Vatican City: The Museum and Castel Sant' Angelo
Trip Start
Jul 11, 2010
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9
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Trip End
Jul 25, 2010
Vatican City, Lazio, Italy
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Today we visited the Vatican Museum in the morning. Thank goodness we had reservations to get in, because the lines wrapped around the walls of the Vatican, even before the doors opened! The entrance to the museum and the corner of the Vatican wall are a few blocks from each other, and people were packed together to form this monstrous line! The museum is huge; if one were to spend one minute on ever single display in the museum, it would take twelve years to get all the way through it! We started by getting audio guides, which were very helpful since we were not on a tour. The guides explained the history behind each section of the museum, the contributions of the different popes to the museum, as well as the history of the different artifacts in the displays. We visited the Gregorian Egyptian Museum first, which was founded by Pope Gregory XVI in 1839. It consists of nine rooms, each with a different theme from Egyptian life. These rooms included mummies, sarcophagi, canopic jars, jewelry, and numerous statues of various gods, goddesses, pharaohs, and queens. I found this section of the museum very interesting, partly because I have studied Egypt before and also because the Egyptian culture is so complex and intricate. The museum had a statue of Queen Tuya, who was the mother of Pharaoh Ramses II. I personally enjoyed this, as she was a central character in the book "The Heretic Queen" by Michelle Moran, which I had just finished earlier this spring.
The next section we visited was the Pio-Clementine Museum, founded by popes Clement XIV and Pius VI. This is a 12 room collection of marble statues from various regions of the world. Interestingly enough, the first exhibits of the Vatican Museum were a group of statues collected by Pope Julius II. This section was very large, and the size of some of the statues was amazing.
We then wandered through two very long galleries: the Gallery of Tapestries and the Gallery of Maps. The Gallery of Tapestries is located in a very long hallway, decorated with 15th and 17th century floor to ceiling tapestries of different scenes from Christ's life. Most were made especially for the Vatican Museums by a factory in Brussels, Belgium. Again, it is absolutely amazing how people can create these works of art out of something so simple as pieces of thread! The Gallery of Maps was founded by Pope Gregory XIII in the 1500s and was definitely one of my favorite rooms. It is another long hallway that was covered in floor to ceiling maps of the different regions of Italy. Not only were the maps beautifully painted, but they were extremely detailed; every little village in each region was recognized. It was interesting to see how much things have and haven’t changed from centuries ago. At the end of the room, there was a map of “Italia Antiqua” and “Italia Nova.” These maps depict Italy in ancient times and Italy in the 1500s.
Next on the list were the Raphael Rooms, which consist of four rooms: two were hand painted by Raphael, and the other two were designed by him, but painted by his pupils. The rooms were commissioned by Pope Julius II in the early 1500s, and finished by Pope Leo X after Julius’ death. These were gorgeous: floor to ceiling frescoes of Raphael’s most famous works. Stanza della Segnatura was my favorite room, as it had the famous “Disputation of the Holy Sacrament” and “The School of Athens” in it. The “Disputation” painting is an image of the church, both in heaven and here on earth. The heavenly characters include the Holy Trinity and major apostles floating over the earthly church of philosophers and church leaders of the ages. The “School” fresco is Raphael’s most famous fresco, thought to depict truth acquired through reason. It is thought that Raphael painted himself into the right hand corner of this work. The final room, Sala di Constantino, was finished by Raphael’s pupils, as he died before he could complete his work.
The Raphael Rooms led into the Sistine Chapel, which was breathtaking! The Chapel was named for Pope Sixtus IV, who first restored the chapel. The whole building interior is painted, not a square inch is left untouched. The ceiling is an absolute masterpiece. Michelangelo painted it between 1508 and 1512, and created a story of nine scenes from Genesis including: God Dividing Light from Darkness; Creation of the Sun and Moon; Separating Waters from Land; Creation of Adam; Creation of Eve’ Original Sin; Sacrifice of Noah; The Great Flood; and Drunkenness of Noah. The way the stories connect and flow, how everything has a place and meaning is truly genius. I stood for several minutes in awe of how beautiful it was. The other thing about the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is that it is the ceiling. How difficult would that have been to paint? The intricacy and detail would be hard enough on a flat upright surface, let alone on a curved surface that you are painting laying down! It is seriously amazing and totally worth seeing! Michelangelo was then commissioned again to paint another fresco behind the main altar in 1535. He ended up creating “The Last Judgment” which is the story of Christ’s second coming and the apocalypse. In order to paint this, Michelangelo had to paint over the existing frescoes on the wall, and the two windows in the Chapel had to be covered to compensate for the frescoes’ extravagant size. It is truly another masterpiece, and is almost scary when you look closely at the figures faces. In the painting, Christ shows no mercy to those who have not been faithful followers to him, and serves as a warning to Christians to follow the faith. Michelangelo is said to have painted a self portrait in this fresco; he is the skin held by the martyred St. Bartholomew in the center. We were unable to take any pictures in the Chapel; those that did were quickly escorted out by uniformed and unmarked officials in the Chapel! Quite a site to see!
Before leaving the museum, we walked through the Carriage and Automobile Museum, which contained dozens of Papal carriages and cars from past Popes. Each was elaborately decorated, and there were even older models of the Pope mobile! The exit of the museum is quite interesting. It is a double helix staircase of two spirals: one to walk up and one to walk down. With all of the other grandiose sites in the museum, what better way to exit than a through a masterpiece of architecture?
After exiting the Vatican Museum, we planned on visiting St. Peter’s Basilica since we had our shoulders and knees covered, however, like the Museum, St. Peter’s had a very long line. Instead of waiting in the hot sun, we decided to head over the Castel Sant’ Angelo instead and see St. Peter’s the next day. This turned out to be a very good choice, because there was not a line at the Castel, and we got in free with our Roma passes! The Castel Sant’ Angelo is just down the street from the Vatican, and is quite a site to see. It was built in 139AD by the Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum. The Castel gets its name from the Archangel Michael, who stands atop the building. It was mainly used as a fortress, prison, and as a safe house for popes during times of civil unrest. There is a passage way from the Vatican City to the Castel, called the Passetto di Borgo. It is an outdoor pathway on top of a wall that connects the two sites. I first learned about it from the book “Angels and Demons” by Dan Brown, so it was very cool to see the actual thing! Today, the Castel is a museum, but we were able to go to the various levels and areas within the building, so we got the whole affect! At the very top of the Castel is a lookout point in which we you can see beautiful views of Rome. Because there are never any clouds in Rome, or Italy for that matter, we were able to see a vast majority of the city from here. The River Tiber winds beautifully through the city and the bridges that cross it are so pretty. Of course, my favorite bridge is Ponte Sant’ Angelo, which is the bridge leading up to Castel Sant’ Angelo. It is lined with ten stone angels holding the instruments of the Passion, which were designed by Bernini. The Ponte and Castel Sant’ Angelo create such a beautiful site; it was definitely one of my favorite places to see!
After visiting the Castel, we headed back to the bed and breakfast to cool down before dinner. We stopped at Old Bridge Gelateria across the street from the Vatican for some gelato. Every time we walked by this gelateria, it always had a line that extended down the street, so we just had to see what all of the fuss was about. I got mint and vanilla gelato, and it was amazing! I will definitely miss all of the gelato over here! Our original plan for dinner was to go to the Hard Rock Café for dinner, but the wait was way too long (it took me 20 minutes just to buy a t-shirt!), so we wandered around the area for another restaurant. I will miss how every restaurant has outdoor patio seating as its primary dining area. The weather here is always nice or hot, so it usually feels better to eat outside anyway. We ate at a lovely little Italian restaurant, where I had the best pesto sauce that I have ever tasted! This may have been because this restaurant also played Michael Buble’s “Crazy Love” CD in the background, but I really can’t tell for sure!
