The Eternal City, Part 2: The Vatican

Continuing on from Part 1: Ancient Rome...

Vatican City

Leaving the Rome of the Caesars behind, few would deny that Rome's greatest legacy is the Catholic church.  This postage-sized sovereign nation has had a towering impact on human events for the past two thousand years.  War.  Peace.  The rise and fall of societies, nations, cultures.  For better or worse, there is no escaping the influence of the church on the world we live in today.  

But yet, no matter your beliefs, your creed, your stance on spirituality or even history, you can't help but be utterly overwhelmed by the Vatican.  There is no equal to it.  St. Peter's Basilica, the grandest of all cathedrals, and the seat of the Pope.  The Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo's masterpiece (can you only pick one?) and among the greatest achievements of human expression.  The Vatican Museum, arguably the world's best museum.  Scores of devoted believers, filling the vast spaces with emotion and energy that is not only palpable, but deafening in its devotion.  Whether your intent is to come closer to God, to learn about the Vatican's history and the archeology of Vatican Hill, or take in the stupefying collections of art, you will leave a different person.  

In Roman times, mons Vaticanus, or Vatican Hill, was swampy and not particularly pleasant.  True to form, the Romans drained the swamp and built a modest circus, or oval horse racetrack, not unlike the much larger Circus Maximus.  Tradition holds that St. Peter the Apostle was crucified upside-down at the Vatican circus, and then buried anonymously at the adjacent cemetery, just up the hill.  Early Christians secretly tended and worshiped at the grave for three hundred years before Christianity became the state religion of Rome under the emperor Constantine.  A grand basilica was built over the presumed site of Peter's grave, standing over a thousand years before crumbling to the ground just as the Renaissance was taking root across the Italian peninsula.  Its foundations were preserved, and a newer, grander basilica rose in its place (great overlay illustration here.)  If you're interested in learning more about the basilica, wikipedia actually has a decent entry on it.  Michelangelo had a hand in it's design, as did Bramante, Raphael, da Sangallo, and Bernini.  In time, the rest of the Vatican took shape around it, with Bernini's Vatican Square perhaps being the most famous addition (aside from the Sistine Chapel):

This view is taken from atop the dome - not an easy hike up.  A million people, more or less, fit inside the square and down the boulevard all the way to the Tiber.  I should know - we stood in line for almost 12 hours with, yes, about a million people when Pope John Paul II died, according to the news we read the following day.  Unbelievable.

 

 

 

 
Of course, no trip is complete without a visit to the Vatican Museum.  The immense layout and sheer breadth of famous art is...simply too much to take in.  Visiting just a few rooms leaves you numb enough that it's difficult to meander through the rest of the museum and pay attention to what you're looking at.  Just starting the tour leaves you with your jaw on the floor.  This ceiling is painted to look like it's guilt in full thickness gold frames, but is in fact an optical illusion.  The ceiling's curve is entirely flat:

One of the papal "apartments" dating back to the seventeenth century.  Undoubtedly the rental market has taken a beating since then.... 

 

Art history buffs would instantly recognize the School of Athens, by Raphael:

To be honest, I can't remember where the following picture comes from.  It's an interesting commentary that a room like this escapes my memory (my brain was numb from all the other rooms, no doubt).

Michelangelo's Pieta needs no introduction, of course.  Even at a distance, behind shatterproof glass, it is a sight to behold.  And, don't forget - this is really just a rock.  Once an anonymous block of marble, chiseled by hand, to end up as this:

During one of our visits to the museum, we stumbled into a rare one-on-one viewing of the Laocoön Group.  It was freestanding, completely unprotected, and (if you dared to) within easy touch of your fingertips.  To give you a sense of scale, the central figure is about 7 feet tall.  For any mythology buffs out there, it tells the story of the priest who discovered the Greek's troop-filled horse at Troy, and who was killed before he could warn the Trojans.  (You won't find this in the Iliad - although it's referred to countless times in other Greek works).  I've added it here because it's much less known than the Pieta, but in my opinion, much more impressive.  This, too, was once a single block of stone.  Oh yeah, it predates the Pieta by about 1,500 years:

Yes, you really could walk around it:

At the end of the Vatican Museum is the famous spiral staircase, designed by, who else, Michelangelo.  This composite picture took every bit of Photoshop trickery I know - it's a hybrid of several extreme wide-angle shots - and it still doesn't quite live up to what it looks like in real life.  It's at least 30 yards across at the top (cropped off frame here), and funnels down 5 floors down in a double helix.  I spent a lot of time perched at the top, waiting for the "perfect" moment without all those pesky tourists getting in the way, and finally gave up:

After spending a few hours inside the Museum, the exit takes you directly to the Sistine Chapel.  Photography is expressly forbidden, and the gruff-looking guards stationed there to prevent you from taking pictures definitely seem out-of-place.  So forgive me if this is the only usable picture I have from inside.  Yes, it really, really, is that impressive:

After the dizzying grand tour of the Museum and the Sistine Chapel, the exit drops you back at the front of St. Peter's.  Upon entering the basilica, nothing can prepare you for the vast, ornate scale of the building.  The footprint of every other cathedral in the world, every other one, fits comfortably inside.  This picture is taken about 2/3 of the way into the nave (the overall length is almost 250 yards).  And do you see the black letters in the gold ribbon under the barrel vaults?  They're 9 feet tall:

After spending time viewing famous art, and then being blown away by the Sistine Chapel, being inside St. Peter's is simply...indescribable.  Somewhere along the way you've run out of hyperbole.  Even the voice in your head goes silent - no doubt it's escaped out through your open mouth.  And when you catch the late afternoon sun, streaking in just a certain way, you can't help but wonder about the The Meaning Of It All:

 

Over the main altar, and underneath the tallest dome in the world (about 150 yards tall) is the Baldacchino.  This solid bronze canopy is among Bernini's most famous Baroque sculptures; the bronze is thought to have been "borrowed" from the Pantheon and then recast into this shape.

The high altar itself is placed exactly over the tomb of St. Peter, about 30 feet or so below.  Although somewhat difficult to arrange, you can go on tours of the crypt underneath the altar, going back in time a thousand years to the altar of the older Constantinian basilica, and then even lower and further back in time to Peter's tomb itself, walking up to it on the very earth of the original Vatican hill.  It's a powerful and deeply emotional feeling to walk along the old cemetery, among the Roman crypts.  To see for yourself the human bones dug up from Peter's tomb.  It's an odd nexus of ancient faith and cutting edge archeological science, at the very foundation of the Christian church.  

And it was probably the most moving experience of my entire lifetime....


Journey's End

Nothing compares with the wonder of Rome.  Nothing.  So to cap my tour, it's probably best to leave it right here, with a few night shots from the Vatican:

There is no city on earth like Rome.  The Eternal City.  

And I can't wait to go back.... 

Thanks for reading.

The Eternal City, Part 1: Ancient Rome

Greetings!

After much hand wringing and deep thought, I've decided to continue with this blog for now. It's a huge stress reliever for me, and frankly, I enjoy writing this. I've decided NOT to restrict access to it, but I will probably not include any more identifiable family pictures, at least for the time being. I don't need someone in Iran(?!) snooping in on me (2 people did this week alone). It's a fine balance to keep, and I'll probably revisit this at some point in the future. However, given we're moving back to Europe next summer, I'll probably keep it in the end.

So, back to the travel log! I've spent hours, days, weeks, and in college, months, studying Rome. Rome of the Caesars - the Republic, the Empire, and the Fall. Rome of the Popes. Roman architecture. Roman engineering. Even Rome in the movies (the HBO series Rome is among the best there is). It all started on a trip to Italy during high school, when I came face to face with the ruins, the glorious ruins: the Colosseum, the Forum, and the Pantheon. And that was just the first day. The next day I went to the Vatican, and it simply took my breath away. The basilica of St. Peter, the Museum, the Sistine Chapel. Those two days transformed me; they left me dizzy thinking about the weight of history, hungry to learn more, and desperate to return one day.

How lucky for me, then, that the Navy sent us to Italy for three years! We weren't even in our house yet before we made it up to Rome - twice. From Naples, it was within a two-hour drive, or a three-hour train ride, more or less. I lost count at 17 the number of times we went, and by the time we left Italy in 2007, I could drive comfortably through the heart of Rome without needing a map. So it's only natural I continue the Italian travelog (Naples and Venice are the other ones I've written about) with Rome. There are many more still in pre-production, thought I don't know how I'll ever get them done. It's taken me about 5 months just to whittle down the 2,734 pictures I have of Rome to a manageable number - here are what I think are some of my better ones, which hopefully will illustrate for you my fascination with Rome. And because there's too much for one post, I'll split it into two parts: Ancient Rome, and the Vatican.

Part 1: Ancient Rome

The Cliff Notes version of Roman history: lost orphan twins (Remus and Romulus) are found and raised by a she-wolf. They grow up, and Romulus kills Remus. Romulus' descendants eventually live atop a tight cluster of seven hills surrounding the river Tiber, near the Mediterranean sea. After a few centuries of awful rule, sometime around 500BC they depose their king and create a Republic, with a Senate to represent the people. Five centuries of impressive Republican governance come to pass, during which time Rome expands its borders, fights Carthage once, twice, three times.  Greece and Egypt fall.  Rome becomes the only power left standing in the Mediterranean. It becomes rich, powerful. And it becomes fantastically corrupt. The Republic goes into crisis, wars are fought, power is consolidated. A new leader emerges, and is killed for overreaching, for being too much like the evil kings of yore (Julius Caesar). More crises, more war. New leaders emerge (Marc Antony, Octavian) and grab power. After a generation of conflict, Octavian is the only one left, "saving" the Republic from decades of war and crisis. In 27BC he becomes Augustus, the first Emperor of the Roman Empire. He keeps vestiges of the old Republic (the Senate, the courts), but is in effect dictator-for-life. (Anyone familiar with the history of Star Wars would immediately identify with this story). 500 more years come and go - it's this second half-millennium of Roman history that most people are familiar with: the crucifixion of Christ, a fiddling Nero, Pompeii, the Colosseum and the might of Roman engineering, the barbarian hordes, and the eventual Decline and Fall in 476AD, directly resulting in the Middle Ages. The Dark Ages.

A thousand years go by before the Renaissance "reawakens" Europe. Think about that for a moment. Rome was the first superpower, and it lasted a thousand years. But when it crashed, it took another thousand years just to recover. In that void came the rise of Islam, the rise of dynastic China, the rise of meso-American civilizations. Europe trodded through one Crusade and Black Death after another, a backwards feudal system, the Inquisition. After a thousand years, ancient Rome was "rediscovered" and became the inspiration for some of the greatest works of all time: St. Peter's basilica, the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo's masterpieces.  Neoclassicism, or the "reinterpretation" of ancient Rome, captivated our Founding Fathers - just look at Washington: there's a Senate. Many government buildings, such as the Supreme Court, the Capitol, and even large banks, all look like great Roman temples. Even Jefferson's Monticello looks like a miniature Pantheon. And on and on - Rome's influence, both past and reinterpreted, is literally embedded deep in our own government.

So forgive me my monologue, but I think it's important to understand the weight of Rome, which lasted an entire millennium and existed 2,000 years ago, yet continues to touch us to this very day. Will people in the year 4,011 be able to trace the foundations of their civilizations back to our current day? What defines us that will survive the next 2,000 years??  Consider this model (or this one) of Ancient Rome, a city of marble, with 1 million inhabitants at its peak, with running water, sewers, fountains and aqueducts.  Two thousand years ago...

This is why Rome is so captivating to me - no other civilization, past or present, has such immense momentum throughout all of human history. Indeed, only Rome can be The Eternal City.  On with the tour.

 
The Colosseum

No other landmark symbolizes the Roman antiquity more than the Colosseum. A wonder in it's day, it has survived, more or less, the ravages of earthquakes, looters, worshipers, and feral communes over the last two thousand years. 50,000 spectators sat comfortably inside, shielded from the sun with giant canvas canopies cantilevered over the sides, as they watched the guts and glory of daily sport in Rome. Gladiators. Wild animals. Mock naval battles. Maybe a Christian or two...? I remember having three distinct thoughts each and every time I came to the Colosseum. First was the scale. It's simply huge. Enormous. Like a meteor falling to earth, you can't help but draw ever closer, captured by its immense gravity. Secondly is the immense antiquity of the structure itself. It just looks old.  Time has not been kind to the Colosseum. It truly is a ruin, in every sense of the word. Then the final thought - once you begin looking past the crumbling stone, the missing pieces, your mind's eye begins patching it back all together. Only then does the Colosseum really take your breath away, because it must have been a truly awesome building. Standing before it, and imagining what it must have been like when it was new and shiny, twenty centuries ago, draws emotions that are impossible to describe. Breathtaking is just not strong enough of a word.  

And, for the record, the name Colosseum comes from the 'colossal' 30 meter statue of Nero that first inhabited this area. A 'colossal' testament to the immensely self-advancing (and quite delusional) emperor, it's been lost to time, but stood just where the couple on the left are sitting. You can just make out the corner of the base - which is all that's left.

Entering the Colosseum, it's easy to imagine the sounds that once erupted from it (all you have to do is watch Gladiator). It must have been deafening, energizing. And quite violent.


The floor is all gone, but remaining visible is the labyrinth of chambers and holding cells where people and animals were kept before emerging through elaborate trick doors into full view. The tiers of seats are all gone as well - only the masonry supports circling around the interior are left. Like I said, an immense ruin. But what it must have been like when it was in use!

It's also worth staying late into dusk to appreciate how the stone comes alive with the changing lights. The Colosseum is beautiful, from any angle, at any time of day or night.


I shot a sequence to show what I mean - here's an hour long shoot, compressed into a 6 second time lapse video:

The Pantheon

The Pantheon is my favorite building of all time. It's impossible to overstate how revolutionary, how monumental this Temple To All Gods was when it was built in 126AD. That it's among the best preserved buildings from ancient Rome makes it even more remarkable. For the first time in the history of construction, a vast interior space was created without the need for internal support. Massive walls anchor a domed roof, which thins out as it goes up, leaving an open oculus at the very top. Never before had a dome been built, on this vast scale, and not collapse. The interior dimensions are almost 50 yards across - vast scale indeed! And, by design, the height is the same exact dimension. A perfect sphere could fit inside (illustration not mine, taken from this site):

The Pantheon is the crown jewel of Roman architecture and engineering. To this day, it still holds the record for the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome. Oh yeah, did I tell you it's made of concrete? How do you suppose they built a concrete dome 50 yards high, 2,000 years ago, without machines, and strong enough to still be standing? 

Walking through the front doors and into the cavernous space will give you vertigo.  Yes, it's not the same scale as a modern sports arena, but believe me, this is far and away a more impressive space.  One morning we were lucky to go in just as it opened, before anyone showed up.  Even with some extreme panoramic wide-angle trickery, this shot barely gives justice to the extreme size of this building. The oculus at the top is open to the sky; when it rains, it comes inside.  There's a slight convexity to the floor, so no water stays still for long before draining out to the street. Remember: 50 yards from the floor to the top of the dome.

  And 50 yards from one side of the dome to the other:

The scale really is amazing.  The portico columns are 40 feet tall, each carved from a single piece of granite (60 tons, if you're interested).  Here they dwarf Kathy:

The Pantheon was quickly converted into a church not long after Rome fell, which explains why it's been so well preserved.   Famous Italians through history are buried here: Raphael, King Vittorio Emmanuele and King Umberto, and Queen Margherita (made famous by the most sensible of all pizzas).  The square in front, Piazza della Rotunda, is full of garbage touristy restaurants (including a McDonald's - yes, for real) and overpriced hotels.  But the view they give of the Pantheon is like none other....

When I think about returning to Rome, I think of coming to the Pantheon first, before the Colosseum, before the Vatican. It's that amazing....




Castel Sant'Angelo

Fans of Dan Brown's Angels and Demons would be quite familiar with Castel Sant'Angelo. Originally constructed as a mausoleum for the Emperor Hadrian (my favorite Emperor, if you can have one), it suffered badly at the hands of the invading Goths when Rome fell. A vision of archangel Michael appeared as the plague of 590 ended, giving the structure its new name. A thousand years later, Pope Nicholas III rehabilitated it, added fortifications and luxurious papal apartments, and connected it via secret passetto to the Vatican, about a half-mile away. It was these modifications that allowed Pope Clement VII escape the sack of Rome in 1527 by Charles V, an event that might have ended the Catholic Church right then and there, if it had turned out differently.

Today, Castel Sant'Angelo remains an imposing sight - and a disorienting hybrid of ancient ruins and Renaissance palace. There really isn't much to see inside, other than a fabulous labyrinth of rooms, passages, patios, and balconies. And a decent view or two of the rest of Rome. Instead, it really shines at the end of the day, when it's lit in an almost spooky hue.

 

 
The Roman Forum

If not a rival in fame, the ruins of the Roman Forum undoubtedly match the Colosseum in forcing you to stop, gasp, and think about The Meaning Of It All.  This was, quite literally, the epicenter of Ancient Rome.  All the important Temples.  The Courts.  The Treasury.  The final destination of all triumphal processions.  This is the very heart of Rome - all roads led HERE.  And what an amazing place the Forum is.  Or was, anyway.  

There are several vantage points circling the Forum which allow you to change your perspective, look in closer detail, and simply be amazed at the breadth of history standing before you.  Above, from left to right, the Arch of Septimius Severus, the three surviving columns of the Temple of Vespasian, and the remaining portico of the Temple of Saturn.  

--Arch of Septimius Severus

Here, in the middle, is the reverse view, taken from within the grounds of the Forum itself.  It's a testament to an imperial fratricide, and you can read more about it here if you wish.

Crossing through it is the once-famous Via Sacra - "Main Street" through the Forum.  It was the traditional route for all triumphal processions, where victors were hailed and prisoners were jeered.  Or worse. 

You can walk the Via Sacra to this day, along with the thousands (millions) of ghosts who've tread the very same ground over the millenia.


--The Curia

Adjacent to the Arch is the Curia (the brown boxy building in the center).  Although this is actually the third Curia to exist on this spot, this is where the Senators met to chart the course of Rome.  More or less, anyway.  Once Rome became an imperial dictatorship, the Senate acted merely as a rubber stamp to the Emperor's whims.  This particular building was built very late in the Empire, and is a great example of early Romanesque (late Roman, early Medieval) architecture, in case you're interested.  From the inside:

Not much to say, is there...?  But consider the ever growing, alarming, end-of-the-world conversations contained within these walls as the barbarian hordes descended on Rome.  If despair and panic had a shrine, it would have looked like this, once upon a time.


--Temple of Saturn

Opposite the Curia lies one of my favorite temple ruins in Rome, the Temple of Saturn (this is one of my all time favorite pictures)  It's hard to overstate how iconic and how powerful a metaphor for the fall of Rome this ruin is.  For a time, it served as the Treasury of Rome.  Fort Knox, basically.  I think it's such a powerful landmark because it's one of the best preserved temple porticoes left. It's easy to get a sense of the scale, and the grandeur, of what these temples looked like intact.  And indeed, what the entire length of the Forum must have been like, with numerous buildings like these crowded together like a busy downtown (great examples here and here).

Below, at twilight, and opposite the Arch of Septimius Severus:

--Temple of Julius Caesar

Here's an interesting little chunk of masonry.  After Caesar was assassinated, a temple was built in his honor.  He was deified - the first man ever made a god by the Romans.  The site of the shrine is important - it's roughly the spot where Marc Antony read his testament during Caesar's cremation (made famous by Shakespeare: "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears....")  Not much is left of the temple, other than the foundation of the original funeral pyre.  But here's the interesting part: someone, or someones, leave fresh flowers every day (every day!) at the site of his cremation.  Like a relative leaving a bouquet at a tombstone, there are people still paying respect to the memory of a man who lived 2,000 years ago.  Who wasn't Jesus.  Every time we went, we saw the same thing, over and over.  Julius Caesar - the man, the myth, the legend.  He has indeed become an immortal....

--Temple of Venus

OK, a little historical diversion while we're still on Caesar.  He had quite a chip on his shoulder (come to think of it, most Italian men still do).  Caesar claimed to descend from Aeneas himself, who in Roman mythology, escaped Troy and was one of the original settlers of Rome (see Virgil's Aeneid, the "Roman Iliad").  Here's what takes it over the top: Aeneas (according to the Aeneid) was the love child of Anchises, a prince of Troy, and Venus.  Yes, THAT Venus.  The really hot goddess Venus (but with all her arms still attached, however).  


It became very important for Caesar to draw the connection between his family, Aeneas the founder of Rome, and (why not?) a god as well.  Who else could lead Rome but a man with such divine ancestry?  And how else to remind people of your divine ancestry, than to commission a temple in Venus' honor?  So, here it is, the Temple of Venus Genetrix, or what's left of it.  Although not technically in the Roman Forum, it's right around the corner and quite close to a busy downtown street. Caesar was larger than life, which is why conspirators killed him - there could be no turning back to the time of kings - Rome was a Republic!  In the end, it made no difference.  Within 20 years the Republic was dead, and an Emperor stood over Rome. 


--Temple of Antoninus and Faustina

This one's interesting as well.  Emperor Antoninus dedicated this temple to his wife when she died, in 141AD.  A Roman Taj Mahal, of sorts.  Upon his death, he was deified as well, and the temple became a shrine to the couple.  Fast forward a thousand years or so, and within the ruins of the temple was built a Renaissance church, itself an important historical building.  Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.  It's not as new as you think....

Okay, still with me...?

A reorientation for you - here's a crazy long panoramic of the entire Forum.  From the extreme left, the Arch of Septimius Severus, the Curia, and the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, to the left of middle.  On the extreme right is the Colosseum, anchoring the east end of the Forum.  

--Basilica of Maxentius

At the upper right in the panoramic is the cavernous Basilica of Maxentius.  You've probably never heard of it, but it ranks among the top Marvels of Roman Engineering.  At the time, it was the largest roofed building built - not much smaller than the Colosseum itself.  You can get a sense of the scale in the picture above.  But note this: what survives is only one side of the building - the central nave was much larger (can you see the foundations of the roof supports at the top of the picture?)

In the center of the picture is Kathy, wearing black.  Remember, this is just a side, off the central nave.  Colossal architecture indeed - check out this representation of what it probably looked like.

 

  
--Arch of Titus

Near the Colosseum is the smaller Arch of Titus. 
 

  

It's famous for being the only known, contemporary account of the sack of Jerusalem in 70AD, a very important event in Jewish history.  (Indiana Jones fans: this is when the famous Ark was supposedly lost from the Temple of Jerusalem).  

--Arch of Constantine

What is it with these arches, anyway??

This view is from atop the Colosseum, looking back up towards the Forum. The Arch of Constantine is on the left.  It's one of the best preserved triumphal arches, dating Constantine's reign, dating sometime around 315AD (he was the first 'Christian' emperor, finally letting the early Church take root in the open).  

Various older monuments were plundered to construct this Arch, as evidenced by the various styles and periods of sculptural art on it (you can read more about it if you're interested on the wiki link).

If you're still here, thanks for staying with me this far. I could go on and on about Ancient Rome, and that's without even showing a photo or two. In truth, there are about 15 other locations I could add here, but that would be just a little too much....

So I'll end the photo journey through Ancient Rome here. I'd love any feedback you have. On to Part 2: The Vatican.