Largo Fontana del Sacramento

The name of this blog today is actually the name of a book by the Canadian author Ross King. I read this book a few years ago and would highly recommend it. It was a biography of Michelangelo and his 10 years of painting the Ciatine chapel.Ever since reading this book it has been on my bucket list. Today was the day of my semi private early morning tour of the Vatican museum and St. Peter's basilica. I was so excited I had problems falling asleep. The tour was expensive however it allowed one to get into the Vatican with other tour groups before the general public. We had to meet near the Vatican at a flower shop at 7:30 am. After the previous days Metro shut down I got up at 5:50 to ensure I would have enough time to check on the metro, eat breakfast and arrive in a timely fashion even if I got lost or had to hike it. The metro was running thank goodness. I arrived at 7:05 and there were a few couples waiting. I decided to grab a cafe latte to get some energy to sustain myself and the one couple directed me too a coffee shop nearby which was fortunate as there was a 10 minute downpour. When I returned, there were 14 people waiting. They broke us down into two groups with Cynthia leading our group. She was great. Very organized . She must have talked for much of the 3.5 hours of the tour other than in the Ciatine chapel where the current Pope has decreed that the guides must be quiet. I don't think we got into the museum until 830 but she used her time explaining the history of the Vatican, the Cistine chapel and the rooms painted by Raphael. The museum houses the Pope's art works and artifacts. Given that the institution has been going for almost 1600 years that is a lot.She directed us through halls of ancient sculptures, sarcophagi and tombs followed by halls of tapestries, maps and paintings before hitting the frescoes of Raphael a contemporary of Michelangelo's. The finale was the Cistine chapel. We spent 20 minutes there and following the guide's advice grabbed a bench seat on the sides of the chapel. It is beautiful. The 20 minutes flew by in no time. I guess the frescoes were revolutionary as many of the subjects are only scantily clad which represented a significant scandalous change in art. The Japanese company Nippon paid for the ceiling frescoes to be cleaned and now own the rights for the images for 20 years. There are docents screaming at people to put their phones away. I very surruptiosly was able to get a photo. Despite the fact that I was supposedly on an early morning beat the crowd tour it was still very busy. Our tour guide says that the Vatican is always increasing the number of tours allowed in. It must just be a Sardine fest for the general public compounded by not knowing where to go. The tour was expensive but it was worth it.

Following the Vatican Museum we were able to jump the 2 hour queue for St Peters Basilica. St Peters is enormous, the largest church in the world marking the site of St. Peter's crucifixion. It is enormous and beautiful as the walls are covered in Marble.

After touring around St. Peters for 30 minutes with our guide, the tour was done. It was 11 o'clock.

I was pretty tired by now having been on the go since 6 am. I passed on the climb up to the top of the dome. It was cooler today but it was very humid. There were two things I still had on my list. The Pantheon and the Trevi fountain. The Pantheon is an extraordinarily preserved building from 100 AD built by the emperor Hadrian to allow the worship of all the Roman gods. It is known for its dome for which many of the domed ceilings are based. An engineering marvel. After Rome adopted Christianity it was converted into a church and never plundered so one can get an excellent idea of what a Roman temple looked like. After a Rick Steves audio tour of the Pantheon I walked to the Trevi fountain for a quick photo before heading back to my Air BnB. The Trevi fountain was featured in Roman Holiday starting Audrey Hepburn. It is a tourist magnet.Read more