Roman Holiday (Part II) – Vatican City

It strikes me that I haven’t told you about Dolce Vita  stay in my last post.

This was first time that I stayed in the apartment style accommodation. A narrow cobbled stone alley way took us to a door to a smallish cozy looking reception of the Dolce Vita Residence. We were taken in by a polite young lady who gave as keys to an apartment named Rita Hayworth. All the apartments here, take their name after movie stars related to Rome/Italy, in some way. The rooms are themed according to the stars, which is an interesting concept. Our apartment was small but comfortable, neat, well equipped and well maintained. A small kitchenette with wobbly vessels (needing urgent replacement) was soon stocked up with breakfast essentials by us. We had peaceful neighbours on either side. The people were really nice and extremely helpful. Also the location was perfect with all star sights of Rome at a short walking distance.

Quite an agreeable place to stay.

 

We woke up to a very anaemic looking sky on the second day and reasoned it would be better to spend this day more indoors than outside. We dressed up for Vatican City according to the required code (of covering knees and shoulders).

Vatican City – The smallest country in the world wherein lies the focal point of Catholicism. On agenda were Basilica of St. Peter, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museums, Ponte Sant’Angelo. We had a breakfast to match our ‘agenda’ and then took a bus to Vatican, which halted a few steps from Dolce Vita. Also it was the only bus ride we took in Rome, rest was scaled on foot. The buses in Rome are usually packed to the roof and this was no exception.

Contrary to my hopes, the scene didn’t change much on alighting the bus. Well, look…

 

The impromptu plan was to see the museums first and then come back in good hope for a smaller queue. The Vatican Museums are a home to wide wide gamut of world art. Some of the most important art works are kept here with utmost care, maintenance and sanctity. Good to have an audio guide here too.

I’m afraid I don’t have pictures to show what I mean here. Photography is prohibited in many galleries. Which makes complete sense. This makes it special. This is the motivation to cross seas and be here and stand in awe around the art work. Plus there is no way you can capture the works, they are too expansive, beyond the scope of any lens and you got to watch out for the vast rivers of people ahead of you and following you.

You can, however, steal some snippets using your smart phones. But being smart will be to completely devote yourself to experiencing it, focusing all your senses there. The idea is to capture it in your head.

 

 

 

We passed through many such galleries following a slow and silent crowd (that sounds like an oxymoron, but ’twas more or less quiet) and reached Sistine Chapel.

As we stepped into the chapel I saw a number of heads turned up at the ‘Benetton’ bright frescoed ceiling of Michelangelo. I followed the crowd and let out a ‘wow’.

This ought to be one of the goals of life of art lovers.

Our audio guide beautifully describes the details of the works – Creation of Adam and Eve, Original Sin, Libyan Sibyl etc. This one single (large ) painting  depicts the entire story of creation very vibrantly and emotively. The Last Judgement on one of the walls is also worth making it to. There are several other walls with such prized and precious works.

To sum up they are beautiful, vibrant, eggshell cracked and each gesture, expression is worth thousand words.

All the art and breakfast was digested by the time we finished the museums tour. The aromatic waft of straight out of the oven, colourful pizzas with cheese melting down the sides was too overpowering to be resisted at that point of time and we had our lunch in the Museums’ restaurant, doubting if it would taste as good as we are imagining it to. And to my surprise, it was as rewardingly delicious as seeing Sistine Chapel ceiling.

 

We then walked out into the plush gardens of the Vatican.

 

 

 

 

 

A very interesting thing in the museum was this ‘double helix’ staircase by Giuseppe Momo. It has two spirals – one takes you up and one takes you down. Having a crippled orientation sense it took me a while to figure that out, while my well oriented man was, as usual amused with my reaction.

 

 

Believe me, it was confusing.

To our relief, the queue had considerably shortened for St. Peter’s Basilica. So the best time to see it is before closing and just after opening, that is, if you want to spend more time inside it than standing outside.

Needless to say the most sacred shrine of Christendom is sumptuously adorned by Bernini. It is huge. It is beautiful. And would definitely seem more meaningful with basic knowledge of the religion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last one standing for the day was Ponte Sant’Angelo. A short walk on the road running down from the basilica takes you there. There also stands a ‘clever’ fortress called Castel Sant’Angelo which we could not see from inside. I said clever, here’s why. There is a corridor that connects this castle to the Vatican Palace, providing an escape route for the Pope, just in case.

 

 

The area around it is abuzz with street artists and vendors of souvenirs. It gives lovely views of the marble cake domed Basilica of St.Peter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These beautiful views added the much needed cheer to the otherwise drab day which we later rounded off with some lovely local wine cheering to ‘Day 2 in Rome’ and oh! a wonderful pasta.

Also we managed to get seats on the bus ride, back to Rome.

🙂