Sunday morning we set aside for Vatican day – the last Sunday of the month the Vatican is open and free to the public – which we realize is kind of asking for horrible crowds, since there are horrible crowds at the Vatican on a normal day – but we thought doing the Vatican on Palm Sunday for free was hard to beat – so when you have a plan, you do it right. We woke up hella early and got to the Vatican around 7, it opens at 9, we were one of the first groups in line. By the time it had completely opened, the line was wrapped around the building. I’m SO glad we did this, we got into the Vatican so quickly and we were basically in the rooms at the beginning alone – I especially loved the Raphael rooms and the tapestries. Honestly so much stuff is here its kind of dizzying.
I really liked a lot of the modern art we saw – including Dali.
Of course, one of the main reasons to come to the Vatican, is to see the Sistine Chapel. Honestly, it’s a little overwhelming at first, there’s SO much stuff here and all of the paintings you’ve seen picture of seem so small on the ceiling because they’re just surrounded with panels and panels of paintings. But once you realize the progression and patterns of the paitings, its really impressive. The Sistine Chapel is also where they light the fires that tell whether or not the new pope has been elected – signaling the white smoke or the black smoke.
After the Sistine chapel we went to the Pinacoteca where there are some really impressive paintings and molds of statues by Bernini, also here is Raphael’s masterpiece: The transfiguration. I have to say, and I think I’ve mentioned this before, you have to see these paintings in person. The size of them and the depth of the colors on the canvas and the detail that you see when you’re actually looking at it far surpasses a photocopy or a picture. I didn’t think I cared about art one way or the other until I came to Europe and now that I’m taking classes about it and actually going to see it, I can actually have a conversation about it and know some information behind it.
After our long day at the Vatican, we knew that the Pope gave a blessing in St. Peter’s at noon on Sundays, but by the time we got out of the Vatican, it was around noon, and we were starving. So we decided just to duck into a snack bar and buy a Panini (which was delicious, of course, I can’t get over the fresh ingredients here), and just wandered into St. Peter’s.
Well, we wandered it just as the pope was giving his blessing. It was awesome. I’m not Catholic of course but I could really appreciate the enthusiasm and the throngs of people from every nationality and seeing the Pope speak and then everyone responding was really cool.
After his blessing he rode around a bit in the Popemobile while everyone sang and cheered and it was just a great experience.
After this we laid out in the sun waiting for the crowd to dissipate, just marveling at the size of St. Peter’s and the square. We went to a few souvineir shops…saw a woman without any pants or underwear on…and then went to get in line for St. Peter’s, which was quite huge, but moved quickly enough, and was certainly worth it.
I loved the inside of St. Peter’s, it’s HUGE and open and the colors and the gold are fantastic. The chair at the top of the altar is above the tomb of St. Peter’s and only the pope is allowed to sit there. All of the columns are baroque and it’s just overwhelmingly awesome.
I wish I had more pictures, but my camera was completely dead, so I shall be sniping some friends photos.
After this, we were quite exhausted, it had been a LONG day. We got a bit of food to have a picnic outside at our hostel, it was nice to relax and unwind after getting up as early as we did, but it was a long and successful day.
Monday was our last full day in Rome and we had hit all of the major spots, so we had a really chill day that was necessary. We began our morning shopping along the main avenue in all of the incredibly expensive stores, just for fun. We walked into Gucci and Dolci and Gabanna and all the stores that make me kind of angry at society - I picked up sandals that were 750 euros. I mean, really? But still, it was fun to walk in them – I mean, when in Italy, right?
We took our packed lunches to have a picnic in a park, and from there we walked down around the city a bit and ended up back near the Colliseum, where we just sat on a ledge and sat in the wonderful sun, taking a few pictures. Nooot a bad day when you can say you sunbathed by the Coliseum.
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