A Georgia Girl in Germany

We began our final day in Rome with a tour of the Vatican museums. It wasn’t really busy at all, as is evident by no line at the museum entrance. Talk about an impressive entryway with massive sculptures above it!

Before we delved too much in the inside of the museum, we walked through the gardens a bit. Yes, the Vatican, or the Holy See, is the world’s smallest state at .2 square miles of land. The tiny country surrounds St. Peter’s Basilica, behind us here. The Vatican has a population of 770, none of whom are permanent residents, but all of whom are Roman Catholics.


I liked these views of the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica, especially this one of Benjamin. He really seemed to like looking over the ledge into the garden below -- not surprising since he seems to enjoy peering over any ledge he can find.



This is the garden Benjamin was looking into in the photo above.

Benjamin liked being able to run around a bit while our guide talked about the renovations of the Sistine Chapel. The staff was almost militant about keeping the noise level down inside the chapel, so we had to take extra time before heading inside to learn about the renovations.

Fortunately, there was plenty of space for him to roam in the Cortile del Belvedere -- the lookout courtyard -- and Zachary was good at helping keep an eye on him and not letting him wander too far.

This is part of the Vatican Gardens outside the Sistine Chapel -- the upper end of Bramante's Cortile del Belvedere, called the Cortile della Pigna -- the pinecone courtyard -- in honor of the bronze fountain inside this niche. The Cortile della Pigna is the highest terrace in the Cortile del Belvedere and was once a Roman fountain. The Pigna once decorated a fountain in Ancient Rome next to a vast Temple of Isis. There water flowed copiously from the top of the pinecone. It was moved first to the old basilica of St. Peter's, then moved in the 15th century to its current location linking the Vatican and the Palazzo del Belvedere. This is where it’s remained since, under Pirro Ligorio's vast niche and flanked by a pair of Roman bronze peacocks brought from Hadrian's mausoleum, the Castel Sant'Angelo.

Here is a painting (left) of the resurrected Jesus on the ceiling in one of the long hallways, and another painting (below) of the installation of a former pope. The artwork that we walked beside, over, under and through while touring the vast museum complex was absolutely amazing. I tried taking my time so I could absorb everything, but I’m sure it would take many forays inside the Vatican walls before I’d feel confident that I saw -- and remembered -- most of what is on display.


And MacKenzie standing in one of the hallways. I loved the marble floors and how the light shown through the windows to illuminate everything (although it overexposed part of this photo).

All these statues were simply lining the walls, almost as if they were watching us as we walked through admiring all the artwork.

I liked this mosaic of foods found at a market. The tile pieces were very tiny, which added to the level of detail in the mosaic.


This is a painting in the floor. It was roped off so no one would walk on it.

The ceilings were absolutely stunning. I could have walked through the museum at least twice -- once with my neck straining to take in all the ceilings, and the second time inspecting everything else!

These paintings almost looked like cameos with how they were created. Simply stunning.



I was in awe at all the gold in the vaulted ceiling in the Gallery of Maps... and this was only half of the hallway. The gallery is nearly 400 feet long, and on the west side of the Belvedere Courtyard. The ceiling is the work of a group of Mannerist artists, including Cesare Nebbia and Girolamo Muziano.

Below is the archway over the door at one end of the gallery.


This is one of 40 map panels in the gallery. It took Friar Ignazio Danti three years (1580 - 1583) to complete all 40 large-scale frescoes depicting topographical maps of the entirety of the Italian peninsula. Each fresco depicts a region as well as a perspective view of its most prominent city.

This is the hallway leading to the Sistine Chapel. The Japanese paid for the renovation of the chapel and therefore own any and all rights to the images in there...hence no photos (although I did purchase a few postcards, with the proceeds also going to the Japanese). Michelangelo’s Last Judgment painting was stunning. The variation of rich blue hues in the sky were marvelous. I liked that better than the ceiling with Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam. It is said that due to the scaffolding and up-close work by Michelangelo on the ceiling, that it wrecked his eyesight for good. Michelangelo was in his early 30s when Pope Julius commissioned him to do the ceiling, which took him four years to complete (1508-1512). I could have easily spent several hours in there marveling at the artwork on the walls and ceiling.

After taking in the Sistine Chapel, we came back outside into this exterior niche of St. Peter's Basilica near the grotto entrance (the underground tombs of many pontiffs from the most recent -- Pope John Paul II -- to the first -- St. Peter).

This statue of Saint Gregory the Illuminator, the patron saint of Armenia, is in an alcove in this niche. It’s the only statue of an Eastern rite saint among the ones that surround the exterior of St. Peter's.

The Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica is only opened during Jubilee Years -- every 25 years -- or on special occasions. When the pope opens the door, it symbolizes opening the doors of grace. The door was last opened by Pope John Paul II for the Holy Year of the Redemption in 1983 (the 1,950th anniversary of the Redemption), and again in 2000 for the Great Jubilee.

Michelangelo's Pietà is immediately to the right of the entrance. It is probably the world's most famous sculpture of a religious subject. Michelangelo carved it when he was 24 years old, and it is the only one he ever signed, with his signature on the breast band that goes over Mary's shoulder. He was apparently criticized for portraying the Virgin Mary as too young since she was probably 45 to 50 years old when Jesus died. He responded that he did so deliberately because the effects of time couldn’t mar the features of this, the most blessed of women. He also said he was thinking of his own mother's face since he was only 5 when she died and a mother's face is a symbol of eternal youth. After an incident in 1972 when an individual damaged it with an axe, the sculpture was placed behind protective glass.


Zachary found a little niche just to the left of the Pietà where he could sit and rest his legs a bit.

We even saw the preserved body of Blessed Pope John XXIII in a glass sarcophagus under St. Jerome's Altar, which is located just around the corner of first major pillar that is supporting Michelangelo's Dome. He died on June 3, 1963, after a pontifical reign of five years, and was beatified on Sept. 3, 2000, in St. Peter's Square. It almost seemed like we were looking at a wax copy of his body instead of the real thing.


This is Bernini's Canopy -- or the Baldacchino -- under Michelangelo’s Dome.

Michelangelo's Dome is directly above the Baldacchino, with four niches just below it that contain impressive statues of Saints Andrew, Longinus, Veronica and Helena. Each of these niches also contain important relics -- the head of St. Andrew, the Holy Lance that was used to pierce the side of Christ (found near the True Cross by St. Helena), the veil of St. Veronica and a piece of the True Cross brought to Rome by St. Helena. Around the base of the inside of the dome are the gigantic words "Tu es Petrus et super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam et tibi dabo claves regni caelorum" -- "You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church, and I will give you the keys of the kingdom to heaven." Each of the letters is 6.5 feet high!

The entrance to St. Peter’s tomb is just in front of Bernini's Canopy and the papal altar.

In addition to the many tapestries in the Gallery of the Tapestries and elsewhere in the Vatican, there were a few in St. Peter’s Basilica proper.

Below is one of the mosaics underneath Michelangelo’s Dome. The dome is so high that the photo hardly does it justice.


The Main Apse reveals the Altar of the Chair of St. Peter, which surrounds the Cathedra Petri -- St. Peter's Throne. The sculpture was created by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in 1666 to display the wooden chair on which, according to ancient tradition, St. Peter sat and taught Roman Christians. I like the dove -- the symbol of the Holy Spirit -- in the center of the Bohemian glass window above it.

Below is the back of the Papal Altar & Baldacchino looking toward the Main Apse.


We were allowed to take photos in St. Peter’s Basilica since there are no paintings that can be damaged by camera flashes -- everything is a mosaic! This is a mosaic copy of the Altar of the Falsehood, or the Altar of the Lie, painting by Cristoforo Roncalli. It illustrates a scene from Acts 5:1-11, where the couple Ananias and Sapphira lied to St. Peter and were struck dead for doing so.

Following my tradition of sharing photos of pipe organs, I couldn’t pass up sharing a photo of the organ in the Chapel of the Choir. There are actually two organs in the chapel -- one on each side of the room. In front of each are three rows of seats for the choir, decorated with bas-reliefs and sculptures.


Looking across the Main Apse from the left you can see how grand the chapel is. The sculptures on the side pillars that line the apse are statues of the 39 Founder Saints who founded religious orders. The bottom right statue is of St. Theresa of Jesus with St. Sofia Maddalena Barat above. On the left are St. Vincent de Paul (bottom) and St. John Eudes (above). The scripture above is from Matthew 16:19: “I will entrust to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you declare bound on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you declare loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Again, each of the letters above the statues and archways is 6.5 feet high!

As we exited the basilica, we passed Agostino Cornacchini’s Charlemagne Statue (on the horse). Charlemagne was the first emperor to be crowned in St. Peter's, on Christmas Eve of 800.

The sun was shining much more than it had before we entered the basilica, and it illuminated the other statues just outside the basilica.

After leaving the basilica, we walked back to St. Peter’s Square where we had a wonderful view of the façade of St. Peter's with Michelangelo’s Dome behind it. The façade is larger than a football field and has an inscription from Pope Paul V: “Paul V Borghese, Roman, Pontiff, in the year 1612, the seventh of his pontificate, [erected] in honor of the Prince of Apostles.” The statues above the façade are (from left) St. Thaddeus, St. Matthew, St. Philip, St. Thomas, St. James the Elder, St. John the Baptist, Jesus, St. Andres, St. John the Evangelist, St. James the Younger, St. Bartholomew, St. Simon and St. Matthias. Below the balcony where the pope gives his blessing is a bas-relief by Buonvicino of Jesus handing St. Peter the keys to heaven.



Above you can see a vacant St. Peter’s Square with the Obelisk and the Vatican Christmas Tree in the center. The obelisk was brought from Egypt to Rome by Emperor Caligula in 37 AD and was moved to the center of St. Peter's Square in 1586. It’s also a sundial, with its shadows marking noon over the signs of the zodiac in the white marble disks in the paving of the square.

The "Mater Ecclesiae" mosaic was commissioned by Pope John Paul II in thanksgiving to the Virgin Mary after the assassination attempt against him. It covers a window just above the Colonnades to the right of the façade and facing the square.

And finally, the Apostolic Palace, which also faces St. Peter’s Square. The palace is actually a group of buildings which include the Papal residence. The Papal Apartment occupies the top floor of the Apostolic Palace with the top two right windows from the pope’s study and bedroom.

Labels: Benjamin, Italy, MacKenzie, Travel, Zachary