Rome

Day 1 - Art and Religion

A bus took us from the airport to Termini station, the main train and subway stop in Rome. I had directions to the hostel at which we had a reservation, but the weary trudge through the streets was made worse by the light rain that was falling. We checked in, got tour information and crashed after grabbing a slice of pizza at a local store.

The next day the weather was bad, so we decided to do some museums. Specifically, we wanted to do the Vatican Museum, and we put our names down for a guided tour that morning. A quick, mad dash across town on the unbelievably crowded metro and we hooked up with our tour-guide. The queue for the Vatican stretched for at least half a mile, but it was moving fairly quickly. The rain had stopped by this point, so it wasn't too bad.

The Belvedere Torso, over 2000 years old and still looking great. This fragment, thought to be of Hercules, was a favourite of Michelangelo. If it wasn't there, perhaps we would notice the other amazing sculptures in the 'Hall of the Muses'.

Now I don't know anything about art, but it seemed to me that every possible surface in the Vatican Museum was painted, frescoed, hung with tapestry, 'mosaiced' or otherwise made priceless and beautiful. It was a real experience, each room, courtyard and hallway contained a different themed collection. The most interesting thing I saw was a bronze statue of Hercules from the second century, which is unusual because most metal statues had been melted down for metal after the Empire fell. The reason this one survived is that it was struck by lightning, so the Romans were afraid of it and put it in a wooden box, buried it and forgot about it. The box had writing on it warning whoever opened it that it had been struck by lightning.

Inga, my tour guide in the Gallery of Maps. Virtually every space in the Vatican city, be it wall, ceiling or floor seemed to be covered in amazing art.

Most people go to the Vatican museum to visit the Sistine Chapel, one of the 'Artistic Wonders' of the world, and I guess I was no exception. After walking through a couple of kilometers of priceless art, we finally arrived at the Sistine Chapel. The press of people inside was less than relaxing, and even though the signs forbad talking, sitting and photography, the majority of the crowd seemed to be engaged in all three of these activities. I took the opportunity to take a few pictures before rejoining the tour guide at the back of the chapel. The work was amazing, but I guess I'm not enough of an art appreciator to understand why the ceiling was so much better than all the other amazing Art I had just seen.

Tourist gaze up at the ceiling of Michelangelo. He fired all his assistants and painted single-single handedly. It took him 10 years to complete, and he considered himself rushed.

From there we went through to St Peter's Basilica, and I had no idea what to expect. I can say without a doubt that it's the most breathtakingly grand man made thing I've ever seen. The sheer scale was incredible, and dramatic statues of saints and martyrs were scattered around in little nooks. The main alter was located directly above the grave of St Peter, or at least that's how the story goes.

People are dwarfed by the cavernous interior of St Peter's Basilica, the largest catholic church in the world. In the background, the canopy over the main alter can be seen. This is 29 meters tall.

We decided not to head up to the top of the dome due to the weather, and walked back to a nearby metro station and then back to the hotel. We had a slept for a couple of hours before heading to a nearby restaurant where I had (what else?) spaghetti.

St Peter's from far enough back to be able to see the domes properly.