Day 2 in Rome - I am Vatman

Today was the tours of the Vatican City! Brienna and I set out early for our first tour of St Peter’s Basilica. This is Brienna’s inner voice.

Since we are not staying in a hotel, no breakfast. We stopped Tre Caffe e Cucini for some croissants and a decaf espresso for Brienna. Look at the cute little cup!

So it is not quite 8 am and it is already hot as blazes here! 

We headed up to St Peters to meet up with out guide.

Our guide Josephina showed up and away we went! 

She took us to the queue up where they run you through security. 

You don’t want to mess around or you will be in trouble with these tough guys! They are even shaking down the nuns!

Those uniforms were designed by Michelangelo expressly for the elite Vatican guard requested by the Pope! 

Now we are in the outer area and one thing to see is the most holy door of the Vatican which only opens once every 25 years. And guess what? Today is NOT the once in 25 years day. 🤓 It is actually next year - the Jubilee year. 

That obelisk was actually there when St Peter was crucified (upside down) for being a Christian. The Basilica is built on that crucifixion spot (but the obelisk was moved approx 300 feet). 

And we go inside. First, I must say these pictures are only a sample of the immensity of size and beauty there. This first picture of the dome which is supported by four massive pillars. All around are different nooks and areas of interest - you could spend hours in each spot.

This next one you might think is a painting, but it is actually a mosaic. The individual pieces are so small you believe it is a painting!

And they actually hold service in the Basilica. 

We walked around more going beneath to see some of the exhibits.

Wherever you see one of these on the floor it means there is still more layers beneath. 

More of the wonderful painting like mosaics. 

And this by Rafael who creatively made this marble statue of a skeleton holding an hour glass indicating we all have only so much time on this ride called earthly existence. 

Next we go up into that dome! It is over 500 steps to get up there. The dome is actually two domes - inner is the one we see from the inside and outer which is protecting the inner dome. When you walk up closer to the top you are walking on narrow steps BETWEEN the domes. I need a drink of water before we go!

After waiting in line for the lift (which skips 200 steps and goes to level one of the dome) we got onboard. Brienna is not happy with the standing in lines in the heat - ha ha.

Stage one complete. No doubt great views here. You can walk along the inside of the dome we saw pictured from below.

Ah but we still must keep going up, we have over 165 more steps to go. Brienna had the similar look of the mosiac.

Onwards and upwards.

Yea, the walls are tilted so you cannot really walk upright. It’s a dome! Here is a pic looking up.

And just when you thought it could not get tighter, you finish the ascent in this tiny spiral staircase. Note they put a safety rope in the middle. 🤔

Was the juice worth the squeeze? Absolutely!

Not our beat smiles…😂🤣😂

That was that and now down we go (and this time we walked the entire way down - Brienna said she refused to wait in line for the lift). 500 + steps. Let’s do this!

Here it widens up towards the bottom.

We stopped at Caffe de Pietro for some lemon soda and water. I did mention already it was hot right?! ☀️🌞☀️

We swung by the condo to get Matthew for lunch and ate at Zan Zara.

For that picture, the part of David is played by this random bear. I asked why the bears (that wasn’t the only one) and he shrugged and smirked rolling his eyes. “It’s cute”. 

Ok sure, cute. 

For starters, we had a seafood salad which was different than the one at Cinque Terre. We also had some bread with oil and vinegar (and butter). Also more caprese.

For the main course, I had lobster risotto, Brienna had a club sandwich, Matthew had linguini pesto (and ate Brienna’s chips).

Although Matthew’s appetite is good, his appetite for walking in the heat of Rome was not so we dropped him back at the condo and went for another tour of the Vatican - Vatican museums, Sistine Chapel, and St Peter’s tour with our guide Giuseppe! All smiles after a good lunch.

We started in the museum of the Vatican and again my disclaimer - there are thousands of pieces of art here and you could spend a week just here and not see them all. 

This actually rotates! A sphere within a sphere. From a distance seen as a sphere but as you get closer you see the cracks representing the glorious imperfections of the world. 

This is all that was left of a giant statue - can you imagine seeing that atop the rest of the body?  

And now we enter. Warning - nudity! 😛🤭 The fig leafs were added to statues by one of the popes - Pope Prude the First 🙄 Imagine altering such ancient artwork.

Everywhere you look and everywhere you go there are things to see. You walk through various wings and halls. 

This next one is the OG statue of the museum. A farmer was tending the fields and uncovered it. Thinking it was valuable, he sent word to the Pope to sell it. The Pope sends Michelangelo to observe this statue who immediately recognizes it for the masterpiece it is. They of course buy it and put it on display. And to honor that farmer the Pope gave him rights to bring flowers every year and still today the decedents of that farmer do today.

We continued on through other halls and saw this rare red marble bathtub sitting atop an original mosaic floor brought here piece by piece. 

And we continued on.

What about tapestries? All that other stuff is great but do they have tapestries? Glad you asked.

That last tapestry has eyes that follow you! These artists were genius at perspective.

But what about maps? Have any? Yes, here is the hall of maps - the Pope’s google earth back in the day!

We wondered through more halls on the way to the Sistine Chapel. 

This is woven with real gold and silver and covers the walls in one room.

And finally what everyone wants to see - the Sistine Chapel!

Take a right and….

Alrighty then - no pics 😹

You will have to settle for these pics of Brienna and I having another round of gelato! This time Old Bridge Gelatorie.

And that’s puts a fork in our day at the Vatican. We have to head in relatively early because we have a 7:20 AM train to Milan (I know I am a mean uncle).