Mon, Lani and Justin's Travel Diary: 21-Apr-2011 Maundy Thursday at The Vatican

D'Rocios visit to the smallest state in the world - The VATICAN.

We couldn't believe it!!! It would be a long wait to queue up to enter the Vatican Museum... about a million people (hehe, just kidding maybe few a thousands coming from the different parts of the planet)... We would be staying for a night at Florence and we didn't want to stay in Rome longer. We decided to join the queue hesitantly... We’re wonderin, with the rate the queue was moving, we might not be able to go to St Peter’s Basilica which was also our destination for the day. Just when we needed it... A miracle suddenly appeared from nowhere!!! A lady approached us and asked if we want to join the group tour, so we can skip the long queue... All we needed was go to their office and book the ticket for the 3 of us. We probably wouldn't if we don't badly need it ... we thought it would be worth to try if we want to visit the Sistine Chapel at Vatican before leaving Rome.

Eur91.00 for the 3 of us. We joined the other ‘English-speaking’ tourists, who like us, had found the ‘redemption’. We followed the guide to this special line dedicated for those with group booking (passed the long queue, "sorry guys") and started (free and easy) the very long journey inside the Vatican Museum to the Sistine Chapel.

Highlights:

Entrance/Long queue at Vatican Museum

Museo Vaticano. It was grand... artistic... very rich in history. We walked for hours from one museum to another, always anticipating the entrance of Sistine Chapel. There were so many sections inside, all of them are quite interesting... most of them with very intricate ceilings, gallery of paintings, sculptures, maps and tapestries in 15th and 17th centuries with religious images that took years for the artists to finish... We couldn't imagine how the people in ancient times, with hardly any technology, can produce so many collection of fine artworks, such as those found inside the Vatican Museum...

Spiral Stairs at Vatican Museum

We literally been to a number of rooms/sections... We can hardly remember all the names ... To name a few are the Room of the Immaculate Conception, Room of Raphael Stanze, Egyptian Museum, Classical Greek and Roman antiques and scuptures, gallery of the many statues of animals and a lot more.

Inside was a real beauty that I didn't realize immediately that my dress was starting to fall... I just had it tied in one of my shoulder. Thank God!!! I have a long sleeve with me and I noticed it before it fall. I went to the ladies room close to the Room of Immaculate Conception... tied it again... and this time, I made sure that it's really secure!!! Haaayyy!

Sistine Chapel

Sistine Chapel. We were already dead tired by the time we arrived at this chapel, made famous by Michelangelo’s ceiling painting ‘the creation of Adam’. A lot of people were also inside the chapel, all looking upward, marvelling at this famous artwork. By the way, cameras were not allowed... We stayed there for about 15 mins... Managed to get a few shots from outside, pass the exit.... before munching a quick lunch at the cafeteria. Thanks to Canon's prime lens :-)

The Carriage Museum. The museum contains a collection of carriages and automobiles used by popes and cardinals... from Gala Berlin to automobiles.

St Peter's Square and St Peter's Basilica

Piazza San Pietro (St Peter's Square). It is an open space located in front of the St Peter's Basilica. In the centre of the square is the Egyptian obelisk brought to Rome in 37 B.C. by Emperor Caligola. On top of the obelisk is a bronze globe. We initially thought that it contains St Peter's ashes but later read that the people in the Middle Ages believed that the one preserved in there was Julius Caesar's ashes... which is also not true.

Walls separating Vatican from Rome.

From what we read, the collonade around St Peter's square is composed of 284 columns and 88 pillars in a quadruple row, seen as 1 row from a precise point of the square, closed to the obelisk, indicated by a stone. I am still asking Mon, which of them are pillars. The colonnade symbolises 'gathering of Christianity'.

Basilica Papale di San Pietro (Papal Basilica of St Peter). There was a long queue. Justin wanted us to get movin' to Florence, as holiday time is running out and he really wanted to go to Venice the following day. Ramon wanted to go inside the St Peter's Basilica. Finally (Justin was probably not too happy about it), we decided to join the long queue.

It is believed that St Peter was crucified in the same place where the basilica was built during Nero's great Christian persecution in 64A.D. It is regarded as one of the holiest Catholic sites and said to have the largest interior of any Christian church in the world.

Appropriate dress is required to enter... Mini skirts, shorts and singlets are not allowed, though the guards were very kind, allowing some teenagers wearing shorts, to enter the church provided they cover their legs with scarves or jerseys or any piece of cloth they may have. The facade was designed by Carlo Moderno. And the dome was designed by the great Michelangelo. He died before the basilica was completed. Inside were preserved bodies of some of the popes... We were debating if they're real bodies or just images/sculptures, as they looked wax to me, though the fingers looked real. 'Confirmed that they're real... only their face was covered with mask/wax.

The Grand Avenue of Vatican from
Peter's Square

The Grand Avenue of Vatican - Via Crucis. Fourteen life-size stations line the wide sidewalk of the Via della Conciliazione. By the way, Via della Conciliazione is under Rome's jurisdiction (not Vatican). It is considered the largest stations of the cross in the world (at the time of writing).