Go for Baroque

The itinerary for this very special day was St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican Museum.  We began with the basilica and the first thing that caught our eye when we entered was Michelangelo’s Pieta. And it is lovely.  It is hard to imagine he did this at the age of 23.

His dome is also quite spectacular.

The church is the ultimate in baroque and packed with popes who’ve been elevated to sainthood.

My church is bigger than yours

And for those who miss the artistic message glorifying the church and its saints, there are marks on the floor of the nave showing the length of other famous churches and demonstrating that St. Peter’s is indeed the largest by far.

But I found the crypt quite moving.  Here is the grave of St. Peter.  It is easy to accept this fact as true because Peter had many followers and was a well-known figure at the time of his crucifixion by Nero around year 60, and the early Christians would have venerated his grave from the beginning.  Not surprisingly, the grave became the keystone of the great church that we see today.  Also in the crypt are all of the popes who have not been sanctified.  It was very moving to see the grave of John Paul II.  It was the only monument with a guard, who was there to herd the many tearful mourners.  John Paul II is likely to be made a saint this year, and when he does, his remains will be moved upstairs to the basilica.

There are no paintings in St Peter's

They are very fine grained mosaics

A curiosity in the main church is the grave of Queen Christine.    She was the Swedish monarch who abdicated her throne and left her protestant faith to move to Rome and become a Catholic.  She is not a saint, however, and did not live the life of a saint.  My guidebook states that she was a woman of carnal appetites and chose the church to avoid marriage and the obligation to produce an heir.

The nuns at Fraterna Domus close the kitchen on Thursday, so we ate Pizza at a small Trattoria for lunch.  We were served and charged for a small appetizer that we did not order—a Roman practice that most tourists find irritating and we were no exception, even though we had been warned. 

As one would imagine, there are many souvenir vendors in the neighborhood of St. Peter’s.

Some of the souvenirs are in dubious taste.  

Père September?

The afternoon was spent at the Vatican museum, which is one of the great museums of the world.  It felt as vast as the Louvre.  The walk from the entrance to the Sistine Chapel, for example, is one third of a mile from the entrance.  We were thrilled to see the Laocoon—familiar to all of us from art history but we were unaware that it was in this museum.

Buns of stone

We had a similar reaction to Raphael’s enormous painting School of Athens.  It is probably Raphael’s greatest painting and it was extraordinary to see it in person.   Finally, we reached the Sistine Chapel and words cannot adequately describe it.  It is searingly beautiful.  We probably spent close to an hour looking up.  Binoculars are essential and Don had brought a pair.  Also essential is snagging one of the few seats.  The guards spend their time shushing people and chasing them off the steps and ensuring that the no pictures rule was enforced.

Leaving the Vatican Musuem

Museum time tends to be the most tiring and we were exhausted, so we separated from the tour for a little down time at the hotel before a very fine dinner at Angoletto, our Italian fine dining experience.  It was a huge hit—the pasta courses and the spinach were particularly wonderful.  A goal is to learn to make pasta in the Roman style.