Pope Postcards

Wednesday June 6^th

Last night we had a wonderful dinner with our friend Cristina.  She planned to take us to a traditional Roman restaurant, but that one was not open so she took us to a Sicilian restaurant instead. It was not far from our apartment, but the ride in her car was long enough that we were pleased that we don’t have to drive regularly in Roman traffic.  We’ll stick to the metro and walking thank you very much. The restaurant was really nice with tables in the garden in the behind the restaurant.  The garden was stunning with a tent over the tables and beautiful flower arrangements everywhere.

The food and conversation was wonderful as was the wine, a top Sicilian wine. We arrived for dinner at the early hour of 8:15 and the place was nearly deserted. When we left at 10:30 though, the place was buzzing with activity. I think I preferred the Silician restaurant to any Roman choice anyway. We avoided any foods that were too strange, although Katie saw the lady at the table next to us eating a whole baby octopus. It was sitting up on her plate looking like a Disney cartoon as she severed its tentacles one by one and ate them before eating the bell of the octopus itself.  It was pretty disturbing. 

I avoided the octopus and had a great tuna pasta dish as my main course. The appetizers were also wonderful – some round fried balls of dough, some flat fried bread with cheese and some stunning delicious cold marinated vegetables that Katie didn’t like, so more for us! The dessert was also awesome – a delicious light cannoli.  I love cannoli and this was easily the best I’ve ever had. Katie’s big ball of chocolate ice cream came on a stick and was coated in even more chocolate. It looked great too.  Paul’s said his lemon sorbet was great, but it looked boring next to the other choices!  By 10:30 we were all dragging, our bellies full and heads beginning to nod.  In true Roman form we asked for the bill three times and never received it. We finally just got up and walked into the main restaurant flagging down someone to pay.

After the late night last night we slept in a little this morning and then headed to Vatican City in the afternoon.  We took our time meandering through the Vatican museums and had a really great time.  The tour groups are terribly annoying, but you can easily avoid them and see some really interesting things in the museum before hitting the highlight of the Sistine Chapel. We love Egyptian artifacts, and while the Vatican holdings in no way compared to the Louvre, they were still fun to see.  The Greek and Roman sculptures were excellent, and the out of the way Etruscan holdings were both interesting and deserted. 

Once through the Etruscan rooms you begin what is called the “long march” through the museum to the Sistine Chapel.  There is a lot of great artwork on the way, and one of my favorites was the “map room”. This long corridor is painted with murals that depicted maps of the different regions of Italy from Silician cities in the south to Milan and Venice in the North.  The colors were bright and the room was fascinating.  I didn’t care so much for all the tapestries in the next room, but really liked the Raphael rooms after that.  About five rooms which used to be the private apartment of the pope were covered on all walls and the ceilings in frescos by Raphael. Stunning!  Katie LOVED the fresco on the ceiling of the Pope’s private study which showed a Roman column crumbling at the sight of a Christian cross. Nothing subtle there at all.

I preferred the fresco of “The School of Athens” which showed a lot of Renaissance personalities depicting Ancient Greek thinkers and philosophers in an Athenian school. Scientists to the right, thinkers and writers to the left.  For example, Leonardo da Vinci is shown as Plato.  The story is that Michelangelo was painting the Sistine Chapel while Raphael was painting this fresco and when Raphael got a sneak peek at it he went back and immediately added Michangelo to his work. He is front and center in the final work.

After the Raphael rooms we went to the Sistine Chapel itself. I had actually been dreading it since the guided tours are usually so obnoxious and the room is so crowded. However, the crowds while bad, were not shoulder to shoulder and we actually even snagged seats along the edge of the chapel allowing us to relax and take our time with the artwork.  Katie was even able to lay down with her head in Paul’s lap looking up to better view the ceiling.

This is the second time I have seen the Sistine Chapel and it has been restored since I saw it last. The difference is amazing. The colors are bright and the artwork simply pops out at you.  It actually seemed to me as through the entire ceiling was moving. The illusion of motion is strong as the figures lean out of their niches into neighboring ones and all the statues seem to be talking and visiting with each other.  Your eyes are drawn here and there continuously as new details pop out at you.  The entire sensation of seeing it is a bit disorienting. We were able to sit there for quite a while nudging each other as we saw new things and take our time discovering the artwork.  EXCELLENT!

Finally done we tagged along with a guided tour through the back exit and shortcut to St. Peter’s basilica.  St. Peter’s is simply over the top.  The size and grandeur simply defies explanation. Statues of cherubs along the bases of the columns lining the central nave are more than 6 feet tall. The main statues of saints just above the cherubs are 15 feet tall. The statues at the tops of the columns are 21 feet tall. I told Katie that if the statue of St. Theresa was next to our house, she could look in Katie’s second story bedroom window with ease.

The altar canopy is seven stories tall and made from bronze from the Pantheon.  The ceiling above the altar is 300 feet high and the top of the dome almost disappears from view.  You could put a 30 story building in there!!!  The altar is built above the grave of St. Peter himself and we were also able to see the sarcophagus of Pope John Paul II and the body of Pope John XXIII.  JP II was originally in the crypt but was recently moved up to the main floor with his beatification ceremony in April.  John XXIII was exhumed for his beatification ceremony in 2000 and his body was in such excellent shape they put him on display in a glass coffin. Interesting, but a little creepy.

The central altar is only used by the sitting pope, but daily masses are held in the Bernini designed rear region of the church. We were lucky enough to finish our tour of the dome (from which there is an excellent view of the private Vatican gardens) just in time to make it to the 5pm daily mass. How often do you get to attend mass in St. Peter’s??  The setting was stunning as the three priests serving mass were right in front of the huge Bernini sculpture “Cathedra of St. Peter” which is four church fathers holding up an enormous throne for St. Peter.  During mass, I was mentally transcribing the priest sitting at the base of the sculpture up onto the throne, and if he was up there he would look like a tiny toddler with his legs dangling freely.  Just above the sculpture is the Holy Spirit window with the dove of peace with bright rays of light streaming out. The sun was lighting this window during the service and it glowed magnificently.

The back half of St. Peters was closed during the service so it was quiet and peaceful. A number of religious attended the service, nuns and priests from around the world, along with faithful and not so faithful Catholics from dozens of different countries.  One of the interesting things about Vatican City is seeing all the priests, brothers, and nuns walking around. We saw a store yesterday that sold religious clothing and church supplies, with a big purple bishop ring in the window. I wonder if you need documentation to buy that??  During the service a toddler girl from India was fascinated with an elderly Italian nun and kept sneaking peeks at her, eyes wide open. I sat next to a young seminarian. The service was in beautiful Italian, but the priest summarized his sermon in English at its conclusion, which was nice. The general theme was that we all have special talents, so use them to better mankind.  I was really glad we had the opportunity to participate in the mass.

After mass we head out and bought Pope postcards for Katie’s grandmas and mailed them right from the Vatican city post office!  It was a lot of fun to write them right in St. Peter’s square and drop them in the Vatican Post mailbox.  There were people all over the square doing the same thing. Lots of Pope postcards are now headed to friends and family around the world.

We were actually able to walk home from St. Peters since our apratmetn is right in the neighborhood. We stopped for gelato along the way, and Katie and I got Nutella fredo  as one of our flavors which ended up being a huge hunk of cold Nutella itself, not nutella flavored gelato. I mean Nutella is good, but I can’t eat an entire cone filled with it. I ate the fruit flavor that I got with it and some of the Nutella but had to abandon the rest!