Day two of our Roman adventure sees us heading to the Vatican for a three-hour tour of the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel and St Peter's Basilica.
This tour, with Walks of Italy again, was supposed to be held the next day but the Vatican was unexpectedly closed on that day so we changed our tickets, doing tomorrow's tour today and today's tour tomorrow, if that makes sense.
Our tour group gathered outside the walls of Vatican City, an independent city-state within the city of Rome, thus requiring us to pass through all the checks required when visiting another country.
It turned out to be a really hot day, 38 degrees, probably more like 42 degrees in St Peter's Square where the paving throws heat like a blast-furness.
I'm guessing that all the visitors who expected to see the Vatican tomorrow changed to today, as did we, because half of Rome was there making the experience somewhat trying in the heat with social distancing a thing long forgotten. As a result I have very few photographs that don't include multiple people's heads!
Enza, our knowledgable and entertaining guide, managed to keep us all together as we made our way through the treasures of the Vatican Museum, so extensive that it is difficult to recall more than a few highlights like my favourite, the Raphael Rooms, frescoed apartments which form part of the Pontifical Palace, home to numerous popes from the early 16th century on. The frescoes were painted by Raphael and his school between 1508 and 1524. The figures seem to stand out from the walls and hover in space.
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| The Vatican Museum |
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| The Raphael Rooms at the Vatican |
We were allowed fifteen minutes to gaze, with several hundred others, at the spectacle of the Sistine Chapel ceiling and the the Last Judgement on the alter wall, frescoes painted by Michelangelo who was 33 years old when the work began. He possibly needed the ministrations of a chiropractor (or whoever) when he finished this neck-breaking work on the ceiling in 1512 as, contrary to belief, he painted standing on scaffolding and looking up. He was known to muse on the wisdom of changing career from sculptor to painter. Amazingly, he had no experience with painting frescoes when he undertook the job.
Since the 15th century, the Sistine Chapel has been the gathering place for the cardinals who meet to elect a new pope. A chimney in the ceiling announces the progress of the conclave to crowds awaiting news in St Peter's Square, black smoke indicating that no candidate has the required two-thirds majority, white smoke declaring the election of the new pope.
From the Sistine Chapel we moved to St Peter's Square en route to St Peter's Basilica, deemed to be the largest church in Christendom covering a staggering 2.3 hectares. The scale of the church is difficult to bring into focus. It is only when you compare the seemingly tiny people in the church to some architectural feature that you can grasp some idea of its proportions.
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| In St Peter's Basilica |
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