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Published: March 31st 2009
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Day 2 of Rome was our Vatican City day. We had a tour scheduled for the Vatican Museums with Jerry in the afternoon, so we planned to spend the morning touring St. Peter's Basilica.
Already too many Euro into the trip at this point, we were looking for ways to save a few bucks here and there. Since you can't cut down on the sightseeing in my opinion, food seemed to be the easiest place to cut. So today's plan was to swipe some cookies and melba toast from the hotel breakfast, and that could be lunch. Along the walk to the Vatican (about 25 minutes from our hotel), we sent Mom into a shop to buy some pieces of cheese. Dad gave her a 20 Euro note, she returned and gave him back 25 cents??? Mom had also decided in the shop to get some meat for our sandwiches. With Mom's command of Italian, and the shopkeeper's English, the only choice Mom recognized was prosciutto, so that's what she got. So 4 slices of cheese were about 2.50, and about 17 Euro for 4 slices of meat. But it was worth it for me just to be able to
Inside St Peter's
The amount of marble is unreal make fun of her for the rest of the trip about that one.
After our little shopping trip, we arrived to St. Peter's Square (in Italian, the Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano) around 9:30am. You can walk around the Piazza without going through security, but to get into the church, you have to go through a security lineup. Visiting Rome in March means that we had to battle a bit of rain, but overall the temperatures were moderate, and the lineups were nothing compaired to the peak season. We were through security and into the church in about 15 minutes.
The Basilica is quite simply spectacular. It is the largest church in the world (capacity to hold 60,000 people), depending on whether or not you believe a claim by a church in the Ivory Coast. The amount of marble columns, statues, mosaics, and reliefs is quite daunting when you first walk in. The history in the church could keep a Catholic scholar busy for years. There has been a church on the site since the 4th century, but the basilica as it stands today dates back primarily to the 16th and early 17th century. According to tradition,
Bernini's baldachinno
Only the pope is allowed to preach from this main altar St. Peter himself (one of Jesus' 12 apostles and crucified by Nero) is buried underneath the main alter, and therefore many other popes are buried here as well.
The original design of the church was done by Bramante, but modified over the years by people such as Raphael and Michelangelo, who took on the project reluctantly after his work on the Sistine chapel. Michelangelo's Pieta (Holy Mother Mary holding Jesus' body after the crucifixtion) sculpure was also relocated to the Basilica in the 18th century. Bernini added the 100 foot baldachinno over the alter in the late 1620's, out of bronze taken from the pantheon according to some legends. The sculptures throughout the church are amazing, and plentiful.
After wondering around for a while, we decided to pay the 4 Euro to climb to the top of the dome. It's not a hugely strenuous climb, but there are some spots that get really narrow and winding. The stairs start becoming slanted as you get to the slanted part of the dome, I thought it was interesting, Mom was not a fan. Its also a bit deceiving as you get to the slanted part, you think you should be
at the top, but you continue on for another 10 minutes before you get there. But the view from the top is well worth it.
We headed back down, had our gourmet lunch in St Peter's square, and made the walk over to the Vatican Museum entrance to meet Jerry. In peak season, the Vatican Museums will get over 25,000 visitors a day, and stories of lineups of 2 hours to get in are not uncommon. We walked in straight away with no lineup, and were quickly through security.
Melissa and I are not huge art buffs like my mother is, but we thoroughly enjoyed the museum as well. I won't even attempt to describe the amount of works throughout the Vatican museums, but needless to say you could spend days there. The gallery of maps, tapestry room, Raphael rooms, and of course the Sistine chapel were highlights. Not being particularly religious, or art saavy, it was great to have Jerry to explain the meanings of everything. He spent a good 45 minutes describing what we would see in the sistine chapel, and was actually able to keep it interesting too. We saw some tour groups of 30+
people going through, we were really happy with the tour we had booked. The artwork of the Sistine Chapel is amazing, with the most well known the "Story of Genesis" and "The Last Judgement" by Michaelangelo, but also with works from Raphael, Bernini, and Botticelli. Its also quite amazing to think that every pope since 1455 has been elected from the conclaves held in that room.
Jerry left us in the Sistine chapel, where you can either exit through the Vatican Library, or go back straight into St Peter's Basilica. We went back to the Basilica where we went straight into the grottos where many of the pope's tombs are. After snapping a few pics before Melissa pointed out the "no photo" sign, we left the grottos which takes you up again into the Basilica.
Along the way back, Melissa and I stopped at a little shop where we picked up some cheese, crackers, and a 2.5 Euro bottle of wine! Wasn't the best wine, but at that price I had to buy it. Feeling pretty beat for the day, we didn't venture too far for supper, but found a nice cheap little pizzeria. A couple pizzas, some
lasagne, cannelonni, and a peroni beer satisfied the appetite for a reasonable amount, other than the 10 Euro fee to be served. As we ate we noticed the locals carried their own trays of food to the sitting area to avoid the fee. It was only a couple blocks from our hotel, so we knew better the next time we went.
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