Rome Day 3 - Part 1: Vatican and Sistine Chapel

We thought we were doing so well, with the short walk from our hotel to St. Peter's Square (which isn't a square, by the way).

We stood there, looking for signs, and trying to orient ourselves, before a helpful person sent us out through the gates and around a gigantic wall to get to our Vatican Tour.  Which is, I admit, just what I had Googled, but the lady at the B&B said it was just down the street five minutes away, and I took her word for it. Nope!

So we walked.  Race-walked, that is.  And instead of making it early, we scraped in with just moments to spare. They found our tour already started, and we were hastily made ready to join them, and walked along the rest of the way, enjoying ourselves immensely.  Once Caroline got the rhythm of our guide's accent, which at first she couldn't make heads or tails of. It was just a matter of developing an ear for it. 

 We joined in the midst of an explanation of the Sistine Chapel.  I was fairly impatient to get on with it, because we can read about the Sistine Chapel online or in a book, rather than standing in front of a sign hearing about it.  But of course, they can't speak in the Chapel (actually, our tour ended before we entered), so that was that.  A few impatient moments trying to settle down and listen, and we were on our way in.

I have over two hundred pictures from inside the Vatican Museum.  Most of them won't be of general interest, I suppose.  I'll try to pull the most interesting ones and talk about them, but again, this blog is going to take some ambitious work to catch up with!

We started off in the Pineapple Piazza.

But once we moved inside, it was all I could do to keep my eyes on where we were going, because the CEILINGS - never mind the Sistine Chapel, that was still to come. Ceilings everywhere here were blowing me away.

Later on, in Venice, we went to an art gallery where we were given mirrors to look at the ceiling.  It's probably just as well I wasn't given one here, or I'd still be there.

I'm really sorry.  I have no idea why I got onto the fish-eye lens setting, but here's the Belvedere Torso.  I will admit that it still seems strange to fuss so much over broken statues, but this one is a Genuine Big Deal in art.  It was sculpted in the first century BC, and discovered in the late 15th Century. Michelangelo used this torso for Jesus' body in The Last Judgement, on the wall of the Sistine Chapel.

There's another photo I need to get in here!!  It's the Belvedere Apollo, a copy made by Romas in the 4th Century AD of a Greek original.

This is the hall of the maps, but again, I couldn't focus or even think about the maps. All I could see were the ceilings. They were astonishing.  There was so little time - you could spend MONTHS here trying to enjoy this incredible building.

We were also packed in like goats.  I was dying of heat.  (It got better as we went on, until we got to the Sistine, where once again, it was a throng).

I tried to snap some shots of the ceilings as we went by...I can tell you nothing about those pictures, unfortunately.

The guide was able to get my attention for a final map of Italy near the end of the room.


When we started reaching the Raphaels, we moved through the paintings done by his students first. They were terrific, really.  But when we got to the Heliodoro (I think) room - that's when you knew you'd hit the Raphaels.

Above - the students.  Below - so much detail, in every figure....look at this little boy, breathing out at us from the wall.

There is no one like Raphael.  I mean, really, I know SO LITTLE about art.  But you walk in and you see a face like this, and you almost stop breathing.  And this is just one small face in a whole wall, a whole room, of Raphael.  One little face.

School of Athens.  I couldn't believe I was actually seeing the School of Athens.

Don't let me waste your time too much; watch this: http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/school-of-athens.html

Michelangelo, as drawn by Raphael, in his beloved boots....isn't it just amazing to think about them both working here at the same time, creating such beauty?



We moved into the Sistine Chapel (no photos there, sorry). They kept telling us to be silent, and not to take pictures, but lots of people were taking pictures, and some Godforsaken idiots were even using their flashes.  All I can say about the Sistine....SO MUCH BLUE.  The Lapis!!  Lapis Lazuli everywhere!!  Especially in The Last Judgement, which just staggered me. We could scarcely look enough.

Other thoughts - Jonah's whale was underwhelming.  He didn't look big enough to do the job.

It would have been so easy to miss the Pinacoteca - we had to work hard NOT to miss it.  But there was some terrific art still to be seen after the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, and we pushed on and enjoyed the Pinacoteca.

And then, Raphael's last painting - his Transfiguration.

I think my heart stopped.  It was the weirdest thing.  I walked into a room full of other art, and I couldn't even see it.  This leapt off the canvas and completely and utterly dominated the entire room.  (This happened several times, I admit, with some shockingly good art in Italy, but this was the first time that it happened, and I was just bowled over.)

This was the most vivid, stunning, incredibly beautiful....I have no words.  It was so alive.

I think I fell just a little bit in love with this guy.  His face is just incredibly precious and expressive.

Guido Reni's St. Matthew and the Angel.  Now, this was a lovely moment.  I went to Italy and there were specific pieces of art I wanted to see.  There were things I was so excited about seeing - I had a list!  There were particular churches we went into, particular museums.

And then there were the artists and the artwork I'd never heard of that I loved.  Reni and his St. Matthew are a great example.

Look at this incredibly endearing St. Matthew!  Look at the tender attentiveness!  Look at that wonderful angel!

I swear to you, I looked at this painting and instantly couldn't get my husband out of my mind.  Some of my friends will know that my husband once wrote out the ENTIRE BIBLE.  Yes, the whole thing. Copied every word of it.  Which is pretty cool. And somehow, although actually being given the inspired word of God to write out the first time is vastly different, that's all I could see was my husband's patient and dedicated labour of love.

So I love this painting.  And I want a reproduction rather badly, and I might just get one.  My sister had a fantastic reproduction of a Vermeer painted for me once, and I could very easily get more from them....

This was another one that we just stopped and stared at in utter delight.  God bless Peter Wenzel for his Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  What a riot of life this is!  This photo doesn't do it a bit of justice, because the colour is MUCH more vivid.  240 animals on this canvas, I think, and I was as helplessly enraptured with it as was Pope Gregory XVI.  The only problem is, Gregory had a lot more money than I do, and could immediately snatch it up along with another nineteen paintings to decorate his Papal apartment in the 1830s....

What can I say?  It's a great staircase at the Vatican Museum.  The only problem was, it was leading down and out, and I didn't want to go.  I wanted to turn around and walk through it all over again.

Next time, although the guided tour was really excellent, I want to go through it all so much more slowly.  And I was a fool not to buy the (incredibly fat and heavy) guidebook, because there is so much.  Fortunately, there is a terrific website to reference.

There are so many more pictures you aren't seeing.....but I can't, simply can't post them all.  And unlike a million other people, I was obedient in the Sistine Chapel and took no photos.

We went for lunch before moving on to St. Peter's.  We had a yummy lunch and dessert.  Choosing was difficult for me.  Caroline went with gelato (she nearly lived on gelato in Italy) and I had Tiramisu.

And then we had to go up to the dome of St. Peter's.  We almost didn't!  We almost went to see the church first, and we would have missed the last trip up!  Phew!

I knew that the photo wouldn't do this justice.  You have to trust me when I tell you that the light flooding in through that yellow dove light behind the altar is almost the only light you notice.  It's the most amazing focal point....just stunning.

I hate to admit this, because after all, who am I - but I don't like this altar one bit.  Bernini did it.  It's 7 stories tall, and that's not surprising because you'd lose anything smaller in this massive church.  It just.....well, it doesn't seem to fit, to me.  It just looks weird.

Then, of course, I saw Michelangelo's Pietà and it didn't matter anymore, because I was having one of  those moments.  One of those helpless moments that, thank heavens, Caroline doesn't judge me for, because I was staring at it and tears were just sliding down my face without me having anything much to do with it.

This wasn't our first Michelangelo.  We'd seen his Moses at San Pietro in Vincoli.  But although he may have considered Moses his finest work, I would respectfully disagree.  Moses moved nothing in me.  This one broke my heart.

Everything after that just felt like a denouement.  We were tired, and started back to our B&B, filling up a water bottle on the way home.

Rome Day 4: Colosseum, Borghese Gallery, and the Castle.

Today, we're heading directly to the Colosseum after breakfast and then to the Borghese Gallery.  We won't have much time at the Colosseum, but we're doing the best we can, and no regrets!

WELL!!  Definitely no regrets!!  The Colosseum was grand and a fast visit - we went the first Sunday of the month, which was fairly ridiculous, because it's free to the public, and it was a total swarm.  We did NOT stay long!!  Anyway, we weren't able to get the guided tour booked, and without one, it's really just a giant and impressive ruin, not a lot to ponder for us.  And it was HOT.

Yes, we were accosted by Gladiators before we even got there, but that was okay, no big deal, and I didn't give them very much.  It was amusing.

The walk to the Colosseum itself was very interesting.  I never pictured that the ruins would be scattered right in the middle of the city, somehow.  They're all right there, in these little valleys.  It's rather extraordinary.

We didn't have a guided tour going on here, so I really don't have a ton to say.  It's as huge as I thought it would be.

We didn't even go down there....isn't that weird?  But you can't get everywhere and do everything, and the Borghese Gallery was so much more important to us than combing through the ruins of the Forum.

Still, we had time for a little prowl around.

And then it was off to the Borghese.  We were GOING to take a bus, but we were having trouble catching the right one, and I didn't want to be late, so we hopped in a cab, and ten minutes later, there we were, staring at Bernini statues in awe.

The Rape of Proserpina

Can you believe this is marble?  It was absolutely breathtaking.  

The facial expressions were just so compelling....

All the details, everywhere.....we couldn't stop looking, couldn't walk away, for the longest time.

Look at her hair!  How did he do that???

Apollo and Daphne

This is Caroline's shot, with the painting inspired by the sculpture on the ceiling above, and she's very proud of it.

Bernini's David - we saw so many Davids.  This is absolutely one of my favourites, though.  I love his face, and I love the energy of the posture. Now, of course, Michelangelo's David was already the biggest thing in Italian sculpture, and Bernini was in competition for something completely different. This is David in full action, and we are completely drawn into the drama of it all. 

The next several photos are all of the incredible ceiling in the entrance hall.  It's a huge frescoe by Mariano Rossi, and the subject is The Apotheosis of Romulus, received in Olympus by Jupiter. It was painted between 1775 and 1778, to celebrate the birth of Marcantonio IV Borghese's first son in 1775.

I finally decided that this ceiling wasn't going to be good enough unless I lay down on the floor to photograph it.  I would have been trampled to death had I tried that at the Vatican, but here, I was safe.

Caravaggio's St. Jerome (1605-1606). 

This is a Bernini, but I wouldn't have actually thought so.  It's Aeneas, Anchises and Ascanius. This was Bernini's first commissioned work, and he was only 20. Compare this to the Rape of Prosperpina (Pluto and Proserpine) when he was 23....astonishing.

This is Bernini's Truth Unveiled by Time. It's incomplete.  It should have a figure for Time in the upper corner, but it isn't there; he never finished it.

Hermaphodite, 1st C. A.D. copy of an original by Polycles, from 150 B.C.

Ceiling painting - G. Hamilton, The Death of Paris 

One of many Judith and Holofernes....they are EVERYWHERE in Italy!!  This isn't Caravaggio's, though...I have to look, surely I photographed that one...This is Fede Galizia's (female artist, 1596).

I didn't get the name of this one down, and I can't find it at all.  I liked her very much, but I don't know who she is or the name of the artist.  

Raphael's Lady with a Unicorn (1506). This wasn't attributed to Raphael until 1934 or so.  

We were trying to get back into the centre via the Spanish Steps, and got a little turned around, but we finally found them.  We knew we were heading in the right direction when we saw the scaffolding....

Yes, even the Spanish Steps had scaffolding close enough to get in the way of a photo. Frankly, we didn't quite see what all the fuss was about anyway, but here we are - we were there.

Somehow, without quite intending to do so, we ended up walking all the way home to our B&B near the Vatican from the Galleria Borghese.  We did stop for an (utterly unremarkable) dinner on the way back.  Here we are crossing one of the bridges across the Tiber.

It was a long walk, and Caroline's feet were very hot and tired...but I still couldn't dare her successfully to stick her feet in the fountain.

"These bloody tourists...."

The Castle!!  We would be heading back there soon after freshening up!

Once we had freshened up, it was time to head back to the Castle - which was only a short distance away, cutting through St. Peter's Square. 

This is the "secret passage" (not secret at all) going between the Vatican and the Castle.

Believed to be the original burial place of Emperor Hadrian.  

Wee prison cells.  Not the fancy, political prisoner cells.  The ordinary people kind of cells.

They had a neat system for bringing oil and wine in through the ceiling into giant pots that were placed in these holes.

After the tour, there was a concert, in the courtyard of the castle.  It was...magical.  

We explored a little bit more before leaving.

The view from the rooftop, all over Rome, was spectacular. There were even fireworks happening waay, way off in the distance.

St. Peter's from the Castle.

And before we really left, we had to look at the angels on the bridge.  I did photograph every one of them, but I will spare you that...

How gorgeous is this?

We finished our night with a quick gelato and a walk home through St. Peter's, knowing that in the morning, we'd be pushing on and leaving Rome for Sorrento.

It was hard to leave.