Day 29 in Italy: The Vatican Museums

After almost an entire month in Italy, most of it in Rome, I finally went to the Vatican Museums. Unfortunately, it was just me because we underestimated how much the crowds and demand would grow over this month and the only tickets available before we left were for individual tour participants. Since Allison got her day out to visit the Capuchin Crypt last week, today was my turn.

My tour was at 9 AM, so I woke up decently early to make sure I got to my bus, so I could get to the museum, and check in on time. Other than the bus being so crowded that I felt like a sardine pressed up against the side of the can, the journey went without a hitch.

As I mentioned, being a part of a tour was the only way I was able to get a ticket. I was a little conflicted on whether I wanted to be a part of a tour or just go at my own pace, but I quickly realized, without a tour I would have been woefully lost. The Vatican Museums are vast and labyrinthine. The art and artifacts contained in the museums have been accumulated by the Popes over centuries and cover some five miles of corridors.

We began in the Pinecone Courtyard (named for an ancient bronze pinecone statue at one end of it) and learned about the Sistine Chapel. Then we began winding through hallways on our long trip which would culminate in actually viewing the Sistine Chapel. The first few hallways and courtyards we went through contained statuary and busts. Unlike other art museums I’ve been in, it really feels like a lot is just crammed into these corridors. Most of the placards were only in Italian too, which is another reason I was thankful for the tour.

In an overwhelming hallway of Roman statues.

After all the statues and the like, we went down a hall of tapestries. Tapestries, to me, are totally underrated. First of all, they are huge, and second of all, it is remarkable the detail and realism the artists are able to elicit out of the woven fiber. I just have no concept of how you plan and execute something like that. The ceiling of the tapestry hallway was also very cool because it was flat, but painted to look like there were carved three dimensional panels and friezes. They were extraordinarily convincing.

Painting? Haha gotcha! It’s a tapestry.
Beautiful carving above the exit of the hallway? Gotcha again! It’s a painting on a flat surface.

After the tapestries, came the famous Gallery of Maps. Beneath its insanely elaborate ceiling are 40 painted maps of different parts of Italy, pre unification. When I wasn’t distracted by the ceiling, the maps were very interesting and, according to our guide, surprisingly accurate. The most interesting thing to me was all the maps are from the perspective of Rome being the center of the world. For instance, Naples is south of Rome, so the depiction of Naples has south at the top of the map and north at the bottom, just like it would look as if you were looking down the peninsula from Rome.

The Gallery of Maps

Upon exiting the maps, we went through a few other rooms before arriving in the famous Raphael rooms. The last stop before the Sistine Chapel. The rooms have different themes, but each was remarkable. We looked at the different frescoes and our guide explained what was being depicted and its significance. The first room is dedicated to portraying Emperor Constantine the Great. The second has some works depicting some biblical stories and imagery. In the third, we saw the famous School of Athens, depicting all the famous Greek philosophers and mathematicians, many of whose likeness are portraits of Raphael’s contemporaries, such as Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo.

The ceiling of the first Raphael room. This room commemorates Emperor Constantine who was the first emperor to convert to Christianity and make it the national religion. It’s a little difficult to see, but this ceiling centerpiece was striking to me and shows a pedestal upon which is a representation of Jesus on the Cross. On the floor in front of the pedestal is a broken statue of Mercury implying Christianity replacing past paganism.
The School of Athens by Raphael

I really enjoy art, but would consider myself to be somewhere between Neanderthal and ignorant novice when it comes to being able to differentiate what makes something better than something else. I will caveat by saying “better” in this sense to me means more skillfully done. I am a full believer great art can take numerous forms and it’s greatness is ascribed by the enjoyment and emotion one gets out of looking at and contemplating it rather than by the pure skill it took to produce it.

That being said, in the final Raphael room, our guide did a good job of differentiating between two separate works and why one was “better” than the other. There was a work done by Raphael on one wall and another work on an adjacent wall done by one of his students. At first glance I would be like, “Wow, they both look good”. However, our guide expounded on how clearly one was done by a master and the other was done by just a painter. He told us to look at the movement of the figures and their details, and to take notice of the emotion in their faces. He also told us to notice the perfection of the background and the forced perspective. He was right and as he spoke, the richness of the Raphael fresco became more clearly visible to me.

Finally after about two hours, our guide bid us Arrivederci to venture into the Sistine Chapel on our own, since there’s no talking or pictures allowed. In the corridors leading to the Chapel is the collection of modern art the Vatican has. It was funny because there were some beautiful pieces in the collection from some big names like Matisse and Dali, but at this point, everyone is ready to jump ahead to dessert.

You enter the Sistine Chapel from the front next to the altar. Along the walls are panels depicting parts of Jesus’ life juxtaposed with scenes from Moses’. These were not done by Michelangelo. On the wall behind you is the massive fresco The Last Judgement which was done by Michelangelo, as was the famous ceiling depicting Genesis down the middle, and portraits of prophets around the outside. It really is overwhelming and astonishing. I stood directly beneath The Creation of Adam and stared up at the beauty of potentially the most iconic piece of art in the world, and it did not disappoint. It was all breathtaking. I was less of a fan of The Last Judgement as I was of the ceiling, but it is all amazing and at a tremendous scale. I stood for probably fifteen or twenty minutes taking it all in.

As I mentioned, you aren’t allowed to talk or take pictures, so apologies for none of my crude photographic representations of the artwork.

After exiting the Chapel, you walk down some more super long corridors and wind your way through some confusing hallways. I found my way out and decided to go back around into the museum of paintings. They had a Da Vinci and a Caravaggio. I’ve become a big fanboy of Caravaggio on this trip.

Caravaggio’s Deposition of Christ

I then began walking through another museum, but I had no idea what I was looking at. I think they were early Christian carvings and relics, similar to what we’d seen at the catacombs. At this point I was tired and overwhelmed and hungry, so I decided to exit rather than continue. I walked out of the museum, descended the famous double helix staircase, left.

Exiting down the crazy staircase

As I walked to the bus stop, I had the privilege of actually being able to run to the bus as I approached and get on, rather than just helplessly watching it pull away. I rode along the Tiber and thought about stopping for lunch, but instead went back to the apartment and getting sandwiches for everyone.

That afternoon, Allison worked, and after a long nap, the boys and I went to the playground to pass the time before getting some gelato together.

In the evening I cooked up some mushroom risotto and a salad with a simple lemon and olive oil dressing. We ate sporadically between Allison’s calls. We kept the boys up later to try the strategy of trying to make the time adjustment when we get back a little less dramatic. We will see if it works.

Dinner of Mushroom Risotto and Salad

Tomorrow, is our last full day in Italy. We are ready to get back, but it still is bittersweet leaving. It’s going to be a wild day of packing, work, and travel prep, but I’m still hoping we can cram some memorable moments into the mix.