Non Vedo Il Papa

Today we had a plan, and it seemed to be a plan that might actually work. It was Wednesday, and the last day of our Roma Pass. We had been told that Wednesday is a good day to go to the Vatican Museums, because the Pope holds a mass, and all the Catholic tourists go to that in the hope of seeing him. Meanwhile, we heathens sneak in and take in the museums. To that end, we also decided to forego the second B of our B & B, which isn't served until 8.30, and go out early, to be near the head of the queue. The trip to the Vatican would be simple: a Metro trip from the station nearby that we already know.  We were up and ready even earlier than expected, setting out at about 7.45. It meant we had time to have breakfast at a cafetteria round the corner. Fortified, we continued to the station, took the train for 4 stops, and got off at the right place. So far, so good!

As we were following the crowds, a nice young gentleman hailing

Almost all the ceilings are pretty amazing

from the Indian sub-continent asked if we needed any help or directions for the Vatican. He had an official badge, so Stephen asked about the Skip-the Line tickets. We were too late back into town last night to get any from the tourist kiosks, and an ATM purporting to sell them this morning had clammed up when we tried it. I was reasonably confident about just braving the line at that time of the morning, but Stephen was prepared to pay the extra, so that's what we did. For some reason that I couldn't follow due to a particularly thick accent, we were given stickers to wear and told to come back in an hour (9.30) to be taken to the right place. So we ambled off for a walk around the block and a coffee in the morning sun, and we went back an hour later.  After a bit of mucking around, we were led up the road to the museum entrance, taken inside, and shown where to go. It was very easy and straightforward... But I didn't see any lines that we had skipped, except for one that was two people long. Our plan was too good: come early on a Wednesday morning, and you don't even have to skip the line.

Anyway, we were inside. And I realised that my vague impression of what a Vatican Museum would be was off the mark. I had assumed it would be all Pope-oriented: Papal relics, Papal paintings and sculptures, Papal memorabilia, and loot plundered in the name of the Pope. There was some of that, but the first room we looked as was the Egyptian Room, and - quite unexpectedly - it turned out to be an actual museum! Etruscan treasures, cuneiform tablets, fragments of the Qumran scrolls, etc. Then also a whole lot of Greek and Roman sculptures, paintings and tapestries of the Bible, the whole kit and caboodle. All the Popes really wanted to put their marks on the place, and kept adding collections. Finally you get to the part everyone really comes for: the Sistine Chapel. This was actually the only thing Stephen had wanted to see; I wasn't really that fussed, to tell the truth - just another famous painting that you could probably see more clearly in books than in real life. But honestly, I was surprised at how impressed I was. The colours were bright, the pictures were clear, everything was visible (no restoration work or scaffolding), it was crowded but not uncomfortably so, there was no sense of rush... It was what you would hope but not expect it to be like. I didn't realise so many painters had been involved: Michelangelo only did the ceiling, but there were frescos by Botticelli and others round the walls too. The lower parts of the walls had no pictures but only paintings of curtains, and even they were beautifully done! Good job, well done that man. I am very glad to have seen the Sistine Chapel after all.

We had spent about two hours going round the museum - the bare minimum, really - but it was a bit too early for a proper lunch, so we had some coffee and cake and left through the bookshop.  We found ourselves exactly where we had gone in, and since we didn't intend to visit St Peter's Basilica, that was the Vatican over and done with. But we still had some time left of the 72 hours of the Roma Pass, (the Vatican wasn't included, it being a completely different country and all) and another attraction was close-ish, so we started walking there.

Inside the walls of Castel Sant'Angelo

This was the Castel Sant'Angelo, and it had been suggested by the information kiosk person who sold us the Roma Pass. Since we hadn't yet seen any Italian castles, and when we looked it up, it seemed reasonably interesting, we kept it on the itinerary. It was built as the emperor Hadrian's mausoleum, and it has never fallen into disrepair like so many other ancient Roman buildings, because it has been in continuous use: as a fortress, as a prison, as Papal apartments when they had to run away from the Vatican for whatever reason, and other functions that I can't remember now. It currently has displays of military armory and weapons and memorabilia. We wound our way through and around and up the castle, arriving on the roof for a brilliant view of the city, and then came back down to have lunch in a dappled-light avenue of plane trees alongside the Tiber.

Stephen's knee was hurting with the ups and downs of stairs throughout the castle, and he toyed with the idea of going straight home from there while I continued with one more sight-see, but in the end he decided to walk on, and wait outside while I looked around the Pantheon. I had expected to get a taxi from the castle to the Pantheon, but by the time we'd walked to the end of the avenue and across the river, we had already covered a significant part of the distance there, and it was flat, so we just kept going. We soon arrived at a piazza in the middle of a maze of little cobbled streets lined with centuries- old appartamenti, and past the fountain in the middle, there stood a big round building with a classic Roman frontage of columns and triangular pediment on top, announcing in Latin that M. Agrippa had built it. And so he had, but later, Hadrian (busy lad) had enlarged it and renovated it beyond recognition. A few centuries after that, the Christians made it over to Mary and all the Martyrs, thus keeping the multiplicity idea of the Pantheon intact.

Roman apartment blocks

Stephen found a taverna on the square and had a beer while I went in. It was supposed to have been the last hurrah for the Roma Pass, but there were no ticket-sellers, no ticket-checkers. It was free.  Rats, no advantage gained! Never mind. The Pantheon is just one big circular room, with no stairs and not far to walk to see everything, so Stephen could have come in, but he didn't. Its main familiarity to most people would be the cupola, whose diameter is the same as the height of the interior (43.4m) which apparently gives it a  particularly harmonious air. There is a hole in the top for light, and so the floor is a very, very shallow dome (with a few holes in) until the edge, where it becomes concave - so that the water can drain away when it rains.

I took about 30 or 40 minutes to check the place out, and then I went and joined Stephen at the pub. It struck me that this was one of the ultimate Italian experiences: having a drink at the edge of a piazza, people-watching and listening to a busker, millennia-old structures in the background... that's what it's all about.

It's rounder than this in real life, honest

While we were planning this trip I keep being surprised at myself; I felt like an imposter: I never expected to be the sort of person who could visit Italy for a month. That's not what Kiwis do. We visit Europe, and travel round, and spend a few days or a week in a country, taking in several countries in one trip because it's so far and so expensive to come back. But this has been good. I have enjoyed the sensation of gradually becoming familiar with this city. First time out, you just gaze out the window taking things in, the next time you think, "Oh, I've seen this bit," then they become familiar and you connect them with other places and understand how to get from here to there. And now it's time to leave. We will have been  here 5 1/2 days/6 nights, but it's the longest stay we will have in Italy, so other places might not give the same feeling.  It'll be interesting to see. Tomorrow: we travel to Naples.