Holy Rome

April 16, 2015

Holy Rome

Our second full day and it is Vatican Museum day. This is something you have to psych yourself up for (unless you are an Art History Major or someone who lives for the ultimate museum experience). With that said, it was an amazing experience, even for someone who wouldn't know a Raphael painting if he tripped over it.

The Vatican Museum by the numbers (according to Rick Steves). "The four miles of displays in this immense museum----from ancient statues to Christian frescoes to modern paintings---culminate in the Raphael Rooms and Michelangelo's glorious Sistine Chapel (no photos of this..since no photos are allowed here) This is one of Europe's top three or four houses of art. " Rick Steves suggests two hours for a quick visit, three or four for enough time to enjoy it. We clocked in at 5.5 hours...so at a minimum we got our money's worth!

It was all quite amazing and we along with the rest of the tourist hordes seemed to be duly impressed....the Sistine Chapel is indeed glorious (although our personal favorite chiesa (church) was the Saint Francis Basilica (coming up in a later BLOG). Of course to be fair to the Sistine Chapel, it is just a small part of greater Saint Peter's, not a full blown church.

Because we spent so much time at the Vatican Museum, we got to go through Saint Peter's Basilica (free, amazingly enough) late in the afternoon in the last hour it was open to the public, which lowered the number of fellow tourists significantly. It truly is an amazing and quite huge cathedral. As Rick Steves puts it "To call it vast is like calling Einstein smart". Michelangelo's Pieta is here, the Saint Peter's dome is the biggest anywhere, the atrium is bigger than most churches - you get the idea - this place is over the top grand and big.

All that shuffling along in the Vatican museum and head craning up at the dome of Saint Peter's worked up quite an appetite....so off we went that evening to a recommended family owned restorante a few blocks away. And when they say family owned they mean it - the owner is ex Mafioso (he gave Donna two pecks on her cheeks as we left - luckily he ignored me - a kiss for me, and I might have met my maker (see Godfather 3). Great meal, and nice visit with couple from Pennsylvania at table next to us. We saw some of the Italian way in action too...the ex Mafioso owner was also the chef, his wife was the greeter...and while we are waiting for our food she goes storming into the kitchen screaming at him, and he just calmly worked on...no doubt all was forgiven hours if not minutes later. Our first gelato (of many on this trip) after dinner was dessert (and it remained one of my favorite gelato's of the trip).

Another long but fulfilling day in ancient, holy and eternal Rome. Let's see more works of art than we should.