I skipped blogging yesterday. Too tired after our long day. The day started with our guided tour of the Vatican. It was refreshing to have a guide with personality. She was young and fun and we are so glad we booked a tour so that we could learn the history behind the Vatican and the artwork. (Free tip: if you want to see the Vatican…book a tour or you will wait in line forever).
*Please excuse the lack of pictures of the Vatican and artwork as we do have three young children and need to use discretion when selecting appropriate photos. (I’ve seen enough naked people to last the rest of my life. And we can’t even get away from them in our hotel room since we have two paintings of naked Cherubs.)
We first went through all the museums, including Mark’s favorite: the Gallery of Maps. Figures, the one souvenir table in this long hallway had to be in front of the only map we wanted a picture of. Since Mark served his mission in Catania we wanted a picture of the Sicily map. This was the best we could do.
We saw tapestries, lots of frescoes, marble statues and paintings. I think we’ve hit our quota of museums for our lifetime. And we only walked through an eight of all the collections. We did like the Raphael rooms where we learned cool stuff like which fresco included Raphael’s self portrait. And we learned that this guy in the painting is actually Michelangelo and apparently he was not a very hygienic person and the boots he is wearing actually fused to his skin. Gross, huh?
Next stop…the Sistine Chapel. There were so many people and the guards desperately tried to keep everyone quiet since it still is a very sacred chapel. It still amazes me how big all of these sites are that we’ve been seeing. You never realize the grandeur until you’ve seen it with your own eyes. This was no exception. Cameras were not allowed but I may or may not have something to show when we get back.
Our guide said good bye and ended our tour outside the doors to St. Peter’s Basilica. My first thought when we stepped in was “wow”. Photos just don’t do it justice. It really is ginormous. So big, in fact, that the Statue of Liberty could fit in it, standing up under the dome. There were hundreds of statues, frescoes, paintings, altars, and mosaics but our favorite was hands down, the Pietá. It was carved by Michelangelo and probably the only thing in the entire Vatican that produced any sort of spirituality. Obviously, we came to see Vatican City for it’s history and art instead of its religious experience.
It was really cool to see the place where the Camerlengo burned himself alive above Peter’s tomb in Angels and Demons. It’s fun to go around the city and actually see the places Robert Langdon went to.
To give you some sort of perspective, this bronze statue is as tall as a 4 story building.
We finally asked someone to take a picture of us so that we could get a picture of more than just our heads. We are standing in St. Peter’s square and the Basilica is behind us.
Our last site of the day was Castel Sant’ Angelo which was the church’s strong hold and where all the treasure was kept. Leading away from the castle is the bridge of angels. In Angels and Demons, this is where the bad guy hung out with the four captured Cardinals.
Here’s the view from the top of the castle. The dome to the left is the Pantheon, which we will visit on Tuesday.
Oh, I forgot to mention that we saw the marble bust of Lord Voldemort. Apparently the Papacy is big into Harry Potter as well.
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