Crossing borders... into the Vatican!

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Ciao!

I am really loving Italy. It's such an adventure everywhere we go. Especially trying to upload photos in an internet cafe. So far I haven't found one that has worked for me which is kind of disheartening, but I'll live.

Today has been long, but quite wonderful. We woke up at 5:45 in order to get to the Vatican early enough without a long wait. Standing in line was something in itself. When we got off the metro at our stop, some people literally started running to the Vatican. It was 7:30, an hour and 45 minutes before it even opened! But I should have figured, it was free entrance today into the Musei Vaticano... also the reason why we were going today as well.

But we got there and were pretty close to the start of the line surprisingly. At least, compared to the line that wrapped all around the outside walls of the Vatican. I kept looking back to see more and more people just lining up until they were out of sight. For the time we waited outside, it was fun to see the people coming down the street to get in line and to see their faces as they too saw the massive snakelike line.

We really only waited 2 hours to get into the building and when we did, oh man! The warmth! My feet were freezing cold by that point and I think for the first few minutes of being inside the Vatican Museum I was more happy to be inside a warm building than to actually be on my way to see the famous works of art. But soon we were heading through galleries and rooms of paintings trying to find our way to what we really wanted to see: the Sistine Chapel.

I'm going to be completely honest here... most of the art in the Vatican went over my head. As we were walking through gallery after gallery, I saw so much art it was almost overwhelming. Especially at first when you walk through a gallery with a bunch of sculptures and paintings on the ceiling. I didn't know what to look at, or... what I was looking at. I felt kind of bad, because I knew I was in this special place, but without a guide or really the motivation to get into what I was seeing it was lost on me. It was all beautiful, just a lot.

But the two things I was keen to see, the Rapheal Stanze and the Sistine Chapel, were worth the wait. I was so impressed and in awe of the sheer size of both of these, especially the Sistine Chapel. We sat there for a good amount of time and just took it all in. There were a ton of people there too. I was kind of disappointed we couldn't take photographs of the Chapel because I would have loved to have gotten a real good one of the Creation of Adam... but oh well. I did actually sneak a few, since I reasoned I dont plan on selling them... but overall they were just decent since I had to be stealth and was not able to frame it nicely.

By time we were done viewing the work of Michelangelo and the other great artists in the Sistine, we decided to just leave. We were tired and a bit burned out with all the culture. As we were walking out of the museum we had to go through room after room of more artwork. I dont like the way that the place was laid out. It felt like the Catholic Church was forcing all this artwork (religious or not) on me. Actually, knowing the Catholic Church, this felt about right. It was like this was its way of saying "you WILL look at this art and you WILL walk through these galleries and appreciate it." I would have liked to just have seen what I wanted to see and gone on my merry way. Maybe you wont agree with me, but I actually think it would have been better. Perhaps it would have been less crowded overall. Or maybe it would have been more chaotic since the throngs of people wouldnt have been herded around like we were. Who knows.

By time we did get out of the museum, there was this massively huge crowd in the plaza of St. Peters. We couldnt understand why. Of all the pictures I looked at in books and on the internet of the Vatican, none of them had such a crowd in the plaza. But, after noticing some video TVs set up all over the piazza, and a window open above with a tapestry hanging out of it, we figured it out: we were going to be able to see the Pope.

So we waited around and about noon he came out of the window to loud cheers from the huge gathering below. Immediately I felt like the worst Catholic ever, both because of my blasphemous thoughts about the Church and the fact that I havent gone to church in forever (or even wanted to for that mater), but regardless, I thought seeing the Pope was really awesome. And it was pretty lucky we timed it just right to see him. I was very impressed too as he was giving the Christmas message in a ton of languages... I recognized French and English, and of course German, Italian, and Spanish. There may have been others but I didnt recognize it.

We decided not to go into the actual Basilica. I didnt feel up to more lines and standing around. The line for the museum was enough. I felt proud of myself for getting up at 5:45 AM to go the Vatican as it was. And, Im slowly learning to say, "next time, I can see that," and so far that has made all the difference. So we decided to leave the Vatican once the Pope had retired back into his room/office/whatever it was that he came out of. So, the next entry will be from back in Rome! Ciao!

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Photos

The imposing basilica
Even blocks away, the church still looms large.

Comments

[capsfan2002]

Photos
Excellent vatican stair shot!