Visited the Vatican today. We’re on the last leg of our 2 week Italy trip and todays tour was one of the highlights. I learned so much from our great private tour guide, who is one of only 300 “licensed Vatican guides”.
Firstly, when you visit “The Vatican” you are actually visiting a location…Vatican City, which is actually a separate sovereign country from Italy (no passport required to visit or “return”).
We started the tour at the Vatican Museum which is not a religious museum at all, but rather a huge and impressive art museum, the likes of the Louvre or Uffizi Gallery in Florence (maybe not as large but certainly comparable). It is housed in buildings that were residences of former Popes.
You could spend days walking through this museum and we barely scratched the surface in 2-3 hours. Some of the highlights include many works of Rafael, Michelangelo and DaVinci (who actually lived in the building for several years while working for a pope). There is a Hall of Busts, Hall of Animals, Hall of Maps and even a Van Gogh painting. The flow and layout of the museum makes it easy to navigate and view many of these areas easily.
This route then takes us directly into the Sistine Chapel, through a door underneath the fresco depicting hell…not the usual main entrance to the chapel. Our guide had spent 30 minutes with us prior to entering the museum, explaining in detail the story of Michelangelo painting the ceiling and the many subtle “surprises” in his work. She also explained the frescos on the walls of the chapel through a very detailed “cheat sheet” that was extremely helpful for seeing the Chapel in person. Once inside the chapel there is NO Photography and NO talking. I was surprised by how serene and calm it was despite the large number of people there. The experience of being there in person was memorable.
After leaving the chapel, we take another “guides only” route down the steps into St.Peter’s Square near the entrance to St.Peter’s Basilica. No waiting in the 45 minute line that wraps around the square to enter the church! Seeing this storied Square where the Pope addresses the masses was impressive for its size and with the Obelisk prominently raising in the center.
We then entered the largest church in the world. “Breathtaking” barely begins to describe the impression when you enter. You could spend hours if not days exploring all of the art, sculptures, chapels (including a wedding chapel) and detail of it. Just to mention a couple of the highlights:
- Michelangelo’s Pieta sculpture of Mary and Jesus, done when he was only 24 years old. One of the few pieces of his art that he actually signed.
- the massive bronze canopy in the middle of the church, which was moved there from the Pantheon.
- the dome, which can be visited (we did not) by climbing 551 steps and has a walkway around it both inside and outside.
Today was truly a highlight of our trip. I would highly recommend visiting if you get the chance to travel to Rome.
