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Today we toured the Vatican.
Before we took our tour, my Vatican knowledge could be distilled down to this:
-The Pope lives here.
-They have some good art.
-The Vatican is its own country (and the smallest one in the world at that.)
I now know a little bit more.
Our day started early with a sleek Mercedes van picking us up at 7:00 am from our hotel. Yes, we are those kind of people now. The teeny tiny streets made every right or left turn a 5-point turn for this poor guy. When we arrived, the driver let us out and said,
"You go corner. Find leetle man-uh. Easy. Ok?"
Uhhhh…Ok....
Like most things here, what seems to be utter chaos with no organization at all, always seems to work out smoothly. Amazingly, in a huge crowd of people we DO find the "little man" and he shows us to our tour guide. She gives us (and the other Californians (!) in our group) little ear pieces so she can whisper her knowledgeable sweet-nothings in our ears while we soak up Vatican lore. We entered a full hour before the Vatican opens for business which was good because, as it turns out, more than a few people like to come and visit this place every day.
We saw TONS of incredible (very old) art, had a private lunch with the Pope and took a 16th c. Tapestry home as a parting gift.
Naaawwww… But here's some cool stuff about the Vatican:
-4,000 employees arrive each day to work at the Vatican (and park in the "holy car park.")
-Pope Francis was not "in house" when we were there but we learned that he thinks the Vatican is too lavish and so prefers to live in a more humble location in the gardens somewhere. Don't you just love him even more now?
- We saw amazing tapestries from the 1500's. Even though they were originally hung on the walls to keep the rooms warm in the winter, they are, of course, incredible works of art with dimension and perspective. Some even look sort of 3-D. One looked like Jesus was following you with his eyes as you walked past (sort of like the Haunted Mansion ghosts at Disneyland.)
Alllllwaaaaays Waaatching…
-We saw a lot of work by Michelangelo. I learned that his painting and sculpting style was to basically make everyone look like body builders. Women and children too. All of Michael's people are buff.
-My favorite part of the whole thing? The Sistine Chapel. Hands down. I learned that the chapel was built as a literal fortress because when a pope dies, this is where the cardinals convene to elect the new pope and I guess if you're "between popes" you need to be careful.
Michelangelo painted the ceiling, yes, but our tour guide was quick to point out that it is a myth that he laid on his back on the scaffolding and painted. Apparently he stood and looked up (while paint dripped in his eyes) and had a sore neck for years. My neck hurts after just minutes but I can't stop looking……Michelangelo painted many different scenes from the Bible on the ceiling, not just the famous one that shows God reaching out his finger towards Adam (and Adam reaching towards God) but this is the section that I know and spend most of my time squinting at. There is quite a bit of disagreement over whether this represents the moment BEFORE God and Adam connect or the moment AFTERWARDS. The red area within which God is seated is said to look like a human brain, so it is thought that the artist was trying to convey that God was transferring intelligence to us. The red area is also said to resemble the shape of a heart, God's love. And it is also said that the shape of the red area where God sits resembles a womb (and the green trailing "scarf", the umbilical cord) giving us our humanity as well.
Michelangelo gave Adam a navel in the painting and apparently people argue over whether or not he MEANT to do that. Was it a mistake? I'm not sure how you MISTAKENLY paint a navel, but still, our guide assures us this was intentional. But if Adam was created by God from dust and breath (and not born from a human female) why would he have a belly button?
I'll let you discuss…
Sorry all, no pictures are allowed in the Sistine Chapel. I thought it was because it might damage the artwork. Nope. Some Japanese company paid for its restoration so they now claim all copyrights to those images. Seriously?!?! Let's see what Tapestry Jesus has to say about that.
When it came time to leave I felt like we had graduated to:
"Italian Local - Level 2" : Hailing a cab in another language.
Once we found the cab I told the driver where we wanted to go and along the way he must have asked me 29 times,
"Hotel Santa Maria in Trastevere?
I replied each time, "Sí sí."
Over and over again, this exchange.
So either our poor driver had some short-term memory issues or my broken Italian wasn't quite as good as I thought.
Ciao!!
- comments
Sonia Beautiful soo many years of history.
Shannon anderson You are so funny! Loving your blog! Also love the pics - especially the holy pie server and the holy trees. Well, I liked stumpy too- haha! Xoxooxo