Vatican City

Today we visited the smallest country in the world: The Vatican City at the centre of Rome. We’d been for a walk the other day and saw a line up to the Vatican that stretched the entire block of 700 metres and would have taken 3 hours to go in. In our down time we’ve come across some great tips, so we booked our tickets online which were ready for collection at the desk inside the building. We were shocked that we waited only 15 minutes to get in! Research is really paying off for us. Thursday’s before lunch is the quietest time of the week and at all costs, avoid lining up at 7:30am because every other tourist is doing it hoping they will get there first. Again we went with the audio guide option so we could explore the whole place on our own without being rushed and we are so pleased we did.

We passed through the Galleria Carte Geogrfiche of the Vatican Palaces. This room has scenes with gold frames painted on the ceilings and maps on the walls displaying Roman Army territories. It was a spectacular room to walk through. This corridor led us through more rooms with huge wall tapestries and on to Raphael’s rooms. Raphael's rooms were frescoed by several artists though the existing paintings they were soon replaced by Raphael alone with an aid for minor sections from 1509-1517. Stanza della Segnatura became Raphael’s masterwork being completed from 1909-1511. 

Galleria Carte

Room after room after room walls and ceilings are decorated.

Raphael's Room

Room of Constantine

Sistine Chapel

We stayed in the Vatican for three hours and inside the Sistine Chapel alone for over an hour to listen to the audio guide comments and take in the many scenes that the artists had painted on the ceiling and walls but we’ll get to that soon. It’s a place where you wish there was no one else moving through so you could lay down and just allow your eyes to wander from scene to scene to scene, then back to the start again because you’re bound to see things you didn’t the first time. The audio guides bought great meaning to each scene.  The photos of the book are very clear and probably better pictures than we could have taken inside (photography was strictly not allowed in the room).

Sistine Chapel

Wall Scenes

The scenes on the wall were Old and New Testament bible scenes were brought to life visually by various artists including Perugino, Pinturicchio, Signorelli, Cosimo Rosselli, Piero di Cosimo, Ghirlandaio and Botticelli. Some important scenes include the ‘Donation of the Keys to St. Peter’, the ‘Trials of Moses’, the ‘Temptation’ and the ‘Punishment of Korah’ and ‘Dathan and Abiram’. There are also 24 figures of popes painted. 

To finish the chapel, Michelangelo was commissioned to decorate the ceiling (800 square metres and 300 figures) which represented scenes from the Old Testament including Separation of ‘Light and Darkness’, ‘Creation of Adam and Eve’, ‘Life Events of Moses’ and ‘Christ’s Ancestors’. Michelangelo also painted the wall behind the alter called ‘The Last Judgement’ which displayed the truly artistic creativity of Michelangelo’s finely tuned art of imagination blending with realistic illustrations of drawing the human body.

Ceiling in the Sistine Chapel

Ceiling Detail

Creation of Man

God separating Darkness and Light

Last Judgment

Creation of Man

We are pleased we took our time going through the many halls and rooms that mazed through the buildings and were lead outside to explore the Vatican City at the Piazza di San Pietro. 

Monumental Staircase 1932 in the Vatican Museum

St Peter's Basilica

We joined the hundreds of tourists outside queued to pass through the security checkpoint into St Peter’s Basilica which was built over St Peter’s tomb as a monument in 320AD. Bernini planned the layout and detailing of the basilica and later Michelangelo redesigned the structure of the basilica.   

Outside and in, the detail in everything is of the highest standard with marble flooring and pillars, gold trim everywhere, delicate tiling on ceilings and the flooring mixed with finely painted images and intricate carvings and sculptures including Michelangelo’s ‘Pieta’.  Tourists came through the church in waves as we explored the corners of the rooms.

St Peter's Basilica

A magical moment with the natural sunlight streaming through to the alter.

St Peter's Tomb

The Pietà sculpted by Michelangelo

Back out in St Peter's Square, a red granite Egyptian Obelisk stands in the centre surrounded by navigation stones amongst the cobbled path.  A granite fountain stands to one side at the edge of the piazza.

 

What time was this picture taken?

 

4:00pm

Tired from another full day, our legs dragged us back towards home and we stopped into the shops to restock our food and water supplies.  This afternoon we are both really starting to feel exhausted physically and mentally from being on the move all the time.  Walking everyday is definitely taking a toll on Ev and we’re thinking of cancelling our paid Inca Trail tour without getting a refund, so we’re going to take it easy tomorrow and see how we are after some rest and hopefully relaxation back in the hotel.  The receptionist was kind to give us some ice for drinks and some hot water for tea when we arrived home, the two best ways of winding down.  Although we are really curious to continue exploring some of the districts close to Rome, we need to start pacing ourselves and recuperate.  We’re looking forward to lazing in Greece especially on our Greek Islands tour.

Time to look back over our photos from today and jot down some more notes.

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