The Vatican.......

Thursday, April 13th--A Day at the Vatican.

Today was our visit to the world's smallest country, Vatican City. We started outside the city at Castel Sant'Angelo. This castle started off as a tomb for Emperor Hadrian and later became a prison and then a fortress for the pope. It was built around 139 c.e. and in 590 c.e. the Archangel Michael appeared over the mausoleum to Pope Gregory the Great and it became know as Holy Angel.

As Rome was sacked at different times, it became a wonderful fortress for the popes and eventually they built an elevated walkway from it to the Vatican.

Next we went for our tour of the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's Basilica. We were all *very* glad that we had booked a tour as the lines were tremendous. A guy at the airport said that he did not get in because the line was a five hour wait! Yikes! Regardless of whether it was that long, the amount of people was astounding.

Our tour was very good. It really took us to a lot of places in the Vatican although I think it would take days to see it all. The overall of effect of it all was incredibly rich; full of masterpieces and rare collectables, so many in fact, that they almost looked like they were crammed in and should be spaced out more....

The most important parts of the museum to me were seeing the Sistine Chapel and the Raphael rooms. The Sistine Chapel ceiling that Michelangelo painted was a surprise to me as I was able to see the paintings very clearly and I really expected them to look quite small. We also saw his Last Judgement which was quite amazing as well.

A couple of interesting notes are that when the pope died, the new pope thought that the Last Judgement was very inappropriate because of all of the nudes. So, he hired another painter to come in and paint drapery to cover certain parts of the anatomy.

Also, Michelangelo had a bit of a sense of humor. One of the saints had been martyred by being skinned. So that saint is holding his skin which has the face of a gruesome looking Michelangelo. Another scene has the gate keeper of hell with the face of one of Michelangelo's critics, who was unhappy with the nudity. So Michelangelo made sure the privates of this man were covered----by the head of a huge snake about to take a big bite there!!!!!

Also, this room was restored about 10-15 years ago. They took off all of the soot and dirt from the many years of use, especially from all of the candles. They left one tiny square the color that things used to be and I am SO glad that they did the cleaning, even though it was quite controversial. The difference in colors was astounding--kind of like the difference between black and white and color. It was really dark!

Also this is the room where they pick the new popes in, so we got to see where the famous chimney goes during their conclave.

Raphael's School of Athen's, one of my favorite paintings, was also great to see in person. This was frescoed onto the walls of the pope's apartments (he has a new palace now) and was quite large and extremely impressive. :~)

We saw a model of Vatican City, and that was very helpful. It showed the layout of all of the buildings and gardens, the helicopter pad and train station (now closed due to security). The gardens are quite extensive. Our guide explained that Vatican City was not officially its own country for about 50 years after the Unification of Italy in 1861. Seemed kind of funny to me since it has been its own power for 1,600 years.....

Because it is its own country, they have their own mail system (which is WAY better than Italy's), own euro (each country gets to mark the euros the way they want to), own police force, etc. There are special guards for the Pope, called the Swiss guard and they still wear the same uniforms that Michelangelo designed. (Poor guy! All he really wanted to do was sculpt and people kept making him do other projects like painting and architecture. And, speaking of which, Michelangelo played a big part in the building of St. Peter's Basilica's dome!)

After the museum, we were taken down into the first church of St. Peter, where the popes are interned, unless they are beatified like Pope John Paul II is about to be. Then they are interned in the church above, St. Peter's Basilica.

It is said that Peter was crucified (upside down) on the very hill that the church is built on. Early Christians buried St. Peter there and then started to use the hill as a cemetery. Then when Christianity was legalized in the 400's by Constantine, Constantine built the first Church OVER the cemetery, where St. Peter was buried. (St. Peter apparently got moved around a bit because his remains were at least temporarily at a couple of other places, including out on Apian way at the catacombs, before he got buried again in the cemetery.) In the 1500's, the pope decided to build the largest Christian church anywhere in the world, so he built the new St. Peter's Basilica OVER the old church. So, if you are following this, we are not down in the cemetery level where St. Peter is buried, (that takes a special permit) but in the level above it where the popes' tombs are now.) You can actually look above you and see people walking over the grates above. After viewing these tombs, we ascended into St. Peter's Basilica. On the floor, just in case you didn't realize that it is the biggest church in the world, it has markers showing how far St. Paul's in London would fit, etc. It is amazingly opulent. The best part to me was Michelangelo's Pieta. It is magnificent. :~)