Our last day started with deciding whether or not Adela’s pants were modest enough to enter St. Peter’s Basilica. I was unsure if the rips in the jeans would be kosher since they specifically uncovered her knees… turns out my caution was unwarranted, but we didn’t learn that until far in to the future. Afterwards we headed down for breakfast at the hotel and then met our driver to take us over to the Vatican. I think he took a little bit of a longer route than seemed necessary (mostly because it seemed like we were driving around in circles) and we met Katia outside the Vatican just a few minutes late. The line outside the Vatican was INSANE. Like it seemed to wrap around the entire country. Luckily we once again got to skip the lines and just basically went right in. The only hiccup was that Estela’s ticket didn’t scan… user error was not ruled out as a cause.
Walking in to the gardens of the Vatican from the visitor entrance was just awesome! The top of St. Peter’s just peaked out in the distance. We had learned the day before that this area was chosen because it was the site of Christian persecutions – specifically that of St. Peter. Our first stop after gawking was the courtyard of the pine cone. This courtyard is incredibly aptly named… after the giant bronze pine cone that dates back to around the 2nd century. The pine cone itself represents immortality and rebirth, probably why the Vatican decided to keep it. Michaelangelo designed the staircase… because why wouldn’t they have Michaelangelo design some staircases. Next we entered the Vatican museum proper. Now, to be fair, I did not know that there was a museum at the Vatican until we had actually entered it and started touring it. The exhibits were all things that the popes had accumulated over the years. And, believe it or not, the popes had managed to accumulate vast quantities of artwork over the years. In the past years being a pope was weighted more towards being a political leader than being a spiritual leader. Their families and children would all be given positions of power, however being the pope was never a hereditary position.
We continued from the pinecone courtyard to a hallway that was entirely full of busts or just perhaps heads taken from statues. This transitioned to a small courtyard home to a stature of what I believe is Neptune just chilling and “Laocoon and His Sons.” The later being a statue that is mostly thought to be from sometime between 30 BC and 70 AD. Most of the very famous statues had large crowds around them, so we got a good look and then continued on to the next rooms. Next was a room full of animal statues that also had pretty awesome Roman mosaics on the floor. After this was the Muses – and the main muse that Michaelangelo used for his male models – the Belvedere torso. Some think that this torso was once part of a statue of Hercules, but nobody actually knows for certain. The modeling and look of it does appear in many of Michaelangelo’s paintings though. Through the doors was a giant red marble… dish? I must admit I kinda forget what incredible thing is was supposed to be. After some internet searching my memory was restored… it was a giant marble bathtub. Because of course Nero needed a giant red marble bathtub. Red marble was only available from one mountain in Egypt, and I’m pretty sure the Romans used all of it. According to Wikipedia it is called imperial porphyry. Like when Constantinople used red marble to make sarcophagi for his mother, St. Helen, and his daughter, Constantina.
These rooms led into another long corridor that was lined with amazing marble statues, busts, and just one random marble foot. After the statue gallery came the tapestry gallery. Like the name implies… it was full of tapestries. One half depicted scenes from the bible and the other was just scenes from the life of the pope who commissioned them. After all of the amazing marble work the tapestries were kinda just “eh” for me, but I can appreciate the artistry and time that would have gone in to them. The ceiling was painted in such a manner as to appear 3D, and it also resembled the carved coral/stone necklaces that I remember seeing in Amalfi. After the tapestries was the gallery of maps. This is exactly what it sounds like. A hallway dedicated to maps of Italy. Of course they were also beautifully painted, because only the best for the pope when he’s walking around in his very humble accommodations.
Next came what we were all waiting for… waiting for people to go to the bathroom so we could go see the Sistine Chapel. Although the direct route to the chapel wasn’t open, so we just HAD to see all of Rafael’s work too. The Sistine chapel was simply… amazing. The Last Judgement was awe inspiring and I think I spent 80% of the time just looking at the creation of Adam. Supposedly the clergy made someone paint clothes on the figures in the Last Judgement because Michaelangelo painted them all nude originally. Gotta hand him that, he must’ve been pretty epic at not giving a fuck. Some of the murals on the walls depicted Moses, you could tell cuz he apparently wears green all the time. It seemed like the main duty of the guards was to constantly shush people, because absolutely nobody could respect the no talking rules. After having our fill of the place where they pick the pope out we got to leave through the “I have a guide” door. Much faster.
Once outside we meandered over to yet another awe inspiring building: St. Peter’s Basilica. To say it’s huge is to not do justice to the word huge. They actually have the size of all the other cathedrals marked on the floor, in case you think you need to verify you are in the largest cathedral in the world. Katia told us some of the history of the building before saying goodbye. If we ever go to Rome again, I will have to see if she can be our guide. She was just simply fantastic and incredibly knowledgeable. We spent some time looking at the Pieta, John Paul II’s tomb, and just the entire splendor of the building before making our departure from the basilica. Our next stop was to buy some water from the street hustler before going to the gift shop to secure some awesome stamps and assorted other goods. Our hanger was approaching critical levels so we left Vatican city (which involves walking around some waist high fencing) and made our way to a little shop that sold to go sandwiches and drinks. It hit the spot, but we didn’t realize our pellegrinos were not twist off so I had to go buy a bottle opener for 2 euros. (I also might’ve though Hector had gotten a road beer) It was so cheap it almost bent opening the bottles!
Getting an uber back to the hotel was our next adventure. It was an adventure because it took way longer than I was anticipating. Mostly because the ubers kept cancelling! Once back at the hotel we collected ourselves before heading out for some light adventure. The first stop of the adventure was to get a gelato and walk around the park around the Domus Aureus. After that we stopped at restaurant that had tables right across the street from the Coliseum and got an aperol spritz to wet our palates for dinner. Dinner our final night was in Trastevere, which is a cute little district across the river from where our hotel was. We took an uber most of the way and then cross over the oldest bridge in Rome to Tiber Island! Here is a hospital and an old temple to Aesclepius. I figured we had to go here so that Adela could commune with the god of healing. We made our way to the main piazza in Trastevere and went to the Basilica of Santa Maria. Once again… opulent random church. Our dinner this last night was at Osteria D’Zumberto and they didn’t open until 7:30. It turns out that I made reservations at some of the most happening restaurants available, because the place was totally full at 7:30! I followed by gut from last night and ordered two pasta dishes. And holy crap, I felt like Kara from K&N because every bite was the best pasta of my life. I got caccio e pepe and carbonara. They brought the caccio e pepe first, and I shared some of my carbonara with Hector because his lamb leg looked like it had been cooked a wee bit too much.
We decided against dessert at the restaurant because they were out of gelato, and instead got it from the nice place twenty feet away. After a brief stroll around the area we hopped in an Uber and headed back to the hotel. The next morning had a pretty early wakeup so that we could make our flight back to Washington DC. We were all in economy for this flight, which was totally OK since it was a daytime flight. What was less than ideal was arriving in Washington DC at 4 pm on a Friday. I think google took us the most unique route of all time, although we were able to shop at one of those Amazon grocery stores. It was exactly the same as shopping in a regular grocery store so I think we did it wrong. Saturday morning brought our time with the Magallaneses to a close as we dropped them off at the Harrisburg airport and said our goodbyes.
