Day 6

[unforth]

The catch phrase for today has definitely been, "oh for fucks sake..." It seemed like every time I turned around, another thing was happening that this was the only real response for: oh, for fucks sake, why are there so many tour groups in my way? oh, for fucks sake, why do I have to walk all the way around the Vatican again? oh, for fucks sake, why is this conversation still continuing when our cell phone minutes cost a fortune here? oh, for fucks sake, where is my ATM card? Yet despite these and more tribulations, it all worked out in the end, and there was something very relieving and very calming about taking a deep breath, letting out a sigh, rolling my eyes, and muttering, "oh, for fucks sake..."

The day started out pretty early. We had pre-booked tickets at the Vatican Museums for a 10:30 entry, and I wanted to walk, so I headed over there. Not long after I began my journey, I realized I was out of cash, so I stopped, and discovered that the slot in my wallet reserved for my debit card was conspicuously empty. I started to grab my other card and phone to call and cancel, when I took a pause and thought about where I could have left it, and realized there was only one place: Babington's Tea House. Fortunately, this was only a few minutes out of my way and not far at all from where I was when I made this discovery, I ducked in minutes after they opened, my waitress from yesterday saw me and promptly opened the drawer and handed me my card, with a "hey, forget something?" kinda look. What really what could have been a very upsetting disaster ended up not being a big deal at all, and I was left to think about the vagaries of chance. I didn't HAVE to try to get cash at that exact moment, and at any other point in the day going to Babington's would have been very inconvenient. What if I hadn't tried til this evening? Would I have remembered where I'd last used it? So I thanks whatever star smiles down on me, and went on with my day.

I met mom outside the Vatican Museums - she took a cab, I walked - and I marveled at the incredibly long line - one of the longest I've seen - that we didn't have to stand in. With our prepayed admission, we walked pretty much right in. It was awesome. Wes and Sue, who told us about this at the hotel? I may never see you guys again, and you are certainly not reading this, but THANK YOU!!! (it's the thought that counts, right?)

So. The Vatican is a complex on the west side of the Tiber. It's made up of a few buildings, but the primary ones are St. Peters Basilica, and the Vatican Museums. Basically, at various points in time, different collections have been assembled, and now all of these are in different "museums" that are actually all part of the same complex. There's a LOT to see (though, contrary to what my book suggested, it is very far from being one of the most exhausting museums I've ever been to.) These "museums" include one of the "must see" places of the city, namely the Sistine Chapel, and the result is that the Vatican Museums are permanently completely mobbed with people. In order to deal with this crowd control issue, the authorities funnel every one through a pretty simple main path, and you branch off from this main path in order to see some of the museums; others you don't get a choice about and end up just walking through. And that's where our troubles began...

Last night, mom and I had gone through and picked out which of the different options we most wanted to see. In truth, there wasn't anything that didn't sound at least a little interesting, but both of our different travel guides made it sound like trying to do it all in one visit was lunacy, so we picked out a few that sounded like those we'd most want. This included the Museo Pio-Clementino (Greek and Roman); the Pinocoteca (paintings); the Museo Gregoriano Estruco (Etruscan); the Braccio Nuovo (Greek and Roman); the Museo Gregoriano Profano (even more Greek and Roman); the Museo Pio Christiano (early Christian artifacts); the Museo Missionario Etnologico (things gathered from all over the world by Missionaries); and of course the Raphael Rooms (a former popes chambers completed painted by Raphael) and the Sistine Chapel.

Mom's book had warned us about the crowd control, but we were pretty sure we'd be able to get back around, so we decided to start with what we assumed would be busiest spots: the Raphael Rooms and the Sistine Chapel.

Little did we know that pretty much as soon as we started this process, we were in the crowd control system. By the time we did realize it (which didn't take long) we'd already gone by the Museo Pio-Clementino and the Museo Gregoriano Etrusco. Instead, we'd been routed in to the Galleria dei Candelebri, which was basically a long room completely chuck full of random Greek and Roman sculptures and fragments. It was okay. From there, we were forced by the vast tide of groups of oblivious tourists on in to the Galleria degli Arazzi, which housed some lovely old tapestries, and then into the Galleria delle Carte Geografiche. I'd kinda wanted to see this Gallery anyway, and it rewarded my interest and our being forced there; this long gallery is painted on every wall with maps of places in Italy, and on the ceilings with related pictorial scenes. It's very beautiful, and I could have wished I could spend some time there when no one was around, just figuring out what all the images on the ceiling showed and how they related to the maps, but it was not to be: the crowd pressed inexorably forward, and we went with it.

From there, we were led in to some rooms painted by less famous people, such as the Sala Sobieski and the Hall of the Immaculate Conception. All of these were pretty awesome, but then we turned a corner in to the Raphael Rooms, and really, for me, these were the highlights of the day. Floor to ceiling paintings, roofs completely covered, with bright colors and motifs of various religious incidents. They were really spectacular - I love Raphael, he's awesome. Not my favorite ninja turtle (that's Donatello) but definitely one of my favorite artists. I particularly liked the room that depicted the fire of Borgia, and there was a neat painting over a window of an angel (Saint?) in a jail cell. I also wish it had been easier to photograph the lower part of the walls, which were painted to look like they had bronze reliefs, but unfortunately there were almost always too many people in the way.

After the Raphael rooms we were steered to the Apartmento Borgia. The crowd thinned here - I think there was a bypass - which suited us fine. These rooms are dedicated to modern religious art, which didn't interest me much (ie, Chagall, Matisse, Ensor, and lots of others). Mom seemed like she wished we could spend more time there, and I was willing, but she convinced herself that we should move on, and so other than the rooms that were on our main path, we didn't see much.

This spilled out into a stair case that led us into the Sistine Chapel. I pretty much always go into the most famous pieces of art work with a lot of reticence. In this case, I'm not a huge Michelangelo fan, I'd seen some pictures that made me think it wouldn't be as impressive as cultural pundits would have me think it was, and so I'd tried to set my expectations kinda low. As such, I'd say they were exceeded. It's a pretty impressive room. Every inch of it is painted - I particularly liked the lower parts of the walls, where the walls were painted to look like they were draped in rich fabrics. Above that, there were scenes on one wall from the old testament, and on the other wall from the new testament, some of which we recognized (ie, the closing of the Red Sea on the Pharoah's army) and some of which we didn't (one of Jesus preaching). Above that, there were various saints and prophet and such. In the corners of the room, there were four triangular paintings (such as David and Goliath) and finally, on the ceiling, there were the works that the Chapel is most famous for, particular the birth of Man. I particularly liked the one of Adam and Eve being expelled from Eden, though it was hard to argue with god's giant pink butt (which turned out to be the lord creating the planets...). On the chapel wall, there was an enormous painting of various folks against the sky, the meaning of which completely alluded me, but it was probably the single most impressive paitning in the room. Also, it's worth noting that I gather Michelangelo only did the ceiling (or maybe the ceiling and the chapel wall?) so the scenes from the Old and New Testaments were done by other artists, as far as I can tell. Sadly, I took no photography allowed in the Sistine Chapel (it's obvious why; people are fucking IDIOTS about using their flash despite repeated injunctions not to, and if you let people take photographs in there they'd never fricken leave - it's jammed enough as it is) but published ones don't seem hard to come by; the only thing they don't make clear is just how high the ceiling is - it was hard to see details of a lot of the images up there. Also, just as a whole, it was really too much to take in.

The root from there is pretty dull in comparison to what has come before. The Museum of Christian Art had a few interesting pieces, but didn't compare favorably to the Treasury at the Cloisters; I can only assume this is a result of item choice. (only one display of Medieval enamels?? Seriously? I can see more than that in one room at the Met!) There is a (very expensive to visit) Treasury as part of St. Peter's, I'm betting that's where the good stuff is. From there, we went through the Vatican Library, which I gathered from daniel_mc had recently reopened. The paintings on the ceilings were nice, but didn't really compare to what had gone before, and other than that there was very little to see.

At this point, we stopped to get some lunch, and regroup. In the area that we were still easily able to access was the Pinocoteca, the Museo Gregoriano Profano, the Museo Pio Christiano, and the Museo Missionario Etnologico. However, there was also evidence now that we could get back to the beginning of the route. After the meal, we decided to tackle the Pinocoteca first.

My book had indicated that this was a large collection, which was not an accurate description. Only occupying one floor of a not terribly large building, the painting collection was almost entirely religious art, and though it technically covered from about the 14th century to the 19th century, it only had like three paintings from the 19th century. The strength of the collection was the early paintings. Religious paintings of saints, virgin Mary's, and little baby Jesus' starting from about the 14th century, and continuing strong into the 17th. This was easily the finest collection of former altar pieces I've ever seen, and it was pretty lovely. There were also some Raphaels, some excellent Titians and some of his contemporaries (ie Veronese), and various others. Almost the entire collection was Italian (though one Rubens had somehow made it's way in, and for some reason there was a portrait of King George IV (I think) of England. There was one artist I hadn't heard of who did a strangely appealing Annunciation in which the virgin looked like she was about 12 years old. There was one particularly lovely old Virgin and Baby, and a number of other fine works, which I'm sadly blanking on right now - oh no, the part where everything starts to run together is upon me!

After finishing the Pinocoteca, mom decided that she was too tired to continue, so she headed back to the hotel in a cab while I continued to try to get as much as I could out of my ticket. After briefly considering the three museums that I had easy access to, I decided to loop back to the beginning and try to see the Museo Pio-Clementino and the Museo Gregoriano Etrusco. Before either of these, though, I found an entrance into the Museo Chiaramonti and the Braccio Nuovo. Both of these are halls of Greek and (primarily) Roman statuary. The Chiaramonti is pretty much just a hall of heads, in two to three tiers, punctuated with some full sized sculptures. I moved through pretty quickly, but particularly memorable were a few different female goddesses who had drapery that I thought was particularly lovely, a Hermes that had a bronze staff, and the portrait of a child wearing kingly armor. The Braccio Nuovo was far more impressive, but sadly half the room was closed, which stunk. The half that was open was pretty awesome, and included some very complete (admittedly often at least partially reconstructed) full-size sculptures of various Roman heroes and emperors. There was also a female goddess who had one of the greatest attitudes I've ever seen in a sculpture (along with awesome drapery), and some very large heads of "Dacians" - which I should probably try to figure out what that means at some point. Oh! And in the long hall of heads, there was a large one of Athena, which still had it's glass eyes. Creepy but kind of awesome. And an Artemis with her bronze bow, which made me think of moonartemis76

From there, I found my way to the Museo Pio-Clementino, which is where the finest of the Greek and Roman sculptures were. This was where I got to become truly aggravated with the tour groups, who would all take turns completely mobbing what people were supposed to think were the most important pieces in the collection. Most of these people completely ignored all the other pieces, including doing things like leaning on them, and left me very frustrated and pissed with most of humanity. Still, despite this, I managed to get a look at pretty much everything. To me, the highlight of this collection was definitely a sculpture of Perseus holding up the head of the Medusa. There were also some fine sarcophagi, including one that had an enormous cover depicting Zeus (I guess). The group-acknowledged highlights were two different sculptures of Apollo, one of which I at least agreed with deserving it's attention. Oh, and there were these big funny looking dogs, and a strange sarcophagus with a lion, and a random frieze with an elephant in it. It was a pretty small but impressive array, really. On through the next few rooms, there was also a large bronze sculpture, and some broken off torso everyone seemed to think was a big deal (apparently Michelangelo thought highly of it); I was more interested in the muses that surrounded it, but getting a good look at them was very challenging.

I ducked off the main root to quickly go through the Egyptian rooms. There wasn't much here to impress someone who has seen the Louvre and the Met's collection of Egyptiana, but there were some interesting Roman sculptures that showed how the cultures were influencing each other; I particularly liked this one Roman one that was there which had an anubis head. There was also a room of Assyrian, but after the BM, it was hardly worth the glance.

Unfortunately, what I hadn't reckoned on was that when I emerged from this room, I would be back at the beginning of the Pio Clementino. I wanted to scream! The whole complex was going to close in less than an hour at this point, and here I was, trapped behind hoards of mostly sheep going through rooms I had already seen! I pushed my way through as fast as I could, but in the end, it was to no avail. By the time I got back up to the second floor, the Museo Gregoriano Etrusco was closed, so no photographs of Etruscan art for me...again...and then I was left with no choice but to follow the hoards back through the Galleria dei Candelabri, the Galleria degli Arazzi, the Galleria delle Carte Geografiche, and then I managed the bypass that meant I only had to get through the Sistine Chapel again, but it didn't matter; at 20 minutes to closing time, all the other galleries I had hoped to see were closed. (it's not MY fault they close at 3:20 in the afternoon...)

Still, I got to see a lot, including pretty much all of the most important works, so I'm pretty happy. I'd say the only thing I wish I had seen that I didn't was a sculpture of Jesus carrying a lamb, which dates to the 2nd or 3rd century, and which I only knew about because it came up on my visit to the Catacombs a couple of days ago. But it was not to be (this was in the Museo Pio Christiano, and though I craned my neck to see what was visible from where I was, there was no site of the sculpture, only evidence that I would have liked what I would have seen had I been able to jump the barricade).

This left me with a sizeable chunk of my afternoon, so after a little debate I decided to go Church seeing. In the next couple of hours, I went to, oh, 5 or 6 of the more interesting churches that happened to be along my way home. The first two I tried were closed (one because I was there at the wrong time, the other for no obvious reason). It was a pity, because one of the odd things about all of the churches here is that they are really not much to look at on the outside. For the most part, they have flat facades, with usually two or three sculptures in niches, and that's it. This had led me to think that the insides would not be as awesome as advertised. Little did I know! The ones I was able to get in to included (in the order I visited them):

San Luigi dei Francesi: this is not a large church, but the chapels have a lot of very fine art work. The highlight that draws the crowds here is the chapel that has the first three commissions ever done by Caravaggio. They were quite lovely, but as always it made me sad to see the vagaries of other tourists, most of whom go to this niche, take some pictures and then leave without noticing all the other lovely chapels. Ah well, more room for me, I guess.

Santa Maria Sepra Minerva: My book had said this was one of the finest churches in the city. Having already seen it from the outside, I'll admit I was skeptical. It doesn't have a dome apparent, it looks small and just not at all impressive. Even a little. But inside, it's spectacular. Stained glass looks down on the floor, and the ceiling is painted in that rich cerulean blue color that I know cost a fortune during the Renaissance. Every chapel was decked out gorgeously, though the most spectacular was definitly the one painted by Filippo Lippi, who is a very fine Renaissance Italian painted. I had already given a donation in the box (I try to always do so when I visit churches) - little did I know that I couldn't get light on the Lippi's unless I chucked a euro in the box next to it. It was worth it, though, cause it was lovely. All in all, this is one of the nicest, most impressive churches I've ever been in (always excepting the cathedral in Cologne).

Gesu: The founding church of the Jesuit order. My book didn't make it sound all that worth a stop, but I was walking by anyway, so I ducked in. It was nice, though the chapels were very dark and not terribly impressive. However, the ceiling paintings were breathtaking, done in a method that made them look three dimensional by doing a full painting on the ceiling and then having partial paintings layered over it, like when you do one of those "depth box" paintings and you can see through the outer layers that give it depth to the base image (like, there's a base image of a jungle, and then there are "further out" layers that have vines and bushes and flowers). It was pretty neat to see this done on a ceiling, and was a very dramatic effect.

San Marco Basilica: One of the oldest churches in the city, it's not nearly as impressive as the first two, yet it felt very nice and quiet. There were hardly any other tourists there, and there's a hidden tunnel that when I went down it I discovered the burial site of a martyr. Even though there were no staff around, I somehow felt more welcome there. It was a kind of odd feeling, but I'm glad I went in.

Santa Maria in Aracoeli: another of the oldest churches in the city, this one caps the Capitoline hill. It was pretty amazing, and had a warning I've never seen before: be careful not to trip on the tombs. Like Westminster and some other old churchs, pretty much every inch of the floor included the plaque for someone's burial. Most of these were worn mostly or entirely smooth, but some had relief images of the deceased, and it was in fact very possible to trip. The main site at this church is the Bambino, which should be a sculpture of Babe Ruth, but isn't. Instead, it's a fat little garishly painted baby that was originally made in the 5th or 6th century or some such (it doesn't matter, because the original was stolen in the 90s, the one on display is a replica) which has been "used" to cure the sick for the last millennium or so. I was unimpressed. I thought the nicest thing in the church was the paintings running down the length of the main area (the nave?).

From there, I tried to duck in to yet another church which was built on top of the old Roman prisons. My book said that for a small donation, I could go down and look at the jails, which were used to hold thieves, miscreants, prisoners of war and, at one time, St. Paul and St. Peter. Unfortunately, the church clearly got wise to the downside of only requiring small donations; now it's 10 euros, and you have to take the tour. I decided I didn't care quite enough to pay that much, and headed out to meet mom for dinner - pizza, and a cupcake from Sweety (a small cupcake shop near our hotel). And then to the room, to type this, which has taken an hour. Man, I am too tired today! :)

Tomorrow is pretty fuzzy. We're thinking a museum in the morning (probably either the Galleria Doria Pamphilj or the Palazzo Barberini, both of which have Renaissance and Baroque furniture and paintings), and then just some wandering around, maybe some more churches, probably another set of tea at Babington's, that kind of thing. I'm also planning to go out once it gets dark and do a round of the major sites by night, cause I've seen ample evidence that a lot of things will be illuminated awesomely. I'm gonna try to hit the Colosseum, the Vatican, Castel San'Angelo, the Spanish Steps, maybe some of the churches, the Vittorio Emmanuel monument, and the Forum. Not sure where I else I think might be awesome, and don't want to make it too long cause I don't want to be out later than I feel safe. It does mean I may not end up having time to write another of these posts tomorrow, though. :)

Pictures still uploading. Definitely too tired to link them tonight. Later days!