Our first visit was the Vatican Museum. We were fascinated with the old sculptures, marble head busts, as well with the vast and colorful wall and ceiling paintings located in many of the rooms and halls. The best part of the Vatican Museum was the Sistine Chapel. It is here where the Conclave takes place, a very important church ceremony. This traditional meeting of the Cardinals is aimed at electing the new Pope. The painters involved in this sublime work of pictorial decoration included the most respected names in the world of Italian painting, first and foremost Michelangelo. There were two frescoes starting from the altar and running along the walls on the left and right. The fresco of the ceiling was done by Michelangelo and was completed in just three years. The central part of the ceiling, divided into panels, represented scenes from Genesis including The Creation of Adam and The Creation of Eve. Around the lower part of the ceiling, 12 huge figures of Prophets were depicted. The best part of the Chapel was the amazing wall behind the altar painted by Michelangelo, The Last Judgment.
After spending a few hours at the museum, we made our way to St. Peter’s Square and Basilica. At the center of the square stood an Egyptian obelisk and it was flanked by two fountains. So you know how we mentioned that Santa Maria Major from Monday was enormous? Well…the size of St. Peter Basilica was incomprehensible. Simply put, there’s nothing like it! St. Peter must have been one HECK of a guy!
We immediately realized that we entered the largest and most grandiose sacred building in existence: a building vast in scale, décor, and inspirational effect. The Basilica displayed wonderful works of art in a splendid fusion of the Renaissance and Baroque Era. In the central nave, the venerated bronze statue of St. Peter stood (13th Century). A series of chapels opened up along the aisles. They included the Chapel of Pieta, with its famous Michelangelo statue of the dead body of Christ lying in the lap of his Mother, the Pieta (Michelangelo sculpted this at the age of 24). Up high above, we admired Michelangelo’s massive dome (120m high).
After exploring inside the Basilica, we decided to walk up the 521 steps up to the top of dome in hopes to find breathtaking views of the city. And boy were they breathtaking! The view from the top was amazing! The long and narrow trek to the top was well worth it. We had a remarkable view of St. Peter‘s Square and the Vatican Museum. In the distance we could see Villa Borghese, the Vittorio Emanuel II Monument, the Palatine, the Coliseum and the Roman Forum.
We had a late lunch at a local bar which was recommended in our guide book. We both shared a caprese salad, lasagna and pork. We thought the tomatoes in the salad and with the pork were interesting - they were green and we debated if they were ripe or not. After our late lunch, we crossed the Tiber River and had the best espresso and cappuccino (with a free splash of Bailey’s liquor) at Café Peru. We also had a nice glass of freshly-squeezed O.J. there. We walked back to the Trevi Fountain which was fortunately less crowded than our first experience. After Trevi, we returned to our favorite gelateria in Rome, Il Gelatone, and had two scoops each on a cone! Ben had pistachio and hazelnut topped with cream. Liya had tiramisu and amaretto. All were delicious!
Overall, it was a wonderful day spent in the Vatican City. Rome has definitely made our list of top cities in Europe, even with much remaining to be seen!
No comments:
Post a Comment