Southern Italy & Sicily
Day 4 - The Vatican
Monday, 5 April 2004
Tip: You Can’t Get to the Vatican Early Enough!
We didn’t.
We couldn’t find the bus we were told by the hotel. We couldn’t find the one the bus conductor told us (it was at a new temporary stop… explained on a post it on the bus sign). Finally some lovely African women, using sign language, helped us out… they too had problems. We got to St Peter’s by 9:30am and got into the queue for the Vatican Museum. It was over 2 hours long! and was nearly a mile long and 10 people wide.
The boys were champs! They barely complained. The problem was that we had an appointment to see the necropolis and really had to run through the museum to get out in time. We rushed until we got to the Map Room, Raphel’s rooms and then the Sistine Chapel.
The whole place was amazing… I wish we another day just for it. Not only is the artwork impressive, but the physical building is spectacular.
The Map Room is impressive not just for the beauty of the room, but the amazing maps of Italy, with little blow ups of the cities.
The Raphel Rooms are so much smaller than I imagined and the fresco’s really see to extend the rooms into the images.
The Sistine Chapel was so packed that it was hard to maneuver through. The boys were even impressed and had me explaining all the stories. They liked creation with God touching Adam, the Serpent in the Garden of Eden, Jesus with Simon and Peter fishing, Jesus’ baptism and their favorite was the Finally Judgment with the angels and devils. I was surprised how interested and engaged they were. The room is impressive, but again, smaller than I imagined.
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Then we split up, I went on my tour of the Necropolis and Angela took the boys to lunch.
The Necropolis was pretty impressive. The history is approximately this:
- Were St Peter’s sits today was a Roman Necropolis, a linear one (meaning a single road with houses for the dead, on a hill.
- After Peter was crucified, he was buried very simply in this Necropolis between two “houses” in a simple tomb.
- After Christianity was more acceptable, followers erected a small “trophy” over the simple tomb… only a few feet tall.
- When Christianity was finally accepted, Contantine allowed a church to be built on the site with its high alter over Peter’s Tomb. This wasn’t a small undertaking because: a) its a hill, b) they had to promise not to disturb the tombs to the families that had their mausoleums there. Basically, they knocked the roofs off and filled them all with rubble to protect them.
- The builders of the original St Peter’s actually incorporated the St Peter’s Trophy into the catacomb level as part of Constantines Chapel and another directly behind it… that you can see from above, right in front of the Bernini bronze canope.
- Over centuries, all this was forgotten… it wasn’t until 1932, that based on the final wished of a Pope that they decided to excavate the necropolis to prove if St Peter’s remains were indeed under the high alter… What they ended up doing was excavating about 80 yards of the necropolis’ main road and several tombs, until they got to the base of the “Trophy” and inside they found… nothing.
- However, a woman studying the grafiti on one of the retaining walls of the Trophy decoded “Peter is here” on the wall. Apparently, it looked a little patched up, so they decided to open it. They discovered the bones of an older (which was odd of the time, but fit Peter’s description) man with no foot bones. They deemed it must be Peter’s and put them back.
Not only is the story interesting, seeing the pagan and Christian tombs beneath the Basilica was very impressive, you even realize that you are walking up a hill.
After my tour, I took the kids and Angela did the tour. The kids where pretty done with sightseeing, so we played near a fountain, drew some pictures and chased some pigeons. The whole square with the colonnade leading to the Basilica was visually stunning. Then I made them run through the Basilica so I could see all the sites. It was staggering, but colder and emptier that I thought.
When Angela was done, we walked back to the Plaza Novona and let the kids run around. Then to a really good local pizza place where Owen ate a ton of pizza. To end the day, we walked to the Trevi Fountain to see it at night and the Panthon. Both were well worth the late night.
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