Musei Vaticani — WOW!

Friday, 4 September 2015
Trevi Comfortable Terrace Apartment — Rome, Italy
Temps: Hi 86F (30C) / Lo 70F (21C)

After our long day in Tivoli yesterday, we took the morning off to rest.  I suppose you could say that we just turned the day upside down, doing our sightseeing late in the afternoon and at night instead.

It worked out nicely as the forecasted thunderstorms rolled through while we were at the apartment.

Luckily for us, we have a “dry” and sunny morning for our morning meal on the terrace.  The tower in the distance is the Sanctuary and Basilica of Madonna del Miracolo.  It’s one of our neighborhood churches.

By mid-morning it was raining hard, and the day had turned downright muggy.  We decided to change our lunch plans.  Instead of going out to a neighborhood restaurant, Mui prepared spaghetti with a tomato and sausage sauce, and we stayed cool and dry by eating in the dining room.

When in Italy what do you eat?  Spaghetti, of course.

The rain that plagued us for most of the day was supposed to continue through the night and into the next morning, but so far that’s not been the case.  I should know … it is 1:00a [Saturday] as I type these words.

Why am I still up at this hour?  Because we got back from our nighttime visit to the Vatican Museums about 30 minutes ago and I need to wind down a bit before I can even think of going to bed.

Glimpse of the courtyard of the Musei Vaticani.  Remember the Pomodoro Arch in Tivoli?
The one that reminded me of Arnaldo Pomodoro's Sphere within a Sphere sculptures.
well here’s one of them.  The dome in the background is that of St Peter's Basilica.

Our sightseeing day started at 3:00p with a metro ride to the Vatican where we were hoping to visit Saint Peter’s Basilica before our 7:00p visit to the museums.  That part of our plans didn’t work out as the line to get into the church went more than half-way around St Peter’s Square, with wait times ranging up to two hours to get inside.  No can do.  Instead, we went to the nearby ORP kiosk, shelled out some Euros, and bought tickets for a no-wait timed-entrance tomorrow.

Don’t be fooled by this photo of what looks like a reasonably deserted St Peter’s
Square … we’re inside the long line of visitors that is snaking around the perimeter.

Since we had time on our hands, we walked around the square for a bit; dropped into the Braccio di Carlo Magno Hall nearby to take a peek at the free A Blessing to One Another exhibit featuring photos and more documenting Pope John Paul II’s contributions to relations between the Catholic and Jewish faiths; strolled up Via della Conciliazione [Path of Reconciliation] towards the Tiber River to check out Castel Sant’Angelo; and then slowly wandered back to the Musei Vaticani [Vatican Museums] for our appointed entry time.

The Tiber serves as a reflecting pool for the Ponte Sant’Angelo; Castel Sant’Angelo is to the left.

We enjoy more reflections on the Tiber, and a closer look at the castle from Ponte Sant’Angelo.

The Vatican Museums lie inside the tall walls that surround Vatican City.  They were founded in the early 16th century by Pope Julius II and have since exhibited the art collected by Popes through the centuries.  I didn’t count them, but I read somewhere that there are 34 galleries, including the famously breathtaking Sistine Chapel.  In other words, wear comfortable walking shoes ;-)

Left: Purchased in 1506 by Pope Julius II, the Laocoön Group is considered
to be the sculpture that led to the foundation of the Vatican Museums.

Right: “Perseus Triumphant” with the severed head of Medusa.

Mui had visited the museums as a child, and later with his mom when they went to Rome in 2011.  He didn’t recall much from his earlier visit, but knew from his chock-a-block, wall-to-wall, shoulder-to-shoulder visit four years ago that going there during the daytime would not be a pleasant experience for me.  So, before we even set foot in Italy, we purchased tickets online for the once-a-week Friday night openings the Vatican had announced in early spring — €20/person including a €4 pre-sales fee (~ $22).

Front of a sarcophagus dated between 250-260 AD.

Our instructions said to arrive 30 minutes before our scheduled entry time of 7:00p.  We did so, finding a large group of people milling about and more arriving by the minute.  No one seemed to know what was going on, or which of the two doors we would enter through.  Mui asked one of the guards where we should go and was told to stand where we were in front of a temporary barrier, placing us in the perfect spot to get in line when the 7:00p visitors were called to queue up.

Vault of the Hall of the Muses.

First through the door, we cleared the security checkpoint and made a beeline to the cassa online to exchange our printed voucher for two tickets.  Minutes later, we were going through the turnstile.  And just like that we left Rome behind for Vatican City.  Through the courtyard and into the Museo Pio Clementino.  Thus we began our stroll through a wonderland of art on display in galleries decorated with lavish frescoes that I thought at times overwhelmed what was on exhibit.  Oh my … oh my.

For a while we maintained our lead ahead of the visitors that followed us inside, but the more detail there was to study, the more our pace slowed.  Yet, we had only four hours to explore everything, so we had to at times reluctantly move on before we were quite ready to do so.  To say that Musei Vaticani is an overwhelming experience would be an understatement … but I have no other words with which to describe what was laid out in front of us.

Detail from the vault of the Galleria dei Candelabri (Gallery of the Candelabra).

We walked and we walked.  We looked and we looked.  We craned our necks this way and that to gaze at the ceilings … the walls … the floors.  But words will do only so much to describe our experience.  What is it they say about a picture being worth a thousand words?  Well, let’s look at some pictures.

[Click any image for a larger version.]

Galleria dei Candelabri

Galleria degli Arazzi (Gallery of Tapestries)
”Adoration of the Shepherds” IS a Tapestry based on one of Raphael’s cartoons.

Galleria degli Arazzi (Gallery of Tapestries)
Left: Massacre of the Innocents
Right: Supper at Emmaus

Two of a series of 40 painted topographical maps of Italy that line the Galleria della Carte
Geografiche (Gallery of Maps).  It took friar/geographer Danti three years to complete them.

Coat of Arms of Pope Gregorius XIII above the doorway in the Gallery of Maps.

"Return of the Warrior" — a miniature mosaic from the first half of the 19th century.

"Rome and the Waterfalls of Tivoli" — a gold bracelet with mosaic plaquettes; mid 19th century.

Sala Sobieski is so named for this oversized painting by Jean Matejko, a Polish painter.
In this painting, the artist depicts Polish King Sobieski’s victory over the Turks in Vienna in 1683.

Ceiling detail from the Sala dell’Immacolata Concezione (Room of the Immaculate Conception).

One of Francesco Podesti’s paintings in the Sala dell’Immacolata Concezione depicts theologians
discussing the Immaculate Conception following the promulgation of the dogma in 1854.

The Sala di Constantino (Room of Constantine) is one of the rooms in the four-room
suite chosen by Pope Julius II as his residence.  The suite is known as the Raphael Rooms
as the pictorial decorations were executed by him and his school between 1508-1524.
Shown in the painting above is the Baptism of Constantine by Pope Sylvester.

Ceiling detail from another Raphael Room — Stanza della Segnatura
(Room of the Signatura), where the highest court of the Holy See met.

Stanza della Segnatura (Room of the Signatura)
”The Parnassus” represents poetry.  Depicted here is Apollo on Mount Parnassus where he
lives.  He is surrounded by nine muses, nine poets from antiquity, and nine contemporary poets.

One of the frescoes in the Stanza dell’Incendio di Borgo (Room of the Fire in the Borgo).
Pope Leo X, who used the room as a dining room, gave the task of frescoing the walls to Raphael.

Detail from the Cappella di Urbano VIII (Chapel of Urban VIII).

Vault of the Borgia Apartment, a private wing built for Pope Alexander VI.  The suite of
rooms were closed off by Julius II, and remained so for 386 years.  They were reopened
in 1889 and are used to exhibit the Vatican’s collection of modern religious art.

Some of the art on display in the Borgia Apartment.
Left: “Blessed are the Pure in Heart” — Matisse (circa 1892)
Center: Terracotta Way of the Cross — Arturo Martini (1926-1927)
Right: “Morning Mass” — Maurice Denis (1890)

“Piazza San Pietro” — Franco Gentilini (1948) — in the Borgia apartments.

Renaissance master Pinturicchio’s fresco of the “Resurrection” — in the Borgia Apartments.

Ceiling detail from the room just outside the Sistine Chapel.

One of the highly decorated ceiling coffers in the Vatican museums.

Ceiling detail from the Room of Tributes.

While some of the ceilings are less colorful than others, they are no less beautiful.

Vault detail from the Sala dei Papiri (Room of the Papyri).

Wide brimmed hat used by Pius VII in captivity.

Even the gift shops — and there are several along the way …

… are in highly decorated halls …

… with beautifully decorated ceilings.

The highlight of our evening without a doubt was Michelangelo’s masterpiece … the Sistine Chapel.  Impressive … overwhelmingly so.  So many tiny details; so much for our minds to take in and digest … and all in a short period of time.  One could spend months in the chapel and still come away with minute details having escaped scrutiny.

Unfortunately, photography is not allowed inside the chapel, so I had to resort to buying postcards to scan for this post.  They come nowhere near doing justice to what our eyes beheld, but at least they will remind us of the feeling of awe we both felt as we craned our necks this way and that way in an effort to make out details in the dim interior of the Chapel.  If only the visitors filling the room had been attentive to the periodic requests for silence, it would have been a downright spiritual experience.

Left: General view of the Sistine Chapel; we entered through the doors at the back.
Right: Michelangelo’s “Last Judgment” — painted between 1535 and 1541.

The spine of the ceiling is decorated with nine scenes from the Book of Genesis.  It took
Michelangelo four years to complete the painting between 1508-1512.  contrary to
the popular belief that he painted lying down, he actually worked standing up.

The centerpiece of the ceiling is this painting known as the “Creation of Adam.”

What an evening we had at the Vatican Museums.  Yes, it was crowded; but it wasn’t wall-to-wall people, and we had plenty of breathing room.  But boy was it hot … with little movement of air, and only the occasional open window … which didn’t help much since it was so muggy.  Visiting at night was definitely the right thing to do as both the crowds and the heat would have been unbearable had we gone during the day.

Glimpse of an inner courtyard from one of the rare open windows in the Musei Vaticani.

The guards were shooing visitors towards the exit door when we left the last gallery.  Seeing as how there were still hundreds of visitors behind us, we stepped out onto the terrace where we found a light breeze to cool off us and a bench on which to sit and rest our weary feet.  In the distance, the dome of St Peter’s Basilica was all lit up … a beacon in the dark sky.

When we finally exited the museums, we walked across the street for some gelato.  Sure, it was after 11:00p; sure the gelato would give us a sugar rush.  But we didn’t care.  We crossed the street again, sat on the steps of the Musei Vaticani and enjoyed our sweet treat, discussing our impressions all the while.

Tired though our feet were, we decided to head back to St Peter’s Square for a nighttime stroll under the colonnade.  We were out of luck — chiuso [closed] said the signs. The barriers were up; the polizia was shooing people out of the square, including the street peole who had been sleeping in the nooks between the columns of the colonnade.  We took a few nighttime shots of the square and the basilica, but I‘m going to do a “Rome at Night” post at some point, so I’ll save the photos for now.

The walk to the metro station seemed unending, but at least it wasn’t crowded and we didn’t have to fight for seats once the train arrived.  We got off at the Piazza di Spagna station figuring we’d get some night shots of the Spanish Steps before continuing home.  In deference to our weary feet, we took the elevator that goes to the top of the steps.  Yes, there is an elevator — which few visitors to Rome seem to know about or use — but Mui knew where to find it just inside the metro station entrance.  Those photos are for later too.

It’s a good thing we have nothing planned for tomorrow.  It’s almost 2:30a, and my mind is slowly turning to mush.  I think it’s high time I turn in.

[More photos from tonight’s museum visit are in my online gallery.

© 2004-2015 Two to Travel.  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED by ERIN ERKUN.