Tuesday 27 May: Vatican and Lateran

Today Gary and I had timed admission to the Vatican Museums, my third trip there this time in Italy. The last time we had been there together was in 2005. By coincidence, we had scheduled vacation in Italy just a couple of days after Benedict XVI was inaugurated as pope. Most of the crowds that had come for John Paul II’s funeral and Benedict’s inauguration had left, but much of Vatican City was still under lock-down from the conclave, and huge sections of the Vatican Museums had been closed to us. These included the parts we were most interested in, the classical sculpture galleries. We therefore decided to hit these galleries first thing today. Gary helped me look for sculpture related to Augustus and his dynasty. We were amazed at the rudeness of the tourists. We saw several people not just touch works of art, but actually grab parts of sculpture and pull on them! I though one man was going to pull over a famous monumental statue of the emperor Claudius (Augustus’ great nephew, by the way). After the sculpture galleries we found ourselves swept along the human current that the Museum relentlessly directs toward the Sistine Chapel. All roads may lead to Rome; certainly all hallways in the Vatican eventually lead to the Sistine Chapel. Once again we admired the genius of Michelangelo on the ceiling and on the front wall, amazed to think that nearly a half century passed between when he painted the two works.

The Vatican is like the Louvre; it’s just too big to see everything in one visit. After guzzling a couple of bottles of water (it was again really hot in Rome), we ate a quick lunch of pizza in Prati, the neighborhood near the Vatican where we had stayed three years ago. Then we caught a variety of subways to go to the Lateran. Tickets to the Vatican Museum will also get you into the Lateran Museum, so we thought we’d check it out. Besides, being a Borromini freak, I love the Lateran and am always glad to go there. Good thing, too; the nuns told us that the Lateran Museum is closed on Tuesdays. We went home for dinner of salad, and Gary cleaned the apartment while I wrote up some notes. Luckily for me, Gary is much better about cleaning than I am.