BadPopcorn » Rome: Vatican and St Peter’s Basilica

Rome: Vatican and St Peter’s Basilica

Written by Ben on August 30, 2006 |

I got to bed by 2am the night before; I woke up at 6:45am; I made it to the metro stop by 7am; and queued up for the Vatican Museums at 7:30am.

Five minutes after the museums opened, I was in the door and at the start of a four mile walk. The museums show a great number of old works, but the School of Athens was by far my greatest pleasure and greatest surprise. I had not known that this work was a large fresco. Awestruck, I stood in front of that wall for a good ten minutes… damn, Raphael did some good work. But I returned to a disappointing reality as I saw a majority of tourists walk straight through the rooms with only the briefest of glances. I presumed that they were just following the signs (on this one way trek) to the Sistine Chapel. I took my time walking through the halls, and took a detour into side rooms to see modern Catholic art. I don’t know what the religious message was, but seeing another Picasso work was pretty cool. Anyways, I finally made it to the incredibly crowded Sistine Chapel and its strict “No Photo, No Video” policy. Signs leading up to, and in, the chapel were very prominent. But the second I walked in, I saw a barrage of flashes go off. The flashes went on for thirty minutes, two loudspeaker announcements (four languages, “Please respect the “), and three shouted announcements by the guards. I may have personal differences about no-photo policies, but flash photography is truly unacceptable in my book. The Sistine Chapel was just recently restored, and now tourists are making an early start to destroying priceless works of art. Don’t be fooled in thinking that these tourists were unaware of the rules… tour guides announced it to their groups, and these tourists have heard the announcements… they still blatantly disregarded the guards.

Enough of seeing white flashes disrupt my view of the ceiling, I hopped out a second exit (primarily meant for reserved groups) outside… to a controlled area between the Sistine Chapel and St Peter’s Basilica. Yay, I just saved myself at least forty five minutes walking to the Vatican Museum entrance and around into the Basilica’s entrance (and presumably, another wait in line and through security). I queued up for the Copola (The dome of the Basilica). The climb to the top took me inside the Basilica to the inner circle of the dome, with a great view of the altar. The Copola is the highest point in Rome, I took a nice 360 look of the city.

The exit for the copola lead me onto the Basilica’s roof where there was a souvenir shop of all things. Putting a souvenir shop on the roof of St. Peter’s Basilica is like . What is this?! But I have to hand it to the planners, the shade of the rooftop walls made for a good place to take a long break and write postcards.

I stuffed postcards into the postbox on the roof and descended the rest of the way. I stepped out of the stairwell, through double doors, into the Basilica itself! Dang! That would be like stepping out of a service hall into the Oval Office. The place was… a big big church. Impressive and full of a lot of art, but I think that its central significance to the Roman Catholic Church makes people think more about it that it really is. I’ve seen other cathedrals and basilicas just as nicely decorated… but, then again, none with St Peter himself.

I got my fill of the interior and all of its overwhelmingly spiritual art, I went outside and got into the Dead Popes line. I think I expected deeper cavernous tombs… But those parts are probably closed off to tourists. I got into what looked to be the main tomb room and saw a crowd of people taking pictures. Can anyone guess which recently departed papal pimp rests there? You got it, JP2 in da Houze!

Finally, done! Hours and hours later and out the exit, I accomplished my Rome must-do checklist. I took a break in a most impressive square. I was happy to find that it was empty. No papal blessings, nor was it time for a mass. I could breath again.

Because I started really early, I still had plenty of time to make other tourist attractions. I went outside to the city to visit the catacombs. Crap, they were closed, no luck. I headed back into the city, passing the old city wall and gate. I stopped in on the old Roman Baths (now a church), and took a snapshot at the Piazza della Repubblica.

I tried to do the the Roman Holiday thing, failed. The following photo was my second attempt the day after:

Finally, I got in a successful stop: The Knights of Malta Keyhole. One looks through the keyhole of a closed gate (entrance) at a Templar church on the outskirts of Rome, one will see a large St Peter’s Basilica. The cool trick is to compare that image to the view of St Peter’s Basilica from the Orange tree garden just next door. The Basilica is life sized through the keyhole, yet it also is just a speck when seeing it from the garden’s cliffs.

I was starved by this point. I had a nice leisurely dinner with fried appetizers and incredible pizza. Not much to say here except that I had a great time with friends (unpictured, camera shy).

We finished dinner and walked around. The drive passed a lit Basilica was nice, but I was dead tired. I crawled into bed by the time I was done… and slept in late.

And that was that… Rome, what a way to finish off my touring (my time afterwards in Switzerland were just a chillout time, no siteseeing). There was so much in this city that I probably need a few more trips to cover them all… and know this, I will be back.