Day 2 in Rome

After tormenting Wande Johnson, our friend and neighbor, she finally succumbed and notified us that she would be joining us on the cruise!

Terry was up at the crack of dawn, while Julie and Carol leisurely slept in. Later we trekked down to the lobby (it’s four winding flights!) for a late breakfast.

Another beautiful day! Today our excursion took us out of Italy. We went to Vatican City (Stato della Città del Vaticano, or, State of the Vatican City), a sovereign city-state. It is the smallest country in the world! Pop quiz: What’s the second-smallest country in the world? (Sarah Palin, if you’re reading this, no, it’s not Alaska.) The answer is at the end of this post.

What we learned today is that when one tours “The Vatican,” that means different places: the Vatican Museums, the Vatican Palaces, St. Peter’s Basilica and St. Peter’s Square. There’s probably more, but you get the idea.

Our cab driver dropped us off at the wrong place, even though Carol showed him the piece of paper we got from the tour company with the correct meeting location. We think the cabbie did it deliberately, as he was rather gruff. He dropped us off at St. Peter’s Square, but we had to walk around (yes, “around,” not “through”) to the other side of Vatican City to the museums. Someone in our party muttered stronzo (well, actually the English equivalent), but it was not Terry, who vowed to watch his mouth in such a holy place. (Well, truth be told – again because of such a holy place – Terry did slip a couple of times, and of all places in St. Peter’s Basilica! But this was because of rude tourists committing that worst of crimes, cutting in line, so he was sure forgiveness was automatically granted.)

We made it to our meeting location on time, and while we were waiting for our entire tour group to show up, Carol took a picture of Flat Stanley. To her surprise, a couple approached her with their Flat Stanley (from Chicago)! We had the unique opportunity to snap their picture together. (It was heartbreaking having to separate them, though.)

Then it was on to the Vatican Museums. Pope Julius II founded the Museums in the early 16th century CE through the simple act of acquiring a few ancient sculptures. (For those who may be watching “The Borgias” on Showtime, Julius II, when he was a cardinal (known then as Giuliano della Rovere), had a rather nasty rivalry with Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia. Borgia beat Rovere out for the top job after the death of Pope Innocent VIII, and was elected Pope Alexander VI. Rovere was quite the sore loser. (Spoiler alert: Pope Alexander VI died 11 years later and Borgia maneuvered his way into the papacy and was elected Pope Julius II in 1503.)

We had hours ahead of us, so we’ll give you just a few highlights. One of the first treasures we saw was the sculpture Laocoön and His Sons, showing them being strangled by two serpents. The sculpture is from the first or second century BCE, but had gone missing. It was discovered in 1506 CE, and Julius II acquired it within a month and started the museum. The Pinacoteca (Picture Gallery) is a series of rooms full of treasures. We were particularly enthralled by the Raphael room and came to appreciate his genius even more. The Gallery of Maps, with its 40 maps of Italy frescoed on the walls and barrel vault ceiling, was “mapturous.”

After hours of working our way through an endless sea of humanity (we can only imagine what this must be like during high tourist season!), we finally arrived at the Sistine Chapel. Words cannot describe actually being there, beholding the masterpieces of Michelangelo. Julius II hired Michelangelo to paint the ceiling in 1508 CE, and four years later his frescoes adorned over 5,000 square feet of space.

Michelangelo was brought back in 1535 CE to paint The Last Judgment over the entire wall behind the altar. It took him six years and it was not without controversy, because of the naked figures. Biagio da Cesena, the pope’s Master of Ceremonies, called it “disgraceful” and more appropriate for the public baths and taverns. Michelangelo was unrepentant, however, and got the last word on the subject by painting Cesena’s face into that of Minos, the judge of the Underworld. He topped it off adding donkey ears and genitalia, with snakes coiled around the latter. LOL!

What surprised us was the intimacy of the Sistine Chapel. We had imagined that the ceiling was much higher and that it would be difficult to see the details of the frescoes, but it was not. We also learned that while Michelangelo’s art dominates the Sistine Chapel, other artists’ works adorn the walls as well, such as Perugino (“Moses Leaving to Egypt”), Botticelli (“Temptation of Christ”) and Rosselli (“The Last Supper”). Poor guys; brilliant artists, but forever trumped by Michelangelo inside these walls.

Our last stop on the tour was St. Peter’s Basilica, which is the soaring, magnifico church, and the holiest site of the Catholic Church. It is here that St. Peter’s tomb is believed to be beneath the altar of the basilica. There was a mass going on in a section of the church, with the beautiful voices of the choir lilting about this vast structure, echoing off walls, filling the dome and reaching as if into the heavens. It was enough to move any heathen.

We emptied out into St. Peter’s Square where we meandered for a while, then went in search of food outside Vatican City. It was early by Italian standards, 6:30 PM, but we had no trouble finding a trattoria that was open, since there are so many tourists attracted to the area.

Carol and Julie had red spaghetti and Terry, lasagna. Once again we found the food to be quite different than American Italian. After dinner we caught a cab back to the hotel and that was it for our day out. We were exhausted and had a big day coming up: The Roman Forum and the Coliseum.

(Answer to pop quiz: Monaco.)