Vatican't Move Museum

After a big day yesterday, we expected today to be even bigger. We got up early and arrived at the Vatican Museums at 7 am. I had to drop off my bag, so I didn’t make it back until about 8 am. We then waited in line for another two hours before finally getting into the museum. By this point, we were already fucked - especially Stef, who had been standing for an hour longer than me. We had hoped that getting there so early might mean the museum wouldn’t be overwhelmingly busy, but we quickly realised that this would not be the case. Although the museum itself was incredible, having to navigate literally hundreds upon hundreds of people made it that little bit harder to enjoy. The magnificence and artistry that went into every roof, corner, window and wall was truly unbelievable. Every inch of every wall would have justified a photo, and being limited to just 20 photos for this journal entry made choosing them incredibly difficult. I couldn’t even begin to comprehend the total number of hours that must have gone into constructing and decorating the place. Once again, though, the crowds made getting around - and especially reading the descriptions - almost impossible. By the end, Stef and I simply couldn’t be bothered trying. It may have been the two-hour wait that pushed us to the edge, but we felt drained almost from the beginning. We persisted and did the whole thing, but by the end we found ourselves actively looking for the exit. Nonetheless, there were some incredible sections. The museum begins with a special Ancient Egypt collection, which was particularly interesting for me. Given that I won’t be making it to Egypt on this trip, it was cool to get at least some taste of the culture one way or another. From there, we moved on to statues and monuments of Roman emperors and Greek gods. I’ve always been interested in both, so this was a particularly cool section and gave some fascinating insight into how these figures were perceived thousands of years ago. Seeing the stories of Greek mythology retold through enormous statues was amazing. Because the Roman and Greek names for certain figures are different, I often wasn’t entirely sure who I was looking at and with the descriptions being almost impossible to read through the crowds, I occasionally had to make an educated guess. We then entered what was, in my opinion, the most impressive section of the entire museum. The walls were covered with ancient maps of Italy, while the ceilings were packed with exceptional artwork. It genuinely felt as though they had run out of wall space because they had too much beautiful art to display, so they simply filled the ceilings with whatever they could fit. The lighting added another dimension, creating the illusion of solid-gold trimmings around the artwork and giving the entire area an almost godly atmosphere. Words really can’t do it justice. The video I took hopefully begins to capture what we witnessed. After that, we entered rooms covered in 360-degree murals depicting different wars and historical events. The entire room effectively became one enormous piece of art. It was incredible to stand in the middle and realise that there wasn’t really a single direction you could look without seeing something spectacular.

The final section was the Sistine Chapel. Although it was obviously impressive, I was actually less impressed by it than I had been by some of the previous sections of the museum. I understand the incredible age and scale of the artwork, and I’m sure having a guide would have helped me appreciate the history and significance of it more, but at the time, I didn’t feel it was worth continuing to battle the crowds for. The earlier sections had already blown me away. Overall, though, it was an amazing experience, and I’m very glad I did it. I just think it would have been even better in winter, when the crowds were hopefully a little more manageable.

For me, though, the highlight of the day - and probably the highlight of the trip so far - was actually St. Peter’s Basilica. Once again, every millimetre of space throughout the building was covered in artwork and beauty. But above everything else, the sheer enormity of the building is impossible to explain in words. Even today, constructing something of this size would be a remarkable undertaking, and I struggle to believe that we would be able to create anything close to it with the same level of detail and beauty. The fact that it was free also added to the appeal for me. Unlike the museum, it was much better suited to dealing with large numbers of people. We could move around easily and take photos without constantly being squished against walls or other people. The final part of St. Peter’s Basilica was a tour of the dome. Stef was in a rush at this point to get to her flight, so we decided to pay an extra €2 to use the elevator and skip the first section of stairs. For €10 in total, this meant we only had 300 steps to conquer instead of 550. The best part was getting to see the inside of the Basilica from above. Looking down from the dome put the sheer size of the building into perspective, with the people below looking more like ants. Unfortunately, getting a good photo through the fence was difficult. It also gave me the opportunity to see the incredible detail in the mosaics lining the walls ad ceiling. When you get up close and see just how many tiny pieces of coloured stone make up an enormous roof of artwork, it genuinely blows your mind. Even though most of it was designed to be viewed from far below, they didn’t shy away from the details. Every tiny section had clearly been given the same level of care as the parts people would see from the ground.

Eventually, we made it all the way to the top and got to look out over Rome. This really put the size of the city into perspective, as well as just how many enormous and historically significant buildings are scattered throughout it. In almost every direction, you could spot five or six buildings that immediately stood out as historical or cultural landmarks. We could also see the gardens within Vatican City. I had originally been quite keen to walk through them but seeing them from above actually gave us a better idea of what was there anyway. They looked nice from above, but I suspect I would have been a little disappointed walking through them, as much of what we could see appeared to be hedges. Eventually, Stef had to run to make her train, while I had to collect my bag and make my way to my accommodation. And just like that, the day finally came to an end. It was hard to believe after several incredibly busy days, but I had absolutely nothing planned for tomorrow. And I was quite keen to spend the day doing absolutely nothing.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t do the day justice with just 20 photos. There are plenty of things I’ve mentioned in this entry that didn’t make it into the photos, so apologies for that. There was simply too much to capture.Read more