We had an alarm set for 7:45 am but after sleeping around 1 am last night, we didn't get up until 8:30 am. After quickly getting ready and having breakfast at our hotel, we left for our day of exploring Christian history of Rome.
As soon as we got to the subway station, we realized the volume of lines we would be facing through the day since the station was jam packed and must've had over 500 people just at the platform of the subway train! We had to wait for a couple of trains to pass by before we could get on it, barely. We finally got off at the station closest to Vatican City and walked to the Vatican Museums. We had purchased our tickets online so we skipped the ticket purchasing line that must've otherwise meant waiting for over an hour. A very hot day under a blazing sun wouldn't have been great for waiting outside so kudos to planning in advance. After passing through security, storing our backpack in storage and collecting our audio guides, we started our exploration. The Vatican Museums are actually several connected museums that were built on the orders of different popes through the ages. The best collections are probably from the Egyptian times, Greek and Roman statues and then of course the different styles of paintings from Italy. We liked the Egyptian exhibits (featuring an actual mummified pharaoh), Roman sculptures, the Gallery of Maps (it has maps of Italy from past eras painted on both the walls of a long hallway) and Raphael's rooms (rooms that were painted by the famous painter Raphael and that were used by various popes as their residences).
Then came the highlight of the day - the Sistine Chapel. It's the church where the election of the Pope is held but that's the lesser reason for its fame. The 5700 square meters of ceilings and the wall behind the altar were painted personally by Michelangelo. Pope Julius the second asked Michelangelo if he would paint the ceiling with the twelve apostles of Jesus. Michelangelo was 33 and primarily a sculptor at the time and had very little experience with painting, let alone fresco painting where you have a short time window to paint over a special material before it dries out. On the insistence of the pushy pope, Michelangelo started the project in 1508 and finished painting the ceiling in 4 years in 1512. Instead of painting just the twelve apostles as asked, he went a few steps further and painted the entire history of mankind according to the Bible starting from man's creation all the way down to that day. Just the sheer physical effort required to paint the huge area is awe inspiring. Essentially, he had his neck craned for 4 years while working on this masterpiece! The detail in the paintings is remarkable and these paintings are not just visual depictions of the biblical stories but are instead Michelangelo's personal interpretations of those stories - he was a theologian too. The stories range from creation of man to creation of light and dark to creation of the heaven, hell and earth to the original sin to the banishment of man to Noah's flood to other stories from the bible and portraits of prophets - the complete Bible essentially.
A few years passed and then another pope asked Michelangelo in 1535 to come back and paint the wall behind the altar with a scene depicting the Day of Judgement (to complete the cycle of life from creation of the universe to the Day of Judgement). This scene covers the entire wall and perhaps surpasses the quality achieved in painting the ceiling (by this time, Michelangelo was in his 60s and at the peak of his painting powers). It took 8 years to complete and when the Pope saw it, he started crying by the impact of the scene. There is a stark shift in the mood of both works (ceiling versus the Day of Judgement). The paintings on the ceiling have an upbeat Renaissance optimistic outlook on man's exit from heaven and into this world whereas by the time Michelangelo painted the Day of Judgement, he had started questioning whether mankind had actually been better off and so the Day of Judgement is painted in a very stern mood and ends up being a very grim and terrifying depiction of the end of times with Jesus bringing swift justice to everyone rather being Jesus the redeemer, as he is usually painted. In fact, this painting laid the foundations for the post-Renaissance style of art - the Baroque style. As a piece of art, it is the most impressive we've seen: the sheer physical effort required, the challenge with the short time windows and above all, the subjective narration through a fixed medium, all of that makes it the best painted work we've ever laid eyes on.
After that, we stopped for lunch at a nearby cafe and had a delicious pizza. Our next stop was supposed to be the Saint Peter's square (and the adjoining Saint Peter's Basilica, the most famous church in Christianity) but after walking for about three kilometers and being incorrectly guided by various guards to the "detour", we found out that Saint Peter's square and the church were closed to general public since Pope Francis was addressing school children. We later found out that 300,000 children (along with their parents and teachers) attended this address. So sadly, we won't be able to see the magnificent dome of Saint Peter's basilica. With reference to yesterday's update, Saint Peter's basilica combines two of the most magnificent architectural designs of the Ancient Romans - the dome of the Pantheon and the basilica design of Constantine's Basilica. The aim in combining the two was to demonstrate that Christianity was superior to the pagan religion of the Romans.
Then we took the train to Piazza del Popolo (Plaza of the People) where we took a break for having gelato. After that we walked to the Spanish Steps again, hoping that they might be better during the day and they appeared only slightly better because there were actually more people gathered there and it looked more alive. We climbed half way up and sat there for a few minutes to rest.
Then we took transit to the neighborhood of Trastevere. The word literally means "on the other side of Tiber" and that's where we went. We followed the walking tour audio guide of Rick Steves and saw this neighborhood that has been preserved from its Roman times. As part of the walking tour, we visited a couple of lively squares and two churches - one being the very first church that was dedicated to Mary, mother of Jesus. After the tour of Trastevere, we went to the Trevi Fountain area for dinner. Getting there by a combination of walking and transit took an hour and then we had to stand in line for another hour to get a table! To be honest, the food wasn't worth the wait. It was good but not outstanding. We had ravioli, bruschetta, bread with Gorgonzola cheese and honey (probably the best item of this meal) and tiramisu. After that we walked to get gelato from a highly recommended shop that was actually worth the recommendation. Then we took some pictures at the Trevi Fountain to capture its night time ambiance and finally headed back, first taking a bus and then a tram. The day was extremely hot and we walked a lot - 17.6 km to be precise! Reiterating what we remarked yesterday, Rome's history is amazing but their present is not worth a second visit. Too bad that we missed out on Saint Peter's Basilica but oh well, maybe it wasn't meant to be.
Tomorrow, we'll be doing a day trip to Venice, the city that has no cars and the streets are actually rivers! Excited about that although we have been warned that it's quite smelly. Well, since experts think that Venice will sink in less than half a century, we want to see it while it still exists. We sure hope that having no streets means less walking!
Take care and good night!
As soon as we got to the subway station, we realized the volume of lines we would be facing through the day since the station was jam packed and must've had over 500 people just at the platform of the subway train! We had to wait for a couple of trains to pass by before we could get on it, barely. We finally got off at the station closest to Vatican City and walked to the Vatican Museums. We had purchased our tickets online so we skipped the ticket purchasing line that must've otherwise meant waiting for over an hour. A very hot day under a blazing sun wouldn't have been great for waiting outside so kudos to planning in advance. After passing through security, storing our backpack in storage and collecting our audio guides, we started our exploration. The Vatican Museums are actually several connected museums that were built on the orders of different popes through the ages. The best collections are probably from the Egyptian times, Greek and Roman statues and then of course the different styles of paintings from Italy. We liked the Egyptian exhibits (featuring an actual mummified pharaoh), Roman sculptures, the Gallery of Maps (it has maps of Italy from past eras painted on both the walls of a long hallway) and Raphael's rooms (rooms that were painted by the famous painter Raphael and that were used by various popes as their residences).
Then came the highlight of the day - the Sistine Chapel. It's the church where the election of the Pope is held but that's the lesser reason for its fame. The 5700 square meters of ceilings and the wall behind the altar were painted personally by Michelangelo. Pope Julius the second asked Michelangelo if he would paint the ceiling with the twelve apostles of Jesus. Michelangelo was 33 and primarily a sculptor at the time and had very little experience with painting, let alone fresco painting where you have a short time window to paint over a special material before it dries out. On the insistence of the pushy pope, Michelangelo started the project in 1508 and finished painting the ceiling in 4 years in 1512. Instead of painting just the twelve apostles as asked, he went a few steps further and painted the entire history of mankind according to the Bible starting from man's creation all the way down to that day. Just the sheer physical effort required to paint the huge area is awe inspiring. Essentially, he had his neck craned for 4 years while working on this masterpiece! The detail in the paintings is remarkable and these paintings are not just visual depictions of the biblical stories but are instead Michelangelo's personal interpretations of those stories - he was a theologian too. The stories range from creation of man to creation of light and dark to creation of the heaven, hell and earth to the original sin to the banishment of man to Noah's flood to other stories from the bible and portraits of prophets - the complete Bible essentially.
A few years passed and then another pope asked Michelangelo in 1535 to come back and paint the wall behind the altar with a scene depicting the Day of Judgement (to complete the cycle of life from creation of the universe to the Day of Judgement). This scene covers the entire wall and perhaps surpasses the quality achieved in painting the ceiling (by this time, Michelangelo was in his 60s and at the peak of his painting powers). It took 8 years to complete and when the Pope saw it, he started crying by the impact of the scene. There is a stark shift in the mood of both works (ceiling versus the Day of Judgement). The paintings on the ceiling have an upbeat Renaissance optimistic outlook on man's exit from heaven and into this world whereas by the time Michelangelo painted the Day of Judgement, he had started questioning whether mankind had actually been better off and so the Day of Judgement is painted in a very stern mood and ends up being a very grim and terrifying depiction of the end of times with Jesus bringing swift justice to everyone rather being Jesus the redeemer, as he is usually painted. In fact, this painting laid the foundations for the post-Renaissance style of art - the Baroque style. As a piece of art, it is the most impressive we've seen: the sheer physical effort required, the challenge with the short time windows and above all, the subjective narration through a fixed medium, all of that makes it the best painted work we've ever laid eyes on.
After that, we stopped for lunch at a nearby cafe and had a delicious pizza. Our next stop was supposed to be the Saint Peter's square (and the adjoining Saint Peter's Basilica, the most famous church in Christianity) but after walking for about three kilometers and being incorrectly guided by various guards to the "detour", we found out that Saint Peter's square and the church were closed to general public since Pope Francis was addressing school children. We later found out that 300,000 children (along with their parents and teachers) attended this address. So sadly, we won't be able to see the magnificent dome of Saint Peter's basilica. With reference to yesterday's update, Saint Peter's basilica combines two of the most magnificent architectural designs of the Ancient Romans - the dome of the Pantheon and the basilica design of Constantine's Basilica. The aim in combining the two was to demonstrate that Christianity was superior to the pagan religion of the Romans.
Then we took the train to Piazza del Popolo (Plaza of the People) where we took a break for having gelato. After that we walked to the Spanish Steps again, hoping that they might be better during the day and they appeared only slightly better because there were actually more people gathered there and it looked more alive. We climbed half way up and sat there for a few minutes to rest.
Then we took transit to the neighborhood of Trastevere. The word literally means "on the other side of Tiber" and that's where we went. We followed the walking tour audio guide of Rick Steves and saw this neighborhood that has been preserved from its Roman times. As part of the walking tour, we visited a couple of lively squares and two churches - one being the very first church that was dedicated to Mary, mother of Jesus. After the tour of Trastevere, we went to the Trevi Fountain area for dinner. Getting there by a combination of walking and transit took an hour and then we had to stand in line for another hour to get a table! To be honest, the food wasn't worth the wait. It was good but not outstanding. We had ravioli, bruschetta, bread with Gorgonzola cheese and honey (probably the best item of this meal) and tiramisu. After that we walked to get gelato from a highly recommended shop that was actually worth the recommendation. Then we took some pictures at the Trevi Fountain to capture its night time ambiance and finally headed back, first taking a bus and then a tram. The day was extremely hot and we walked a lot - 17.6 km to be precise! Reiterating what we remarked yesterday, Rome's history is amazing but their present is not worth a second visit. Too bad that we missed out on Saint Peter's Basilica but oh well, maybe it wasn't meant to be.
Tomorrow, we'll be doing a day trip to Venice, the city that has no cars and the streets are actually rivers! Excited about that although we have been warned that it's quite smelly. Well, since experts think that Venice will sink in less than half a century, we want to see it while it still exists. We sure hope that having no streets means less walking!
Take care and good night!
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