So much of life comes down to timing. Being in the right place at the right time. Michelangelo happened to live in Florence at the time of Lorenzo de Medici and began to practice his craft of sculpture in Lorenzo's sculpture garden, the equivalent of today's "innovation incubators" ala "Silicon Valley". He also lived at the time of Pope Julius, a man who's maniacal ambitions made him seek out the greatest artist of the world and coerce him to paint fresco's on the Sistine Chapel ceiling instead of sculpting. Conceivably, Michelangelo could have languished in obscurity if not for the rich patrons that gave him the chance to blossom.
This morning, Sally and I walked over to St. Peter's, the Vatican, at 6:45 to be present for its opening at 7:00. No lines, few people. We brisked through security and soon were gawking at the immensity of St. Peter's Basilica, listening to Rick Steves audio tour. As those that have visited will attest, it is massive, ornate and ostentatious. Although fantastic to the extreme, I see the sweat and toil of millions of poor people tithed to the church, living in hovels while this edifice was constructed for a few with their money.
I was excited to see Michelangelo's Pieta, having read so much about it. There it was, to the right of the door as one enters the nave. It is amazing, and he was only 23 when he chiseled it from stone.
After the basilica, we paid our 16 euros for the privilege of climbing to the top of the cathedral dome. We took the elevator for the first leg of the climb, then the stairs the rest of the way to the top. It was fascinating to see the double wall construction, climbing the stairs between the two walls, experiencing the slow tilt of the dome as it reached its crest. From the top, a great 360º view of Rome is to be had.
The descent empties you out on the roof of the basilica where you can walk to the front edge, just behind the rows of statues on top of the colonnade. Here, too, there is a gift shop and small cafe. We bought a couple post cards to send to Bob and Sally's mom. Sally had a coke and rested her legs after the ascent and descent of all the stairs.
We rode the elevator back to the basilica floor and left St. Peter's. It was now about 9:30. Yesterday, we had tried to secure our advanced tickets to the Borghese Palace for Wednesday, as per our master plan, but found them to be sold out for the week. Lacking tickets, you can arrive half an hour before the next tour begins and vie for tickets available because people that reserved them did not show up. We decided we would try for the 11:30 tour, and began walking toward the subway station nearest our location, about half a mile away. Upon arriving at the stazione, we realized we would not make it to the Borghese Palace in time to scoop up any unclaimed tickets, so rather than waste the time and effort needed to chase those tickets, we decided to return to our B&B and talk with Elisabetta about the slow shower drain and lack of Wifi connectivity.
We found Elisabetta in her below street level office. We chatted for a bit, then let her know of our concerns regarding the aforementioned items. During our talk with her, we decided to have a look at St. Angelos, a church just a half mile away, the one that some Pope of the past built a elevated walkway from the Vatican to so he could escape when the Vatican was attacked. This same walkway was featured in the film "Angels and Demons". Rick Steves advises that St. Angelos is not worth the 10 euro entry fee to see, so we walked to it to check it out from the outside, then continued into the city on the other side of the Tiber, exploring up and down the narrow streets (we would call them alleys in America), marveling at the number and diversity of shops tucked into the bottom floor store fronts.
It was nearly noon. Our stomachs began making the decisions and soon we were seated in a little hole-in-the-wall shop splitting a tuna and tomato sandwich - 3 euro. This food powered us back to our room, where we both slept from 12:30 to 1:30, after which we got up and headed for the Vatican Museum.
We had purchased 2:30 pm tickets to the museum months ago, and had our printed receipt in hand. As we approached, we noticed the line was about 300 yards long. An official noticed we had our papers and guided us into the right hand line, which was moving at a walking pace up the street. We walked right up to the front door, where we were let in, bypassing everyone in line that had not purchased their tickets earlier.
Once again, we put on the ear buds and let Rick Steves lead us through the museum and again, it was excellent. The collection of sculptures and tapestries was amazing, and we inspected many closely, but I was excited to see the Raphael Rooms, in particular, the "School of Athens".
Amazing. Simply amazing.
Next, we were off to see the Sistine Chapel. The crowd flowed through exhibits of modern art, but no one stopped to look. I felt sorry for the artists that had their work displayed here, no one was interested. Everyone had Sistine Chapel and Michelangelo on their minds, including us.
And there it was. Stunning. The room was packed shoulder to shoulder with people, necks craning backward, staring at the frescoes on the ceiling. I had read three accounts of the painting, watched two lectures describing the work, researched it on the web and read and watched "The Agony and the Ecstacy". I knew what to expect, and I was not disappointed.
Sally and I found seats along the edge of the room and spent half an hour marveling at the work while listening to Rick Steves audio tour describing it and giving us directions on what to look for. A great experience.
Satiated, we jumped into the river of people flowing toward the exit door and soon were swept out onto St. Peter's square.
It was time for dinner. We had decided earlier that we would walk to Piazza Navona, the one with the Bernini sculptures and enjoy dinner watching people in the piazza looking at the fountains.
We retraced our steps of earlier in the day and soon we were checking menus at the various restaurants lining the piazza. The prices here are higher than restaurants in less desirable locations, but for tonight, we were looking for an experience more than a meal. We settled into a table on the edge, ordered a plate of spaghetti and bruchetta to split, and half a bottle of wine for Sally. We lingered over dinner for nearly two hours before we eyed the waiter and said "il conto, per favore". He brought the check, and we began wandering home, stopping for two scoops of gelato in a cone, each, along the way.
What a great 1st full day in Rome!! We had recorded 12 miles of walking on the iPhone, not to mention the elevation gain in climbing to the top of St. Peter's dome. Our timing, both purposeful and accidental, was spot on today. As we exited St. Peter's after ascending the dome we were amazed to see lines 500 yards long, where 2 hours earlier, there had been none. At dinner, we arrived just as a table became available. The only timing we were off on was hitting the street crossing lights.
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