The Vatican and Saint Peter's Basilica - our last day in Rome

It was our last full day in Rome and we started it with 9:00 reservations at the Vatican Museum, one of Europe's top houses of art from ancient statues to Christian frescoes to modern paintings and the ever so glorious Sistine Chapel.  We figured on spending at least half of our day there and we certainly did, making our way through the 4 miles of displays, the Sistine Chapel, and through the entire Basilica including a climb to the top!



A tiny scale model of Vatican City, inside the museum



The Egyptian Museum was probably one of my favourite areas of the entire museum, I just found it most interesting probably because of the age of most of the pieces and the fact that we saw a REAL MUMMY! I have to say it was probably the coolest but the most creepy thing I've ever seen.  The practice of mummifying reaches its maximum diffusion even among the lower middle classes of Egyptian society during the 20th-21st dynasties (1200-950 BC).



Mummy cases in the Gregorian Egyptian Rooms of the museum



Statue of the God Anubis



Long hallway filled with Greek Statues



The ceiling was just as decorative in this hallway of maps



Walking into the Raphael Rooms of the Museum was just so unbelievable with the larger than life frescoes covering the entire surface of the room. These are not technically paintings - the color is mixed into wet plaster and when the plaster dries the painting is actually part of the wall. Can you only image the precision, accuracy and time that went into this?

Raphael Rooms - larger than life frescoes!

One of the most famous frescoes is the School of Athens.  Raphael honors the great pre-Christian thinkers, Aristotle, Plato, and company who are portrayed as the leading artists of his day.  Some of these are easily recognizable. In the centre Plato points upwards with a finger and holds his book Timeus in his hand, flanked by Aristotle with Ethics; Pythagoras is shown in the foreground intent on explaining the Diatesseron. Diogenes is lying on the stairs with a dish, while the pessimist philosopher, Heraclitus, a portrait of Michelangelo, is leaning against a block of marble, writing on a sheet of paper. Michelangelo was in those years executing the paintings in the nearby Sistine Chapel. On the right we see Euclid, who is teaching geometry to his pupils, Zoroaster holding the heavenly sphere and Ptolemy holding the earthly sphere. The personage on the extreme right with the black beret is a self-portrait of Raphael. 

School of Athens

Next up was the anticipated Sistine Chapel with Michelangelo's ceiling and his huge The Last Judgment.  There is absolutely so much going on in the Sistine Chapel that I needed about 2 hours to sit there with my guide book and understand the story that was being told.  In a nutshell here is what's displayed:

• 5,900 square feet of frescoes of biblical scenes
• Southern wall - The Stories of Moses
• Northern wall - The Stories of Jesus
• Eastern wall - The Resurrection of Christ
• The ceiling shows the history of the world before the birth of Jesus with the Nine Scenes from Genesis including beautiful pictures of The Creation of Adam and The Garden of Eden
• The altar wall is called The Last Judgment is a depiction of the Second Coming of Christ and the final and eternal judgement by God of all humanity.

The were no pictures allowed in there but definitely click on the museum link or Google it to see, it's unbelievable!  The Vatican Museum website is great for getting a more up close picture and remembering all that we saw!

We made our way over to the Basilica next.  Wow, wow, and more wow.  This is THE greatest church in Christendom and it represents the power and splendor of Rome's 2,000 year domination of the Western world.  It was built on the memory and grave of the first pope, St. Peter.  It was filled with people, all taking in the grandeur just as we were. 


Walking in the Basilica, mouth gaped open, wow factor set in.



Up in the Dome




On the top of the dome overlooking St. Peter's Square



The mercenary guards from Switzerland


There are many more pictures in the link with detail in the captions. It was a wonderful experience to have been in such an important and recognizable place in this world. After going through much of the church, visiting the crypt below, taking the elevator to the rooftop level of the dome and then climbing the additional 323 steps for spectacular views we made it back down to the ground and took the HoHo across the river to wander a few more of Rome's streets before going back to the Hotel to shower and relax.

We had covered A LOT of ground in 3 short but long days in Rome - 32 miles to be exact according to the pedometer.  We saw so much and were so happy to be able to have met friends there from so far away.  With a recommendation from Dino at the hotel desk, we had one final dinner with Matt and Korie where we went to a restaurant called Crisciotti on the Via del Buschetto that was absolutely fantastic!   


Last night all together, such a great time!


We left early Sunday morning back to Germany - a nice break from the heat I must say - but can definitely see going back to Rome as well as much more of Italy!  We has a fantastic time in this new country, ate delicious foods, experienced noteworthy history, walked a million miles, took a million pictures...you know just a typical weekend for the adventurous Hoffman's!

Link to the pictures from the day.