The Fairytale Village (Day 9, Tuesday, October 29, 2013)

Theresa and I are happy to be in an efficient touring tourist pattern: lay out our clothes the night before, wake up with the alarm clock, get ready, go the the rooftop hotel dining room in Rome for a fairly leisurely and sumptuous breakfast, then either climb on the bus or gather with our group to walk.

Since the Vatican is very close, today we all walk to the Museum.  It is cool and we don't mind the long walk around the tall, old brick walls to reach the entrance.  Since we're with  guides, we are thankfully able to bypass the very long line as we are handed our tickets.  Our destination: the Sistine Chapel.

Tall walls around Vatican City.

Woo-hoo!  We've made it to the entrance!

"Sphere Within a Sphere," a sculpture in motion, in the Courtyard of the Pinecone in the Vatican Museum

Our group spent quite some time with our tour guides in this Courtyard.  Using the posters set up on one side, the Guides explained the details of Michaelangelo's paintings both on the ceiling and the 'altar wall.'  This was immensely helpful!  We then passed through galleries of antiquity and the "Map Room."

Magnificent, ornate ceiling in the "Map Room."  A person would probably have to spend a month in each room to fully take in the beauty and significance of each painting and sculpture.  We were allowed to take photos everywhere except the Sistine Chapel, whose 500-year-old frescoes are extremely fragile.

One of the maps in the Gallery.  This is a long hall leading to the Sistine Chapel.  The maps are 430 years old, depicting various sections of Italy at the time and seem remarkably accurate, given the skills of the mapmakers at that time.

Doorway between halls.

Every detail is unique.  What wonderful craftsmanship!

In the Sistine Chapel, we stood in awe of the paintings of "Creation" on the ceiling, and the "Last Judgment" on the Altar Wall.  The crowd was instructed to keep silence as this is a holy place.  The prior information from our guides was immensely helpful.  Michaelangelo considered himself an architect and sculptor par excellence (the best!).  The Pope of the time, Pope Julius, wanted his chapel decorated by The Best.  Michaelangelo protested that he was not a painter.  The Pope told him that he was The Best and he could figure it out!  Then Michaelangelo learned how to paint frescoes, a tricky process involving applying pigment onto wet plaster, before it dries.

There are nine separate paintings that tell the story of creation on the ceiling. The first three tell the story of Noah, the Ark, and the Great Flood.  These were painted first.  Michaelangelo designed the scaffolding that enabled him to paint on the 60-foot tall ceiling.  After painting these first three scenes, the artist was not pleased because the figures were too small to be adequately seen from the floor. The next figures were much larger with fewer details in the paintings.

The next three paintings of Creation show the creation of Adam, Eve, and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden.  God created them young and beautiful.  After they sinned, they are older and unhappy.  The last three scenes show God separating the water from the land, the planets, and separating the light from darkness.  What genius!  The ceiling was painted from 1508 to 1512.

I personally spent more time transfixed on the Last Judgment painting on the Altar Wall.  It is sobering to see Jesus sending those going to heaven in the upper part, full of light and happiness, and those damned to hell in the lower part, full of darkness and misery.  I feel that what will happen on Judgment Day will not surprise any of us: we have made daily choices during the whole of our lives, for good or evil.  We will earn the eternal bliss of heaven or condemn ourselves to the eternal misery of hell, after our deaths.

Since the figure of St. Bartholomew was pointed out to us, close to Christ on the Last Judgment painting, I realized I had not even noticed it the other time I visited the Sistine Chapel.  The saint was skinned alive!  In this painting, he is an ordinary man holding his sagging skin!  Amazingly enough, there is a statue of St. Bartholomew in St. Peter's Basilica.  He is also holding his sagging skin.  (I have found that the rich, 2000-year history of the Catholic Church is never boring!!)

On the side walls are large paintings of the Life of Jesus and also scenes of Old Testament chronicles.  They are very meaningful.  I will have to focus on them more the next time I visit the Sistine Chapel!

Our time in the Sistine Chapel is up and we exit to a courtyard.  We have a break to visit the restrooms and/or shop.

At last, we visit St. Peter's Basilica!

Shortly after entering St. Peter's, on the right side, is Michaelangelo's statue of the Pieta, or sorrowful Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus, holding him after he was lowered from the cross, dead.  Mary is larger in proportion than she would be in real life, or else Jesus is smaller.  Michaelangelo sculpted this when he was only twenty-five years old;  it is the only work he ever signed because others thought he was too young to have accomplished such a great work.

Obelisk in the center of St. Peter's square.

Main altar in St. Peter's.  The bronze candle holders are on the semi-circular fence around stairs leading to the first lower level below the altar; the remains of St. Peter are there.

Angels hold huge Holy Water Fonts in which the faithful dip their fingers and bless themselves upon entering the church.  Every Christian should make a Pilgrimage to St. Peter's Church a priority at least once in their lifetime!  I cannot convey to you the immense size and spirituality of this heavenly place! You must see it for yourself!

   Dozens of tall statues of Apostles and Saints have stood for centuries on the top of the church and on the top of the semi-circular colonade in the plaza.

The Baldachino, or canopy over the main altar, constructed out of bronze by Bernini, approximately ninety feet tall and weighing 93 tons!  Note the bright circle at the lower left: it is the Holy Spirit stained glass window.

The large and magnificent Holy Spirit window, in the extreme front of the church, directly over St. Peter's Chair (symbolic)

I'm standing in front of my favorite statue in the entire church, Pope Alexander VII, with his hands folded in prayer.  Directly in front of him is the golden skeleton of Death, holding up a golden hourglass, to inform him that his time on earth is nearly finished.

Detail of the statue: Death seems to emerge from the marble rock.  It is said that the skeleton was extremely difficult to place.

The dome over the main altar is over 200 feet high!  It was designed by Michaelangelo.  A few of our group opted to walk up to the dome (over 300 steps).  I declined but plan on doing this the next time I'm there!

 

The front of St. Peter's.  Note the statues on the top in the front with the large dome peeping over the top.  The plaza is set up for the Papal Audience tomorrow.

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The right colonade, very wide on the plaza in front of St. Peter's church.

 Statue of St. Helen, mother of Emperor Constantine who made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.  St. Helen went to the Holy Land and found the true cross of Jesus Christ.  She built many churches in the Holy Land.

There is time to shop and grab lunch in Rome.  Then we all board the bus for a ride in the countryside to the place of the Pope's official summer residence, the village of Castel Gandolfo.  This very small village is on the shore of a picturesque lake, Albana.

The Pope's summer home in Castel Gondolfo.

It is near dusk and we have a little time for shopping in the small shops before Mass.  There is a fountain in the cobblestone square.  See the narrow street behind the fountain.

Father Richard celebrates Mass for us in St. Thomas parish church in Castel Gandolfo.  The church is another work of art by famous artist, Bernini.

Main altar, St. Thomas church, a treasure smaller but equal to those in Rome.

Before dinner, we descend into a cave of a shop basement for a delightful Wine Tasting.  We sample both the sweetest and the thickest wine we've ever had.  It was so fun!

After another memorable Italian dinner, we walk around down around the narrow cobblestone streets and ultimately hook up with our bus.  Home again, to our hotel in Rome.  Every day here seems to be better than the last.  I MUST return to this Village of My Dreams. . .