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.