A Holy Day at The Vatican

And what a day! Our plan for the day was to take it easy and visit the Vatican city. A short train trip from Termini station, very close from the hotel brought us to Ottaviano station behind the Vatican. When we came up from the Metro we could see part of one of the two hugh colonnade that surround Piazza San Pietro. Pope Julius II commissioned Renaissance architects including Bramante, Raphale and Michelangelo to build a new St Peters. As well as simply walking through the overwhelming interior, the highlights included climbing the 550 steps to the dome summit where you get an amazing view of Roma and seeing Michelangelo’s Peita.

After a few hours in the Basilica we walked through the two colonnade that surround Piazza San Pietro. A few more photographs and we then headed off to the Musei Vaticani and the Sistine Chapel. This next experience was all new for me and what a treat. The museum is an incredible collection of antiques, and where wonderment can fast turn to museum-induced irritable exhaustion. Getting to the Sistine Chapel took about an hour but the journey was well worth it. The colours of Michelangelo’s artwork were unexpectedly, extremely vibrant because of the restoration work that was done several years ago. The scale of the work was an overwhelming aspect of the ceiling fresco. Taking photographs was NOT permited.

We also saw works by Raphale, Botticelli, Ghirlandaio and Signorelli then at about 3:30 we sat down for a rest, pizza and a drink in the museum cafe. Walking all day on cobbled stone streets and stone floors your feet become numb. That was the day for us apart from a light dinner and Italian television.

Another Italian sign to contemplate. What does it mean?