiful courtyard with the dome of the basilica of St. Peter’s in the background. It is a landmark that you can see from many parts of the city. Our guide, using photographs of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, explained many of the details of Michelangelo’s paintings before we arrived at the chapel. You walk through two beautiful long corridors on the way to the Sistine Chapel, one with gorgeous tapestries and the other with 16th century painted maps of the Papal States. These two galleries and the Chapel are the only air-conditioned parts of the museum which on a 94 degree day in Rome is something to think about.
The Sistine Chapel is overwhelming as I expected it would be. To enter the room and think that one man painted this in 4 years is quite amazing. There are 391 figures to look at, only one looks at you, the famous damned soul hugging himself as he awaits his doom. The room is large but you stand shoulder to should with people unless you are lucky enough to grab a seat along the wall. You are not allowed to photograph and the Italian guards yell at you if you do. Our guide told us that there is an extensive ventilation system to draw out all the moisture that occurs from peoples’ breathing. Moisture will rapidly deteriorate the paintings. The number of people visiting this room every day is staggering.
Our next stop was St. Peter’s Basilica. Michelangelo’s beautiful statue of the Pieta is one of first things you come across in a small chapel at the back of the church. The front of the chapel is covered in glass. The man who attacked the statue back in the 70’s spent two years in prison. The arm that he broke off and the faces that he chipped have been restored. Michelangelo made this masterpiece when he was only 23 years old. It is the only work that he signed. Supposedly he overheard people disputing who made it and he then decided he needed to add his signature.
The Piazza San Pietro outside the basilica is exactly as I envisioned. The 140 statues of the saints topping the colonnades surrounding the square are beautiful. We walked down the main boulevard that leads to St. Peter’s and found an outdoor café. Lunch of a thin-crusted tomato and cheese pizza was delicious.
After lunch we made stops at the Pantheon and the Coliseum. We headed back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and drive about 45 minutes to the port in Civitavecchia.Tomorrow, Portofino…arrivederchia!
