After spending the day in Florence, we woke up and once again found ourselves repacking the suitcases and making our way back to the train station. We bought two tickets, found some lunch and hopped onto the train to Roma, thats Rome to all of you non-Italian speakers. Over our trip we spent a lot of time on trains and spent the extra money to take the express trains over the local service trains that stop at almost every small town along the way, with limited time we decided that time out weighed the cost of a couple upgrades.
When traveling to Italy in particular you have to do a little research on what days and times the attractions are actually open to the public; some places close mid afternoon, some places are closed on Mondays. We knew we had to get to Rome as early as possible to drop off our bags and hike over to Vatican City, if we didn't get tickets before 4 we wouldn't get to go in at all while there since it was scheduled to be closed the following day.
We enjoyed the train ride through the country side, it was amazing to see some of the ancient infrastructure from the Roman Empire still in place.
Once at the train station we proceeded to the taxi line, we were approached by a driver and skipped the line....don't skip the line...it's a scam for those that may find themselves in Rome. I guess he pegged us for people in a hurry and wouldn't fight to hard on his lowballed estimate vs his "actual" price. Once at the Hotel, Hotel Portoghesi, we were given directions and were on our way to Vatican City.
We knew we were cutting it close to get to that section of town and also through the ticketing, and the following day tours were closed for a special event, so we were practically running. Once we got to the city limits we were approached by a tour guide that was trying to fill the last tour of the day provided by a affiliated group. We decided to go ahead and join the group, since we wouldn't have enough time to see the highlights on our own since the buildings were a maze to navigate.
We enjoyed our tour immensely, the guide did a great job of directing our attention to the most important parts of the museums and the church. We would like to go back with more time to actually walk the gardens and some of the other parts in the museum that were left untouched.
The guide did a wonderful job of explaining the complex history of the Catholic Church. We found him humorous, and did a good job of portraying the interactions between some of the greatest Renaissance artists and the Catholic leaders. J had studied Art History in college and was very good at pointing out works of art all through out our trip, this was no different. Me, I have no idea for most art, having no real education in it besides having a general idea of different art styles/periods, but I certainly can appreciate 500+ year old sculptures and paintings.
As in most of our tours, the art wasn't just sculptures or paintings on the wall....sometimes it was the floor, the walls themselves and the ceilings.
We were torn about the church seeing the importance of keeping these pieces and various collections, versus the tithes they collected from those that had nothing to give to begin with. The money spent to build, restore, commission, and the upkeep of the lavish art could have feed and helped so many that had nothing but the love for their religion.
It was also crazy to think about that some of the areas (like on the ceilings and the walls) the paintings that are currently there were not the original. Some of the areas have been painted numerous times, depending on what the Pope and other church leaders thought were appropriate for the time.
One Pope actually took a hard line on modesty....and all of the male nudes received fig leaves to cover their privates....some have since been removed, others have not.
It's amazing to think about all the little details and flourishes, and the time that went into them.
We weren't allowed to take any photos inside the Sistine Chapel, but were allowed to in St. Peter's Basilica. So I will leave you with those and of St. Peter's Square.
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