Vatican City

This morning we woke up fairly early and walked 5 minutes to Vatican City. We met up with our tour. There were less than 20 people o nthe tour which was really nice. Our guide, Steve, was also from the U.S. He has been doing tours in Rome for 6 years. We got little headsets so we could hear his voice right into our ear. That was also nice because we didn't have to be right close to him to hear what he was saying.

We walked to the Vatican right past the HUGE line. It must have been at least an hour wait in the hot sun. But instead we went right through security, through the turn styles and right into the Vatican Museums. Then he sat us down in a shady spot on some stairs and went through the whole Sistine Chapel.

Tour guides are not allowed to talk inside the church, so they have to explain everything ahead of time. He had a little book with lots of pictures so we could see what he was talking about. He knew so much, it was incredible. He answered every single question we had without hesitation. The most interesting thing I learned was that Michaelangelo was picked to paint the ceiling because everybody wanted him to fail. The Pope Julius II asked his head architect who he should ask to paint the ceiling. Everybody but the Pope knew that Michaelangelo was an accomplished sculptor- not a painter. And everybody hated him because he got so much money and was always grumpy and never finished his commissioned pieces on time. So the architect told the Pope to ask Michaelangelo to do it. Michaelangelo couldn't turn down the project because that would ruin his whole career. So everybody expected him to fail miserably. And look what happened! I also thought it was interesting that when he started painting, he made these really detailed small people and crammed them into a small space. Then he looked up at the ceiling and realized he was wasting his time because you couldn't see that much detail from the floor. So if you look at the ceiling, you can tell where he started with lots of detail and then the figures get bigger and simpler as he went along. What Daniel thought was most interesting was the story that all of the panels told and how easy it was to figure it out.

Before we actually went into the Chapel, our guide took us through the museums. Once again I was so glad we went with a guided tour. He told us exactly what was important and why and moved us quickly through the unimportant stuff. I think if we got an audio guide we would have been in there for hours listening to information about insignificant stuff and we would have missed the big important stuff. My favorite was looking at these ancient Roman baths that were carved out of a really hard stone. The stone was so hard that a diamond tipped blade would take 1 hour to cut 3 milimeters into the stone. We have no idea how they carved it: that technology was lost when the Roman Empire fell. Daniel's favorite part of the museums was seeing one sculpture that had the eyes replaced. Most of the sculptures we saw were marble duplicates that the Romans made from Greek originals. The Greek originals were in bronze and painted to look lifelike. So the museum curators added the eyes back into the sculpture to show us what it would have looked like.

Finally we navigated through the crazy crowds and made it to the Sistine Chapel. It was full of people, you couldn't even move. But it was incredible. I love the iconic panel of God holding out his finger to breathe life into Adam. Steve, our guide, told us that this panel was scandalous because God's legs are showing. We couldn't even get into the chapel if we were dressed like God! And there is a part of it that shows Bartholomew holding his skin (he was flayed alive for being a Christian) and Michaelangelo showed the skin as a self-portrait. That was his way of saying he's so tired and beaten down and oppressed. He was a grumpy man. The guards tried desperately to make everyone be silent, but of course everyone talked anyways. And we saw a guy get kicked out for taking a picture.

Finally, our guide led us around to Saint Peter's Basilica. He described some things to look for inside it and then let us go to explore it on our own. I loved Michaelangelo's Pieta. It was so beautiful. Our guide told us how a crazy guy tried to hack it to pieces in the 70s. And incredibly many of the "paintings" in the Basilica are actually mosaics made with really really tiny tiles. That was cool to see as well.

So you can see how much we learned today! I want to write it all down so I don't forget, but that's not possible. Anyways, I wrote the highlights. So we were done around 2 and found a place to eat lunch. I had pizza again. It was still really good. I just love Italian food I think. We found the main shopping street that goes from the Vatican to the river. It was fun to look in all the stores. We found ourselves right back at our hotel without even realizing it. So we stopped there to take a break from the hot Roman sun. We ended up napping for about an hour and a half. Rome has been so busy, we really needed the break. In the late afternoon we set off for Piazza Popolo.

We got there around 7, right when the church closed so we didn't get to go inside. I thought this Piazza was the most beautiful in Rome. It was a big circle with a fountain in the middle. Unexpectedly, a huge crowd came walking in from a side street. They were singing and waving flags. They were all wearing light blue. We recognized the Italian soccer team's jerseys that a lot of the people were wearing. So somehow we ended up right in the middle of a big pep rally on the street! They started to set off firecrackers so we got out of there. We walked down the center street that leads to the piazza. It was lined with tons of stores. We got gelato along the way for dinner. Where else would you get gelato for dinner but in Italy? It was so delicious! We found ourselves back in Piazza Navona, and it was crowded! There were tons of street performers. The most interesting ones we've seen yet I think. Lots of musical performers, artists, dancers, and the typical "human statues." We sat down at a table and ordered the house wine and just sat and watched all the people go by. There was a particularly entertaining old man right in front of us. He sat on a bench with an amp next to him and a microphone. He was playing a CD of an Italian singer and lip syncing along really terribly. It was obvious he was not actually singing. He waved his arm around. It was so funny that he actually thought people would think he was singing!

It was such a great morning learning so much about the Vatican and Michaelangelo, and a beautiful evening enjoying the fountains lit up and all the street performers. Today was a great day! We asked Steve what to do tomorrow. On Sunday everything in Rome is closed so we had no idea what to do all day. He recommended going to the beach and told us how to get there. So we'll sleep in and soak up the sun. Then the morning after we're off to the airport around 4am. What a fabulous weekend in Rome!