October 23 - Day 2 in Rome and we tour the Vatican

We set our alarm and were up early for a tour of the Vatican with "Walks of Italy".  As we waited for the tour to begin, we chatted with several other people that will also be sailing on the Island Princess.  Our meeting time was 7:15 am so it was an early breakfast the hotel and then just a 5-minute walk to our meeting place just outside the Vatican City walls.

Breakfast room at the Spring House Hotel

We walked over to the Vatican and headed to the entry point, the Museum entry door.  Our guide gave us headsets and we listened as she explained what we would be seeing as we awaited the opening time.

Our first stop would be to the Sistine Chapel so we could enjoy the room before it became crowded.
  The Sistine Chapel contains Michelangelo's ceiling and his huge "The Last Judgment" wall.  The Sistine is the personal chapel of the pope and the place where new popes are elected.

Pope Julius II asked Michelangelo to take on this important project.  Michelangelo resisted as he felt he was a sculptor, not a painter.  But he finally consented on the condition that he would be able to do it all his own way....and he had a much grander vision than what Pope Julius had in mind.  Michelangelo would portray the entire history of the world until Jesus.  It took 4 years to finish and it is spectacular.

No photos were allowed to be taken so the following photos are ones that I grabbed from the internet.

The ceiling shows the history of the world before the birth of Jesus.

The Creation of Adam is just one of the panels on the ceiling.

Michelangelo returned to paint the altar wall 23 years later in 1535.  The painting depicts the Last Judgment.  Christ is in the center.  The righteous on the left side of the picture are carried up to the glories of heaven.  The wicked on the other side are hurled down to hell.

It was peaceful as we sat in awe of Michelangelo's work.  There are benches against the perimeter of the room, which gave us the opportunity to sit, gaze our eyes up, and follow the Rick Steves book's explanation of all the paintings.  During this time there were maybe 50 other people in the room and it was quiet.  Later, when we entered the room again in order to exit the building at the end of our tour, the room was filled with hundreds of people and was noisy.  The early morning tour was well worth it to see the Sistine Chapel with no crowds and in silence.

After the Sistine Chapel, we continued on through the Vatican Museum.  It contains 5,000 years of history with statues, tapestries, maps and frescoes and paintings from Ancient Greece, Egypt, and Rome through the Renaissance.  Absolutely amazing and one could spend all day just in the museum.

Apollo, the god of the sun and of music.

It was definitely worth have an early-morning tour.  Our group was the only one in the Hall of Maps,

Tapestries line a wall that were designed by Raphael's workshop.  They show scenes from the life of Christ.

All of the ceilings are beautiful, too.

 

Our guide from Walks of Italy

At the end of the tour we entered St. Peter's Basilica.  We walked by the Holy Door, which is opened only every 25 years at the dawn of each Holy Year.  In the ceremony, the pope knocks three times with a silver hammer and the door opens, welcoming pilgrims to pass through.  At the end of the year, the pope bricks it up again with a ceremonial trowel to wait another 24 years.  We were told it was to be opened in early December this year.

The Holy Door outside

Terry on the inside of the Holy Door

Here's Pope Francis opening the Holy Door on December 8, 2015 inaugurating the Holy Year of Mercy.

Michelangelo was 24 years old when he completed this Pieta of Mary mourning the dead body of Christ taken from the cross.  It was Michelangelo's first major commission done for Holy Year 1500.

The main alter beneath the dome inside the Basilica is only used when the pope himself says Mass.

The alter is small in comparison to the enormous church.  The canopy over the alter, designed by Bernini,is seven stories high, which makes the alter seem much larger.

At the end of our Walks of Italy tour.

Lunch time featured pizza and then we rested for an hour or so before returning to the Vatican for the Necropolis tour.

The Necropolis tour is limited to just a small amount of people every day and we were lucky enough to obtain tickets.  We had to go through the Swiss Guard area to be allowed in the back of the Vatican.  Our guide took us down into the basement of the Vatican and explained the different areas we viewed, which included a few of the earlier church's column fragments, the tombs of popes, and the finale was to look into the room which held the tomb of St. Peter.

Where the Necropolis tour begins.

No photos were allowed on this tour, but this one, taken from the internet, is what it looked like to view the room that holds the tomb of St. Peter.

After leaving the Vatican area, we headed across the river for a walking tour on our own.

The Tiber River and Castel Sant Angelo.

It was immediately impossible to follow Rick Steves' audio tour as we got lost within a couple blocks after crossing the river.  Trying to find the street names on our map was difficult and many streets were closed for construction or led to a deadend square and we had to backtrack or pick a street and hoped it went toward the Pantheon, our first destination.

Lost in the streets of Rome

 A bonus!  We stumble upon Piazza Navona!  Just when we gave up the idea of finding it.  The piazza is a long oval and retains the shape of the original racetrack that was built around 80AD by the emperor Domitian.  Since ancient times the square has been a center of Roman life.

The Four Rivers Fountain in the center of the piazza is the most famous fountain by Bernini. 

Street artists in Piazza Navona

 Finally we reach the Pantheon.  It was built by Emperor Hadrian in 120AD as a temple dedicated to all of the gods.  It is Rome's best preserved monument.  Engineers still admire how the Romans built such a mathematically precise structure without computers, machinery, or electricity.

The side and back of the Pantheon

Inside

The dome was the model for the Florence cathedral dome, which launched the Renaissance and for Michelangelo's dome of St. Peter's and even Washington, DC's capitol building dome.

Then it was time to find a place for dinner.  We looked for the restaurant where we had lunch in 2011 and finally decided we found it, but it looked different on the outside.  Inside was very familiar to us.  We enjoyed a nice pasta dinner and then, refreshed, we decided we could find our way back to the hotel by walking.

It's now dark as we begin our walk back to the hotel.

We walked and walked, it was dark and impossible to see the map.  Finally we entered a piazza and discovered we were at the Trevi Fountain!  Oops!!  It was still under renovation and all encased in scaffolding, etc.  We had seen it in 2011 so it was not a disappointment to see it and now we could find ourselves on the map and head in the right direction (with the help of a policeman).

The Trevi Fountain behind the plexiglass and scaffolding

The Trevi Fountain on the day of its unveiling--November 3.

We then managed to keep walking in the right direction...toward the Vatican and soon found the river, crossed the bridge and then arrived at our hotel....exhausted and with many miles under our feet.

St. Peter's Basilica

It was a wonderful day!  Tomorrow we tour the ancient sites of the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill.