Today we made our way back to the Vatican to see the Musei Vaticani and Sistine Chapel. We refer to this as our own little Vatican II.
We used a self-service cafe to pick up two sandwiches and a Sprite. Both sandwiches were firmly average, although Matt’s was very salty. No matter, we were on our way. For the first time in Rome we caught a taxi.
The Vatican Museum has something like 1400 rooms, if they all were open. It’s insanely huge, with a massive collection of all kinds of art. We saw hundreds of sculptures, busts, paintings, frescoes, tapestries, jewels, Christian relics, and Egyptian artifacts. We also saw a lot of zoo-like creatures called tour groups. By this time I (Andrea) was getting really tired of these. They’re everywhere, they’re huge, they bump into you without remorse, and they’re always in the way. They have an uncanny ability to stop in every bottleneck and doorway possible. Anyway, enough about them.
We saw some really neat stuff and took several opportunities to eavesdrop on the tour guides; if they’re gonna be in the way, we’re getting something out of it. 🙂 This is how we learned about a copper statue with an oblong head, thick neck, and curved torso that had been struck by lightning shortly after it was created. The Romans considered it cursed and no longer wanted to take it into war. They also didn’t want to offend Jupiter and melt the statue down, so they buried it upside down, put a rock on the spot of the upturned feet, and marked it “cursed, don’t touch.” This helped preserve it for us to see, since it was protected from the elements. It’s one of the very few sculptures we’ve seen that actually had its original copper color.
We made our way to the Sistine Chapel. It was much smaller than we both expected, especially after visiting such sweeping churches like St. Peter’s. No video or photos may be taken in the chapel, and silence is required. It’s an incredible work, and should be seen for oneself. But it’s incredible how hard it is to concentrate on one single scene, since there are so many on the walls and ceiling and they run into each other without real borders or separation. It’s a beautiful room that we are very happy we were able to see.
Before we left, we went back through security into St. Peter’s Basilica, because we wanted to get a crucifix for our new home from the gift shop. They have so many options! It was difficult to choose one (that was also reasonably priced), but we finally chose a simple wood cross with etching on it. We thought we might try to get it blessed by the pope, but it turns out he’s in France right now. So maybe next time.
We made our way back to the corner we hung out at the other day, and had some more strawberry gelato. No major people watching stories to report; there weren’t any nuns on the road today. The sky was getting a bit gray, so we headed back towards the hotel.
In the evening we met Kim and Wayne near the Spanish steps. It was drizzling just a bit, so we went to Porto Maltese, the wine bar/seafood place we’d wanted to check out. I (Andrea) have always wanted to pick out my own lobster, and I finally got to do it! I had originally named him Harold when we passed the restaurant a few days ago, a name I would come to regret since it’s so common in my family. But it stuck, and that night I ate Harold. What was unexpected (Matt: and awesome) was our friendly waiter walked me to the large tank and said “go fishing, it’s safe.” I reached in and grabbed Harold, who was hiding partially under a rock. His body was a little squishy. I pulled him out of the water and put him on the waiter’s tray. Harold didn’t look too happy. The waiter took him the back to the kitchen and made him delicious! He was steamed. Kim asked if I felt sad, I said no, he was tasty! 🙂 Oh, Matt had pasta with crab meat. No live creatures were caught in its making.
We had a very nice dinner with Wayne and Kim, shared a bottle of red wine, and during our meal the rain really picked up. Right at the end the electricity flickered out for a short bit. We finished up and made our way out into the rain.
We made a quick change at the hotel (in our little crappy room) since we’d been well rained on. The four of us made our way to a little wine bar east of the fountain that Matt and I really wanted to try. We had another bottle of wine and dessert. It was a great way to wrap up the day.
matt & andrea 