Monday 14 April: I take my parents to the Vatican, part 2

The circus that is Trastevere was in a wild mood last night; I slept less than two hours. I got up early and caught a bus at 7am to get to my parents’ b&b by 8; we had timed entrance tickets to the Vatican Museums. I got on the 23 bus, which should have gotten there quickly. The driver had other ideas. He apparently had the wrong number displayed, and was really driving a 271, which went not only in the opposite direction, but stopped for ten minutes at St. Paul’s Outside the Walls. It’s called that because it is literally outside the old city walls; in other words, not near anything. I eventually got to Stazione Ostiense, where I hired a maniacal cab driver with terrible taste in Euro-pop to drive me rapido, rapido, rapido to my folks’ place. I made it by 8:30, and Mom and Dad were ready to go. We got there in plenty of time.

If you ever go to the Vatican Museums, Google for a tour group that can get you timed admission. We just got entrance tickets, not a tour, since we already knew what we wanted to see. The line for the museums is sometimes three or four hours in the hot Italian sun (or cold Italian rain, depending on time of year). We got in pretty quickly, and were constantly amazed at how helpful all the Vatican employees were. I guess you’re supposed to be polite when you work for the Vicar of Christ on Earth. We walked over to an information desk, and without even asking, they offered a sedia a rotelle (wheelchair) for Mom. She’s been traipsing all over Europe, so we decided to give her a break in the museum. The wheelchair turned out to be a ticket to all sorts of services: elevators not open to the general public, cuts around roped-off areas, and so forth. We decided to go directly to the Sistine Chapel, which is always the most crowded place. In the chapel, the usual employees were yelling for people to be quiet and not to take photos. Then one of them gave over, grabbed Mom’s chair from Dad, and said “Signora, this place is reserved for you.” He then parked her directly in front of the altar with Michelangelo’s huge and amazing Last Judgment on the wall behind it. There was nobody else for ten feet in any direction from her, so we had a pretty nice view of everything. The ceiling with Michelangelo’s restored frescos astonishes every time I see it.

The Vatican Museums are really are plural: there are several separate museums, housed in the palace of the popes (they still live here upstairs someplace). It ties with the Louvre as the most incredible museum in the world, in my opinion. There are galleries of painting, sculpture, artifacts, coins, ceramics, and other art. Beside ancient Greek and Roman art, and the astounding collection of medieval, renaissance, baroque, and later European art, there are collections of ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern art, stuff from Africa, the Americas, and Asia, and even modern art. You need either to pick a few things in various places to see, or concentrate on just a couple of areas. We decided that after we left the Sistine Chapel, we would head for the Stanze di Raffaello, the rooms that Raphael frescoed for the pope in the early 16^th century. We got there fairly quickly (despite a few shoving tourists, who were not nearly as polite as the employees). My single favorite European painting is there, the School of Athens. Raphael has the great Western philosophers all gathered together around the two masters, Plato and Aristotle, and many of the figures are portraits of his contemporaries. Leonardo da Vinci appears as Plato, and Aristotle is Michelangelo. The other walls of the room, and the adjacent rooms, are also painted by Raphael, who is my favorite renaissance painter.

On our way to the chapel and the Raphael rooms we had traversed both the tapestry gallery, and the Cartographic Hall, which is a huge gallery painted with maps of the territories ruled by the papacy in the 16^th and 17^th centuries. We decided for on last gallery, the collection of Greek and Roman sculpture. One of the prizes of the collection is the Augustus of Prima Porta, a statue of the emperor in dress armor. I can’t go into the details of the iconography of this work or I will write a dissertation. Let’s just say it’s long been a favorite.

Since we had now been in the museums for over three hours, and were developing a serious case of museum-foot (it’s amazing how much softer concrete is, compared to marble!), we finally left and entered St. Peter’s Basilica, again by private elevator. Now, to say that St. Peter’s is a church is like saying that Versailles is a house. It is not only enormous (over two football fields long), but is dazzlingly opulent in its decoration. Not only is everything encrusted with polychromatic marbles, gilt bronze, and mosaics of semiprecious stones, but the work was done by some of the greatest masters of the renaissance and baroque, including my favorites Bernini and Raphael. Hanging over this immense splendor is Michelangelo’s vast dome. Just walking around the perimeter and glancing at some of the major works takes a good hour, and it would take days to really see everything.

By now, we were not only tired of walking on marble but hungry as well, so we caught a cab to Trastevere for a late lunch. We got off at Piazza Trilussa, and I showed Mom and Dad my apartment (from the outside; there’s dirty clothes everywhere), the bakery and toy store, and some of the other shops and eateries in the area. We walked down to Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere to see the church and fountain. Then we headed over to one of the few places open in the early afternoon (many of them close from about 1 to 4:30 pm and some don’t reopen until 8 or later). They know me here, and don’t laugh at my accent when I talk to them. We had antipasto: insalate caprese, with buffalo mozzarella, basil, and tomato; more seafood salad (Mom is allergic, so Dad and I ate this), and a big green salad to share. Mom had saltimbocca alla romana, in which a veal cutlet is covered with sage leaves and a slice of prosciutto, then sautéed. Dad and I both had grilled lamb with potatoes, a Roman favorite. They use really young lamb; I’m sure they are as cuddly as they are delicious.

Mom and Dad taxied back to the Borgo, and I headed home for some writing. Quick call with Gary, who assures me that everything is fine, and bed. I am beat; I hope it rains so people stay off the street and I can sleep.