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Improvisational Ponderings of Moderate Nefariousness

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Rome Day 3: St Peter’s and the Dome

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St. Peter’s Basilica; Yeah it’s a church… I especially liked the comparison of the largest churches in Europe laid out with markers on the floor showing how much larger St. Peter’s is by comparison. It’s the proverbial pissing match of Christendom. Seriously though, there is no other way to really grasp size and scope of St. Peter’s Basilica. Six acres of dead popes, giant statues, shiny carvings, and glittery relics. We were stunned beyond words. I had to remind Jeff to take pictures. At one point, we were trying to get a picture of the papal altar with the bronze canopy and we had to keep backing up to get the whole thing in.

Yes, there were more dead popes around. I’m really curious how many bodies are in this place, including, of course, the supposed remains of Saint Peter himself. You can see the glowing hole that leads down to his burial area, but it isn’t open to the public.

No less impressive than the whole rest of the building is La Pieta to the right of the entrace. One of Michaelangelo’s masterpieces (I think even the stains on his dinner napkins were heralded as masterpieces, but this one is legit) it rests behind bulletproof glass after a fool smashed at it with a hammer in the 70s. How anyone can pull something so beautiful from a block of marble completely escapes me. Amazing.

I don’t care which religion you are or what you believe, you really must see St Peters if you are in Rome.

Then we got the brilliant idea to climb to the top of the dome of St Peters. You take a lift to the bottom of the dome where you get an amazing view of the inside of the church below. Then you climb the staircase of doom to get to the very top. It starts out narrow and steep, then gets narrower and steeper. Then you think “Holy crap, this is the narrowest and steepest thing I’ve ever climbed,” and it gets narrower and steeper. At one point it is so narrow you have to lean on the curvature of the dome to keep walking – the whole hallways leans in. Then it goes up a winding staircase where only your toes can fit on each step, and you have to hold a vertical rope to keep yourself balanced.

The view at the top is astounding. You want to enjoy it as long as possible for the sheer grandeur, and to postpone having to do the stair thing in reverse. Fortunately there are separate stairs doing down (just as tiny) that prevents traffic jams. As we went down a small boy was shrieking in terror as his parents tried to tell him he had to go down the stairs again to get out. He is probably still up there judging from his take on things.

This also turned our already wobbily legs into tapioca. Painful, shrapnel filled tapioca. I bought a knee brace to help my aching right knee, and Dannie made odd grunting sounds every time we came to a step.

We went to a wine bar to medicate ourselves, and by a seriously bizarre coincidence the owner has a good friend in Phoenix who ran an Italian restaurant. The place is Marcellino Ristorante at 1301 East Northern Ave, which we’re going to have to try when we get back into town.

Pictures from Rome

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Finally got the Flickr upload to work, so our pictures are showing up at http://www.flickr.com/photos/moriartys/sets/72157607419883044/ if you want to see them.¬† They are also linked from the front page of the blog.¬† We’re trying not to flood anyone with everything we’re taking, just some of the more interesting ones.

Rome Day 2: We’re Here To See The Pope

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Today we took on theVatican and the many papal interests and intrigues within. We did not have an audience with the Pope. I was surprised as we had Tweeted that we would be there. It was beyond rude… I mean, are these people not connected? You think it’s a coincidence that all 10 commandments are less than 147 characters? We were able to walk to the Vatican from our hotel and crossed the Tiber River over the Bridge of Angels. I guess I will get used to the awe of antiquity that strikes me every time I see something so historic as century-old sculptures. But, I hope I don’t. That theory was tested during our tour through The Vatican Museum and neighboring St. Peter’s Basilica.

During our tour of the Pinacoteca gallery, we learned that an unfinished Leonardo DaVinci work had part of the masterpiece cut out and used as a seat on a stool for a shoemaker. Jeff has tried some pretty crazy DIY projects, but we have never cut up our DaVinci for home furnishings. Here we got our first taste of Rafael with The Transfiguration perhaps made most famous by being his final work.

The Vatican Museum was miles of fascinating history from marble statues salvaged from various Roman ruins to sarcophagi from Thebes. There were histories and theories surrounding each. One of the more interesting was of an emperor obsessed with the Egyptian culture who recreated a ritual at his villa in the country. Part of the plan was to flood part of the estate to simulate the Nile River. The map room was stunning with it’s long hallway of maps of the time. They led to the Rafael rooms with masterworks such as The School of Athens and The Disputa which lined the walls of the Pope’s bedroom. A philosophical moment: The School of Athens seemed displaced amongst the many interpretations of the crucifixion. For an artist of the time to introduce the idea that science could co-exist with religion must have taken courage. To plaster it on the Pope’s bedroom wall… took a set of Renaissance stones that you couldn’t carve from granite. We moved on to the Sistene Chapel.

As we moved through the modern art galleries leading up to the Chapel, I can’t help but wonder at the artists displayed. It must have been an honor to get the letter saying your work would be hung in The Vatican Museum. Only to find out you’re right before the Sistene Chapel. To enter the Chapel, you walk down a staircase and the first thing you see is a sea of hundreds of faces. Wall to wall looking up with their mouths open. The second thing you see is a floor to ceiling marvel called The Last Judgment. To call it a mural does not do it justice. In fact anyone caught calling it a mural is immediately judged. A few years ago, I completed a jigsaw puzzle of the Sistene Chapel ceiling. It was over 6 feet long and 4 feet wide and took a little over two years to complete. I thought that was hard. When you see the Sistene Chapel in person, you are added to the ocean of faces who are struck by the shear magnitude of the accomplishment. I was expecting not to be able to see The Creation of Adam or David and Goliath. The colors are so vibrant, you can see details from where you stand. You see expressions and you sense movement. It is the essence of creation and you are left pondering what you’ve done lately.

If you ever wondered where The Vatican keeps it’s old Popes, look no further than the grottoes. They kept them all. We didn’t realize this at the start of our visit, but these guys are everywhere. Under the basilica, in every niche of the basilica, you can even buy some of the lesser known popes in the vending machines. One of the most popular and moving was the simple white stone where John Paul II rests. Perhaps that is because of the impression that he left on me and the world. Perhaps it is because it made me think about legacies and staying true to your beliefs even after you are gone from the earth.

(To be Popetinued…)