An audience with the Pope!! Okay, just a tour of the Vatican museums, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica

February 5, 2024

Hello from Vatican City - a country unto itself. Our tour guide, Laura, picked us up at our hotel at 1:30 p.m. today and we were driven to the Vatican - a brief wait in line (we already had tickets to skip the main entrance) but had to show our passports to be sure they matched the names on the tickets. Then we are on our way. Cloudy today, but still fairly warm and no rain.

These Vatican Museums were started by one of the Popes, many, many years ago as he was amassing artwork for himself and needed to figure out how to display it. While at that time it was not for public viewing, the collection grew and grew with each succeeding Pope and eventually was open for the public to see. It’s utterly amazing. We probably only saw a small portion of what was there. Whatever 3 hours allowed us to see. But having this personal tour guide was the best as she could show us more specific items and give us the overview we needed to understand the collections.  

You can’t just go straight to the Sistine Chapel - you must follow a route that takes you through many of the galleries, which is smart. A gallery just of busts of Roman citizens. Unlike Greek statues, Roman statues were specific to an individual so they are all very different from each other. Sort of like a photograph of that person. A gallery just of animals - both real and fantastical. A gallery showing just the muses (this particular collection was unearthed in one particularly area in Rome). A long, long hallway with painted maps of Italy - the west coast on the right side and the east coast on the left side. These maps were from the 1500’s and showed the tiniest villages located in Italy - what an amazing map to have for future reference.

Before entering the Sistine Chapel, Laura showed us the layout and what we would be seeing both on the walls, the ceiling, and behind the altar. Of course the ceiling and behind the altar were done by Michelangelo - the ceiling being completed 30 years before the wall behind the altar. Once we entered the Sistene Chapel, we were not allowed to talk or take pictures - although many people had to be reminded of that - typical. The side walls of the chapel had been painted by different artists and it was so obvious when you looked from them up to the ceiling by Michelangelo the amazing artistry of the latter. I’m no art critic but before I could express that to our guide, she mentioned it to me - how much better his art was.

The Sistine Chapel is where the conclave is held when a new Pope is being elected. The Pope occasionally will hold a private service in this chapel and tour groups are notified if it will not be open during certain hours. Laura shared with us that this conclave was not always held here - back in the 1100’s, they used to travel to another town where the Pope had many buildings and offices. But this particular time the priests were having such a good time being together (eating and drinking and socializing) that they forgot why they were there and it took almost a year to elect a new Pope. The people in that town finally got annoyed and removed the roof of the building where the priests were meeting- once the rain and elements were coming down on their heads they made their decision very quickly. 

We observed the Swiss Guards in and around the Chapel. We exited into St. Peter’s Square and then on to St. Peter’s Basilica - the largest church in the world. Our tour ended there and we explored the Basilica on our own, observing a service going on, hearing singing, seeing the altar beneath which St. Peter’s is buried, exploring the tombs of the Popes below the Basilica. We headed out into St. Peter’s Square - starting to get darker now but groups were still headed inside - not sure how late they allow people to go in. 

We found our way back to the hotel, albeit a few changes in direction - but first wanted to get some food. A restaurant (Salvatore Di Matteo Le Gourmet), located not far from our hotel, seemed the best choice; however, not serving food until 7pm - common in Rome. On our second time around the block to the same place we convinced them to at least let us sit and have a drink (they were serving drinks) and then would order food at 7pm. They acquiesced- and a few other groups were not far behind us - all arriving prior to 7pm. Guess we set the precedent. We had wine and beer, and personal pizza’s - yes, 2 nights in a row but this pizza was even better than last night’s.  Finally back to the hotel by 8:30pm. 

I mentioned in yesterday’s blog that we were going to the Pantheon today - funny story. We had tickets for 10am, which meant we should leave the hotel by 9:30am to get there on time. I woke up and noticed it seemed like it was daylight outside. I checked my watch and oh wow - it was 9:15am!! - we had overslept big time. Guess we weren’t making the Pantheon - oops! And we never sleep that long. Must have been quite tired.  Instead, we had a nice breakfast in the hotel and then headed out for about an hour to the shopping area. So sleeping in cost me $$$ as I found several items to purchase! 

We may try to see it tomorrow after the Colosseum and before the Borghese Gallery.

FYI - if you click on the pictures they will get larger - perhaps you’ve discovered that already.

14,028 steps today

Ciao,

Betsy