Running & Reading in Rennes: Rome: The Vatican

Just one small part of the line...everyone
wants in--from brides to musicians! Buy
your ticket online and miss all that.

St. Peter's, looking rather mythical in the
hazy distance.

Shocking, Lisa liked the
laughing guys best.

Along with the ancient Roman ruins, the Vatican is the top tourist attraction in Rome. It consists, I would say, of two main parts: the Vatican Museums and St. Peter's Basilica. We went to the Vatican Museums on the morning of our third day in Rome and we booked our tickets on-line so we wouldn't have to wait in line at the entrance (which I highly recommend). You could spend days in the Vatican Museums, but because of the other things we wanted to do, we only spent a morning there. First, we saw hundreds of ancient Roman sculptures. There are so many that most aren't even labeled. (If you're wondering how the Vatican got so many, I can tell you, thanks to an informative plaque in the museum. When Napoleon conquered Italy in the early 19th century, part of the treaty he made with the Pope was the right to remove any of the Pope's ancient sculptures that he wanted. Needless to say, he took everything he could and deposited it in the Louvre. To make up for the loss, once the French left Italy, the Pope issued a decree that all aristocrats living in and around Rome must register their collections of ancient sculptures with the Pope and the Pope had the right to confiscate anything he wanted in order to re-build the museum's collection. Classy!)

Aaron and his hero Augustus. Aren't they cute?

I was most excited to see the Primaporta Augustus (again, I really like Augustus!), a statue which was undergoing conservation during my first stay in Rome, meaning I was unable to see it then. The best part about this, according to Lisa, who is still writing in italics in these entries, is that after she took the picture of Aaron, another young classics scholar asked Aaron to take a picture of him with the statue. Bonding at its finest. After the sculpture rooms, you start going through the Renaissance papal apartments and offices, which include numerous amazing frescoes, including the Gallery of Maps (a long hallway painted with maps of all the regions of Renaissance Italy), the Borgia Apartments, and the Raphael Rooms (which include Raphael's famous The School of Athens depicting all the philosophers of ancient Greece that he could think of!).

School of Athens, Aaron looking odd.

The highlight of the Vatican Museums is the Sistine Chapel. It's really an amazing artistic achievement, particularly the way that Michelangelo painted figures on some of the stone piers supporting the ceiling. Up close, they look rather distorted, but as you move away into the chapel, they start to look as if they're coming out of the wall at you. (Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures because you're not allowed to take pictures in the Sistine Chapel and they're serious about it. They had three guards constantly shouting things like "No foto!" and "Silencio!" One guard even circulated through the crowd, pulling on people's arms if it looked like they were trying to take a picture! Here is a link from Aaron's grandmother if you want a virtual tour: http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html.)

Main Sanctuary of St. Peter's.

We did the Basilica of St. Peter's the next morning because we thought trying to do that and the Vatican Museums on the same day might be a little much. As Lisa has said, St. Peter's is like six or eight of the biggest churches you've ever seen surrounding the biggest church you can imagine. It's huge and full of colored marble and sculptural works. One of the most impressive things are the pictures in some of the side aisles. At first, they look like paintings, but when you get closer you realize they're actually mosaics made up of thousands of little tiles. But the coloring is such that they're unbelievably detailed, especially for mosaics. The front part of the church was closed off for some reason when we were there, but we got to see most of the side chapels and the main aisle. I think it's all a little overwhelming, but then again, I suppose that's the point: to impress you with the power, grandeur, and wealth of the Catholic Church.

One of the mosaics.

A closing note on St. Peter's. The current basilica is the third church on the site. The first church was a small shrine built in the first or second centuries AD to mark the burial place of St. Peter's (who is supposed to have been crucified by the Emperor Nero in the emperor's private circus on the site of the current basilica). In the early fourth century AD, the Emperor Constantine, after converting to Christianity, constructed a larger basilica on the site of the shrine. The current basilica was conceived in the late 15th century to replace Constantine's now-dilapidated church. It took over 120 years and 21 popes to complete the basilica. One way to help fund this massive project was the selling of indulgences, particularly in German. The practice of selling indulgences, of course, is part of what led Martin Luther to post his 95 thesis on the doors of the church at Wittenburg. So, indirectly, we can thank the decision of Pope Julius II to rebuild St. Peter's with starting the Protestant Reformation.