Still trying to get done before I leave of this year’s holiday. Only a few days left. I have our day trip to Pompeii, a couple days in Milan and today’s entry, Vatican City [wikipedia.org], to go. Tick tock.
Technically the Vatican City is another country, but really it’s part of Rome [confusion.cc]. It deserves it’s own entry however, not just because it is a separate country but because between Saint Peter’s Basilica [wikipedia.org] and the Vatican Museums [wikipedia.org] (and other things we didn’t visit) it is it’s own thing.
Saint Peter’s Square, and the Basilica, dominate the public view of the Vatican City. While the entrance to the Vatican Museums is a good walk around the outside of the city, everyone starts with Saint Peter’s square.
The church itself is massive, so massive you can’t even tell how big it is. all you can see from the square is the façade and the dome. It’s hard to tell how big it is. The total area of the church is 21,095 m2 (227,070 square feet) according to Wikipedia, and 136.6 m or 448.1 feet to the top of the cross on the dome. It’s over 500 steps to the top of the dome (unfortunately, or fortunately if you are my knees, both times we wanted to go to the top the line was hours long so we decided to skip it. It’s funny, I’ve been to Vatican City three times and all three times I have failed to go to the top of the dome due to the wait. C’est la vie.
The inside of the church is also amazing, even having seen so many cathedrals across Europe. It’s overwhelmingly golden and while there are lights positioned to make sure you can see the ceiling and domes, filled with sculptures and paintings, if it’s sunny the interior is bathed in amazing crepuscular rays. There is also a lot of art, two I want to mention:
Pietà [wikipedia.org] by Michelangelo [wikipedia.org], which, along with David [wikipedia.org] is his best work. And St. Peter’s Baldachin [wikipedia.org] which is that four posted thing over the place the pope sits or stands when they are in the Basilica. It’s hard to get a good look at Pietà because it’s behind bullet proof glass. A deranged man tried to destroy it by hacking at it with a hammer back in 1972. It’s still beautiful but there are too many reflections.
The Baldachin is so massive, in photos it does not look that massive (maybe because Michelangelo’s design for the church includes extensive use of perspective, with statues and decorations on the upper levels increased in size which fools you eyes, makes it hard to truly appreciate the size, until you see the people dwarfed by everything, and especially the pope standing under the Baldachin, what you thought was maybe like a normal ceiling is actually 28.74 m tall (94.3 ft)!
Besides Saint Peter’s, the other must see in the Vatican is the Vatican Museums. One of the most extensive collections of classical, medieval, renaissance and even modern art in the world. Second only the Louvre in number of annual visitors in one recent list I saw.
There are seemingly endless halls of statues —Egyptian, Classical Greek and Roman, renaissance and more. The Egyptian collection also includes other traditional plundered things: mummies, stele, various things from tombs. Then there are halls and halls of medieval paintings and renaissance painting. And the buildings themselves are works of art. It can all be a little overwhelming, similar to the Louvre or Uffizi, it’s best to spend a few days if you can. But there are a few things worth mentioning:
- The Transfiguration [wikipedia.org] by Raphael, is a standout painting in the collection.
- I love The River Nile (no Wikipedia page) an larger than life sculpture of the personification of the river with various cherub like putti and animals (like crocodiles) crawling over and around the river.
- The School of Athens [wikipedia.org], another work by Raphael, this time a fresco. You know this picture, everyone does, showing Plato and Aristotle walking through a ‘school’ of philosophers, engineers and others.
- The Gallery of Maps, by far my favorite part of the Vatican Museums, is a long hallway of large painted maps of Italy from the late 1500’s. But the vaulted ceiling, covered in intricate painting (frescoes?) in what Wikipedia tells me is the in the Mannerism style, but really looks Baroque to me. The way it’s lit (modern florescent lights but still,) how the vault color contrasts with the natural lights on the walls is amazing.
- The Sistine Chapel [wikipedia.org]. The big one. The one everyone is making their way towards. You can’t take photos and you can only stay a few minutes as they constantly urge you to keep moving, but it is as amazing as everything you’ve heard. I can’t imagine the years Michelangelo spent on his back doing the frescoes. I don’t think his Last Judgment fresco on the wall is nearly as good as the ceiling. To see the Creation of Adam in person is amazing and totally worth it.
Ok. There are numerous other works of art and architecture in the Basilica and the Museums, but I need to get to work cleaning up the Pompeii and Milan photos so that’s it for this entry on Vatican City.
You can see the full Vatican City, December 2023 [flickr.com] photoset on Flickr.