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The streets of Rome are dusty and filled with pedestrians, cars, and mopeds trying to get from one place to the other as fast as they can. We learned quickly that crossing the street was often a matter of life and death.
After a bit of searching we found our bed & breakfast, located only a few blocks from the station. It was in a large apartment block. If you look to the bottom right in the picture below, you'll see an amazing croissant and coffee shop which we stopped by at every morning. I'm fairly certain I'll never have another croissant as good as those ones were.
The view from the window:
Considering that we had been on a train for pretty much 24 hours straight, we were eager to have a shower, turn on the TV, and just chill out for a few hours.
Afterwards we ventured out and found a pasta restaurant nearby. We passed a gigantic church along the way.
The next morning we jumped on the metro (after grabbing a croissant, of course) and made our way to the Vatican City. Upon arriving back at street level we weren't immediately clear which way to go, but figured that following these ladies was a pretty safe bet.
Vatican City is the smallest country in the world. It's the seat of the Roman Catholic Church and was granted its independence in 1929 by the head of the Italian state, a guy named Benito Mussolini. The independence was granted on the conditions that the Church keep silent on Italian politics, and that its art collection be opened up to the public.
Today the Vatican City has a population of 800 people and sits in a walled-off compound in the middle of Rome. As you can see on the map below, there are three main areas: the gardens in the rear, the massive St. Peter's Basilica in the center, and the courtyard in front of the Basilica where crowds gather to hear the Pope speak.
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Approaching the City walls...
We were there to see the Vatican Museums, a gigantic art and statue collection that includes the Sistine Chapel. The Museums are visited by about 4 million people every year. The lineup was HUGE; we skipped it by going with a tour guide.
You'd be stupid not to go with a guide to the Museums. The layout is complex and confusing and there's basically no explanations to go with the pieces. Either you know what they are or you don't.
In the first courtyard there were a few signs set up so that you could see the intricate details of the Sistine Chapel's ceiling. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of the Chapel itself because pictures aren't allowed.
Walking through the collections...
That's our guide in the picture above. He was a pretty funny guy. He spoke with a thick Italian accent, but you got the hang of it eventually. In our group was a British family and an American family. We ended up going out for lunch with the Americans after the tour.
Finally we were ready to enter into St. Peter's Basilica. We went in through a side entrance into the basement, which enabled us to see where all the Popes are buried. No pictures were allowed.
This is not the biggest church in the world--a church in South Korea takes that honour--but it may be the most famous and important. It's the biggest church I've ever seen in my life. It was built 500 years ago, although there has been a church on the site for about 2000 years. It's said to be the burial place of Saint Peter.
Depending on your point of view, it's either a phenomenal feat of religiously-inspired architecture and construction, or a grotesque display of the worst elements of clergical paternalism, imperialism, self-righteousness and grandiosity.
I can't remember the story with this guy now, but if you rub his feet it absolves you of a few years of sin. Combining that with the holy water I drank earlier, I think I've gotten myself back to even.
There's a big story with this canopy as well, but I don't remember it and can't be bothered to look it up. Suffice to say, it's enormous and expensive and impressive to look at.
It sits directly underneath the huge dome of the Basilica and would fit right inside the small raised center of the dome.
To give you a sense of the size of that damned dome, each of the letters you can see along the lower edges are actually 2 meters tall.
The dome is supported by four huge columns. Inside each column is a little chapel to which public access is denied, and each contains some big artifact. Behind this one, for example, is said to be a piece of the cross on which Jesus was crucified.
Say what you want about the Catholic Church, but don't ever call them modest. Along the floor of the church are markings to show you where all the other great Western churches would end if they were built inside this church. It's meant to show you how much bigger THEIR church is.
The outside of the basilica and the entrance to the courtyard area. The Pope greets people here every Wednesday, I believe.
The man who claims to be God's direct representative on Earth sleeps behind one of these windows.
Before he was God's direct representative, this Pope, Pope Benedict XVI, was one of the people in charge of dealing with the child sex abuse charges (when they were covered up at almost every opportunity--watch this movie for a thorough but heartbreaking overview). When he was 14 he was enrolled in the Hitler Youth (not that he had much choice in the matter).
Our next stop in Rome can just be glimpsed through the doorway of the metro station. That, however, will be the subject of a new post...
[NEXT ROME POST]
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