June 8, 2010
We took a guided tour of Vatican City and the museums the morning before leaving Rome. Incredible! The tour guide was excellent, she was a local Italian woman who was so entertaining! Tip: a 3 hour tour does not equal 3 hours but 5 hours. Do not book a train ticket at 12:36 pm when you have a tour the same morning...our first 1 1/2 hours consisted of riding a bus, getting a headphone set, and taking a coffee break!
Vatican City = beyond our expectations! First we went to the museums which apparently take weeks to see everything and they are excellent. They house several famous works of art including statues, tapestries, tombs, paintings, and more. The most incredible part is the buildings themselves with grand hallways that have intricate ceilings made of gold and detailed paintings. You could spend hours just staring at the ceilings. The best of course is in the Sistine Chapel with Michelangelo's famous paintings. Wow. Couldn't believe we were actually getting to see it up close. The ceiling is a fresco which is the most difficult type of painting because you are doing it on wet paint letting it last longer so if you mess up you have to restart that whole section again. The story behind the ceiling:
Michelangelo was actually a sculptor before this, and the pope wanted him to design a grand tomb for when he died. Michelangelo spent 2 years working on it but only produced drawings and no actual model so the Pope become fed up and fired him. Years later, when they wanted an artist for the Sistine Chapel, one of the Bishops recommended Michelangelo. Interestingly, this Bishop hated him and actually made the recommendation on the belief that it was an impossible task and that he wasn't even a painter so he was bound to fail. Well, the Pope chose him and in a short four years he complete the masterpiece of the Book of Genesis on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel! 23 years later he also painted the Last Judgement on the front entrance.
Next on the tour was the St. Peters Basilica- wow. This is the largest church in the world. Words can not describe how incredible it is. Just the size is so overwhelming and the details of the work in the ceilings (all mosaics and gold) and everything...unbelievable. There was also the beautiful statue of the Virgin Mary and Jesus in her lap which was amazing. (It is behind a glass wall though because a few years ago a crazy man ran at it with a hammer and hit it 12 times!) I am running out of adjectives to describe how awesome everything was! The length of the church is 2 soccer fields, and inside there are stars representing the lengths of other great churches like Notre Dame in comparison to St. Peters. There are also glass caskets of two different popes who have been preserved in wax, and you actually can see their bodies. Some more interesting facts:
- 20,000 visitors to the Vatican each day!
- All the incredible paintings in St. Peters are mosaics
- 120 years to build the structure of the church
- 150 years to decorate
- 4-5 year waiting period for the wedding chapel
- 250 popes so far
After the tour ended at 11:50 am (4 1/2 hours after it started), we had to run all the way around Vatican City to get our bags that we check, go 5 blocks to catch the metro, arrive at the train station 20 minutes later and had to pick up our suitcase that we checked the night before, ran to the train station, got on the wrong train, ran to the information desk, and then finally arrive to our train just in time!! Phew. Traveling is exhausting. 3 hours later we made it to Florence! The hotel is right down the street from the train station, and we are in the heart of the city. We explored the city all night, and it is wonderful here. Had some delicious spaghetti with sea food (Justin: "My favorite dinner so far") and gelato of course! So many tourists here we almost feel like we are back in the US because there are so many people speaking in English.
