Travelling Abroad Today

Did you know that if you spent one minute (and only one minute) admiring each piece of artwork in the Vatican that you would be there just over 12 years? We were there for over three hours and only saw a fraction of what is there, had to keep moving so really admiring it was difficult, and had a great guide who did his best to give us art and history lessons all at the same time.

We started the day with our wake up breakfast from Dainela and then headed toward our tour bus. I must say this was the best deal of the trip so far, because our fee allowed us to ride the bus for two days without paying another fee. Boy did we get our money’s worth out of this ticket. We caught up with our Vatican tour guide, Andrew at the metro station near the Vatican and walked up toward the Vatican Museum. Another factoid for you the next time you need some useless trivia: The Vatican is its own state and country, although you do not need to show ID or a passport to enter. There is Vatican security everywhere, especially in the Sistine chapel where they are the most noticeable asking people rather loudly to be quiet and SHHHHHHHHHH! everyone. However I digress.

We started our tour by going up this incredible spiral case, not stair case because it was more of a ramp. There are apparently several of them built in the Vatican the first during Julius Caesar’s time so that a person could ride a horse in or out and warn people in the case of emergency. After making it up to the museum level we went out to the Pine Cone Court Yard named that for the gigantic pine cone statue that sits at one end of it. There we got our lessons in Renascence painters, sculptors, and the Sistine Chapel. We also learned about Michelangelo’s sense of humor and how he liked to hide little messages in his works.

Our next stop was a quick breeze by the hall of busts. An incredibly long hall filled with ancient sculptures, mostly heads. As we continued on we found more marble of various types. Apparently 80% of the world’s marble supply is in the Vatican. We saw Nero’s bathtub, made of marble worth slightly more per ounce than gold. There were mosaic floors, in one room the floor was actually moved to this location and the room built around it. There are halls of tapestries including one that has an optical illusion. There is a door that Jesus is standing on in the tapestry, if you stand to the left of the tapestry the door is pointed at you. When you stand to the right of the tapestry the door follows you to point at you again. It is truly amazing.

We than saw Raphael’s rooms and the stories he told in fresco. Fresco is the type of painting that was done during this period. The artist would sketch out the design and then plaster over it and add the paint into the plaster so as the plaster dried the paint is set in it. That is why these pieces of art are still so incredibly brilliant all these years later. Of course the artist had to work quickly or risk chipping away completed sections which could be a big problem. Our last stop on the tour was the Sistine Chapel. There we saw the incredible ceiling fresco by Michelangelo and his “Last Judgment”. We stayed in the Chapel about 15 minutes before we had to find our way out of the building and through another spiral ramp down, and out of the Vatican. What an incredible experience!

After that we casually walked back to the red bus and let Dale off to see the bee fountain (his description not ours) and Carolyn, Cathy and I head back to Termini to enjoy a Gelato and Diet cokes. After talking about our day and all the walking we hit the B&B for a quick rest and then around 8 we headed to a neighborhood Tratoria for dinner. At Giuseppe’s we found out that Cathy is now hooked on Melon and Prosciutto which is a traditional Italian appetizer. Then we all enjoyed some of the most incredible lasagna. Our second course (because all our meals came as two courses) involved sea bass for Carolyn and Cathy while Dale enjoyed procutiio and I had veal with lemon. It was all some kind of good.

After dinner we headed back to the B&B where we all said our goodnights and crashed. In the morning we must say goodbye to our hostesses and get packed up to catch our train to Assisi which is the next great adventure in our travels. We are so excited about the conference and seeing another part of Italy. Stay tuned we will let you know how it goes.