Thursday, April 2, 2009
Rome

The Vatican Museum:
I had been looking forward to this day in Rome for a very long while. This was the day I had devoted to a perusal of the Vatican Museums and after fortifying ourselves with a good breakfast at our hotel, we set out to the entrance of the museum on what turned out to be a fabulous day, weather-wise. As we drew closer to the museum, the crowds thickened until all roads led to the main entrance. Once there, we saw a serpentine line and our hearts sank. Were all these folks waiting for tickets? Well, they were, but we weren’t required to join the queue as I had the good sense to make online reservations and all we had to do was waltz up to the counter and pick up our tickets with the appropriate identification.

And so by 10. 15 am, we began our marvelous forays into the treasures of the Renaissance. To our enormous good fortune, we were able to join a tour in English and in the company of an extraordinarily competent docent, we were led to the highlights of the collection where we received some deeply perceptive and very informative insights into the works. The crowds were thicker than flies on rotting meat and I have to admit that I often felt overwhelmed by them. However, I tried hard to focus on the works of art and to blot out the annoyance of jostling high school kids and the mutterings of a plethora of foreign languages all around me.

It is impossible for me to recount the wealth of information I received on this tour but here are some gems that resonate in my memory:

–the most precious marble in the world is a deep purple color. It is called porphyry and is quarried in the heart of the Egyptian desert in an area so inaccessible and inhospitable that the marble was more precious than gold in ancient times. 90% of the world’s porphyry is in the Vatican. In fact, so liberally was it used during the Renaissance that it became extinct and there is no more porphyry available anywhere in the world today! Who knew???

–the two most important pieces of marble sculpture in the Vatican Museum are the Apollo Belvedere and the Laocoon. Both were stolen by Napoleon from Italy and stayed in France until the disgraced emperor was made to return the treasures to the various museums he had looted after his military campaigns. Part of the Laocoon’s arm had remained missing for centuries and was only found early in the 20th when its exact position was ascertained–a position that had been predicted by the genius that was Michelangelo as early as the 1500’s–a prediction that had been disregarded until the finding of the arm proved it (and him) correct.

–the Raphael Tapestries, commissioned by Pope Leo X, cartoons of which are in the V&A Museum in London, are no longer in the Sistine Chapel where they were intended to be placed. They are in the long Tapestry Gallery through which visitors pass en route to the Sistine.

–so many of the characters depicted in the nude in The Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo later had clothing painted on them by his students as the nudity offended the sensibilities of contemporary visitors to the chapel.

–my very favorite character on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is called the Delphic Sibyl. She has the most angelic face and expression and seeing the Sistine Chapel ceiling again after 22 years during which time it has been so brilliantly refurbished made me fall in love with her all over again.

–Raphael originally painted The School of Athens as a fresco in a neighboring room while Michelangelo was hard at word on his back on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. When, seven years later, his work was ready to be revealed to the public, Raphael was feverish with excitement as he could not wait to see what the master had produced. When he saw the Sistine ceiling, he was so overwhelmed that he ordered a part of The School of Athens to be plastered afresh. He then painted in the character of Michelangelo seated at the base on the steps–his small tribute to the ingenuity of the Master.

–the Swiss Guards who form the security corps for the Papal community must be: Swiss, born legitimately to two Catholic parents, under 25 and unmarried at time of recruitment, celibate for the rest of their lives.

Llew and I were so completely exhausted visually by the glories of the Renaissance as spelled out on the walls of the Vatican Museum that we were speechless for a long while after we had studied its most famous works. We were also starving and were delighted to come upon Dino and Tony’s Hosteria in the vicinity of the Vatican where we ordered pizzas and beer and chatted over all we had seen that morning.

It was about 3. 30 pm when we were done and we were sorely tempted to return to our hotel for another siesta but I was afraid to do that as the crowds of the previous day had hinted to me that it would be difficult to get seats to the Pope’s mass later than evening despite the fact that we had tickets. I suggested to Llew that we should walk to St. Peter’s Piazza to get a grip over the situation. And what a good thing we did just that!

St. Peter’s Square had a long line of people winding all around it and it was only then that we realized that the 6 pm Mass was not going to be said in the open air but inside the Basilica! And if we wanted to get anywhere inside we’d have to join the line though it was not even 4 pm. I have to admit that I almost chickened out at the prospect of having to stand in line for over two hours–not after having been on our feet for four hours already in the Vatican Museum! Well, here too, we were lucky, for somehow Llew made friends with an American man who invited us to join him in the queue rather close to its beginning and at about 4 pm when the security gates opened, we found ourselves at the very top. Within no time at all, we were seated inside the Basilica in choice seats about twelve rows from the front in the midst of an international congregation that was jabbering in every language under the sun.

A Papal Mass at the Vatican:
It was with deep excitement, then, that we took in the spectacle of St. Peter’s interior. Bernini’s genius was evident at every turn in the mortuary sculpture, the bronze baldachino or altar canopy and in the grandeur of the marble columns and inlay wherever your eye would rest. It was very comfortable indeed on the chairs in the company of the serene Swiss Guards who swarmed all around us.

At exactly 6 pm, the priestly entourage walked down the aisle with Pope Benedict XVI at the very end of the troupe. He is a stately figure, tall and very elegant and has a very pleasant and rather benevolent smile. He was roundly cheered by the congregation and I even heard a few “Viva Il Papas” around me as the Italians in the congregation greeted his arrival. Llew and I were really pleased to be part and parcel of such a unique and privileged moment when our beloved Pope JPII was remembered and prayed for by his flock who, four years after his death, have grown in affection towards him. Most enthusiastic of all were the Polish contingents who had traveled across the continent to be present on this occasion. They made their presence felt with banners and their voices raised in song.

For Llew and me, the greatest joy was to be able to listen to Holy Mass celebrated by none other than the Holy Father in the very seat of Roman Catholicism, St. Peter’s Basilica. Never in our wildest dreams did we ever think we would be in such a fortunate position on our travels and we thanked God for granting us this unique opportunity. Of all the many wonderful memories we have accumulated in our travels together around the globe, this one will remain right at the very top forever.

Then, the Mass was over and the Pope was filing out and giving us more opportunities for good photographs. Llew and I left St. Peter’s and returned to the streets of Rome where so many enthusiastic throngs were setting out in search of dinner. I was exhausted to the point of keeling over and, deciding to forgo dinner to return to our hotel where I badly needed to stretch out, we made our way home on what had been a red letter day for us.