Our room is very comfortable, but neither of us slept well last night. Part of jet lag I presume. Our “Pristine Sistine Early Entrance Small Group Vatican Tour” started at 7:00 AM and we took a cab to reach the starting point. Dan and I are not early birds, so this was particularly challenging for us. It was too early for the hotel breakfast which started at 7:00 am, but they packed us enough food for 4 people. In fact, we shared some of it with our taxi driver.
We arrived on time and enjoyed chatting with everyone in our group. Our tour guide, Davide, gave us an overview of our tour and he then explained that the tour no longer included St. Peter’s Basilica. Instead he would take to other areas of the Vatican Museum. WHAT! Sure we wanted to see the Sistine Chapel, but St. Peter’s was also on our bucket list. Davide explained that they no longer allowed early entry to the Basilica and there was no way they could run the tour not knowing if it would take 40 minutes or 2 hours to get in. What could we do at that point other than go along with him.
Our guide was very knowledgeable about the artwork we saw, and gave a very thorough lecture about how Michelangelo was chosen to paint the Sistine Chapel. Originally Raphael thought he was going to be given the position, as he was known as being the best painter of his time. Michelangelo was known as an archiitect and sculptor, but he was not a painter. Everyone thought that when Michelangelo was offered the position he would turn it down and that it could then be given to Raphael. However, Miehelangelo surprised everyone and accepted the offer. It is said that when Raphael saw Michelangelo’s work he was overwhelmed by its power and beauty, and that he copied some of Michelangelo’s techniques and styles into his own works.
The collection of Greek and Roman sculptures was quite amazing, but many did not seem to fit the Roman Catholic point of view. Granted I’m no expert on Catholic theology, but I don’t think room after room of naked people easily fits into religious thinking. Many of the male figures had their penises chopped off or were covered by fig leaves. That included a beautiful piece of Apoxyomentos. The original was created by Lysippus around 330 BC. This one, however was a Roman copy made in 1st century AD.
The Belvedere Torso was also quite remarkable. It has been documented since the 15th century. As ancient as it is, it too is considered to be a replica. The original was said to have been created in the 1st century BC by the Athenian sculpture Apollonius. It’s thought to be of the Greek hero Ajax Telamonius contemplating suicide. I immediately thought of Rodin’s The Thinker. As it turns out he was greatly influenced by this piece.
The most impressive paintings I thought were those in the Raphael Rooms. Four connected rooms were covered with Raphael’s work. They were commissioned in 1509 by Pope Julius II. It was being painted at the same time Michelangelo was painting the Sistine Chapel. The most famous of them is “The School of Athens.” Raphael actually painted Michelangelo into this work, along with his own self portrait.
Room after room, after room, hallway after hallway, and then more rooms, we finally got 20 minutes to view the Sistine Chapel. It is amazing seeing it in person. It truly is a sacred place, No photos were allowed. Before we knew it, our 20 minutes were over. Afterwards, Dan and I decided to leave the tour. We had reservations to visit the Borghese Gallery and were getting overwhelmed with the volume of artwork at the Vatican Museum.
Before leaving Vatican City, Dan and I went to see the massive St. Peter’s Square. It is very impressive. It is there that people were lined up to visit the Basilica. The line was very long, so we had decided we would just have to accept the fact that we would not be visiting St. Peter’s.
We took a cab to the Borghese and arrived about 45 minutes early. That gave us a few minutes to relax in the Borghese Gardens. We also had time to get a snack in the Gallery’s cafeteria. Once again we were gazing at statues, but these were incredible: Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s David; Apollo and Daphne; and Enea, Anchises and Asanius. Of course there was more to see and we tried, but after a while we simply were museumed (our own made up word) out.
Despite being tired we managed to walk back to our hotel. It was a lovely walk through the Borghese Gardens and back through Rome’s twisting streets back to our hotel. Once again we relaxed for a few hours. We then headed to the lively neighborhood of Trastevere for dinner at Evo where we finally tasted some of Rome’s specialties including Parmigiano di melanzane con creosote di buffalo (eggplant parmigian) and Casio e Peppe. Quite delicious. Well sated, we headed back to our hotel.
RAPHAEL’S SCHOOL OF ATHENS
BY THE WAY WITH WENDY & DAN 