Vatican Part III, and more Rome

I would like to be able to describe these in vivid detail however I have to admit I'm already struggling to figure out what was "Raphael" and what was not. Regardless, even from these photographs you can see how the colors pop. I was surprised by this as typically these frescoes and murals have been dulled by pollution. Perhaps they have been recently restored.

This image above definitely is Raphael. It is the "School of Athens," and it was painted between 1510 and 1511. Pretty crazy, more than 500 years ago, and really in many ways you can look at this and argue that perhaps the Renaissance was the peak of such art. Of course many great works existed both before and after, and with out a doubt many are yet to come, but the depth perception, and the grasp of emotions on the faces of the subjects is just spectacular. And of course the master of this was Michelangelo, and the Sistine chapel (no pictures, sorry!) perhaps his unintended opus.

I was lightly chided by a guard because I complained about their tactics to keep people in line in the Sistine chapel. And by lightly chided, I mean he yelled "No dissento!" at me, and remained by my side through out my 15 minutes or so in the room. I'm not going to lie, it did take something from the experience to have some douche-bag cop in "Chips" mirrored sunglasses threaten me and hover over me. My complaint was fairly mild- signs about photography, and keeping voice at a low level were certainly present going into the chapel, but they weren't prominent. What basically would happen is every 4-5 minutes the volume would reach a crescendo, and a guard would begin yelling at the top of their lungs in Italian about "Silencio" and respecting the sanctuary, and the photography. My beef was why not really do a better job of telling people to whisper, or remain silent going in rather than these explosive angry circadian shouting sessions? I said so to Kate and a guard overheard me and didn't like it to much. I think I wasn't far from getting tossed from the chapel early.

Moving along, those of us raised Catholic recognize this courtyard out front of the Basilica.

This is inside St. Peter's Basilica, which includes a dome designed by Michelangelo. The statue below is also a work of Michelangelo called the Pieta.

I always recall being mesmerized by the sort of Moorish looking columns below when I saw them on television as a child. It is weird seeing these things in person, and how you interpret from that moment on is often entirely different. The camera techniques seem to make it stand out in size, when actually it is dwarfed by the church itself.

These are the "Swiss Guard" at the Vatican. Luckily I evaded confrontation with them.

The bridge like structure at the end of this street was part of a papal escape route in the event of an attack on the Vatican. It takes the papacy to Castel Sant'Angelo which is also Hadrian's tomb. The same Roman Emperor of Hadrian's Wall fame. That is pretty far out. The building was constructed between 123-139 AD, so just under 2000 years old. They don't build em like they used to.

After leaving the Vatican, we took time off from our ambitious site seeing and paused by the Tiber River. A nearby street performer was dressed as the invisible man, and it was quite genius. I should have given him some money and got a picture, but I tend to avoid such interaction as a general rule so it would have been out of character. Regardless we enjoyed watching the other tourists interact, and muttered from time to time when some took pictures but didn't donate any money. Jerks.

The Tiber runs through Rome, and in front of the Vatican. I understand that historically before Italy got a good grasp on the water control there would be periodic floods. This probably both explains the large walls built along the river, and perhaps why I feel the space is under utilized. There are some sections of the river walk that contain night clubs, but this section is pretty vacant.

Castel Sant'Angelo or Hadrian's tomb is depicted above.

Vatican, part II; Broken "junk," Big Eyes, and other Art

I know if you have returned to see more you must be anxious to see some broken genitalia and headless nudes and I aim to deliver. 

This section of the Vatican museums seemed to be part workshop part museum, and it appeared to contain areas where they were actively restoring or cleaning some works. The modern architecture here was a sharp contrast to the rest of the Vatican museums which were either built in the 1900s, or were converted to museum space from papal quarters.

 These mosaics were interesting to see unfortunately we weren't able to get too close to them. I think that section of the exhibits was closed for some reason but we were able to look down upon it through this atrium from an upper floor.

 This section of the Vatican museums is called the Chiaramonti Museum, It was assembled in the early 1900s and holds many Roman busts and statues.

 Kate with Roman stuff.

 The view was fantastic from certain vantage points within the Vatican. Per usual, the church likes to "lord above" it's patrons, (pun intended) and chooses the highest vantage point to build it's main houses of worship. Remember Romans, God is watching you, so if you have to do what we all know you are going to, please remember to pay your 10% and such indiscretions will be forgiven. Since not enough of you are murderers, we are going to make a bunch of other little nothings illegal and make you feel guilty about it. Hey, the Pope needs to look pretty for his people, golden accented papal tiaras don't grow on trees! Also there's the outside chance the Church may see it within in their purview to occasionally burn someone alive. Can't have witches running around with any crazy controversial ideas.

 ARRRGGH MY EYES ARE SO BIG.

 Margaret Keane, did you visit the Vatican?

 I tried finding out the meaning of these sculptures, as I failed to read about it while there. I really am having quite a difficult time. The first one strikes me to be a recreation of a theater mask. I recall from Latin that they used to build in megaphone typed structures in the masks, thus the reason for the open mouths.

 This statue in the Vatican says "All are welcome, all are welcome...."

This rotunda is in the Vatican museum "Museo Pio-Clementino," which houses some grand Roman and greek statues. The marble floor in this room was quite breathtaking. Adjacent to it were wings containing Egyptian and Babylonian art.

 We went through many, many halls like the one above. This one housed ancient maps.

 Ahead of the Sistine Chapel in former papal quarters are these masterpiece frescoes by Raphael. Raphael's painting style seems to be light and bright. It does bear some resemblance to Michelangelo, but does not have the same level of physical detail or predilection towards nudes. These actually were commissioned for private Pope living quarters so they could live in poverty and think only of the poor huddled masses.

As we were heading between these rooms often through very narrow hallways, inevitably there were pushy yuppies doing everything but honking the horns of their BMWs (they had to leave those at home unfortunately) so they could get by all of us inconsiderate idiots holding things up. We let some pretentious beautiful people by us only to have mixed emotions of pleasure when they realized "we" weren't the problem, and that a young British woman was helping her elderly grandmother up the stairs ahead of us. The nerve of some people getting old. She must not have got the memo that you aren't allowed to leave the house after 70. What's that, some people that age get around fine you say? No, I'm sorry, if we let one 70 year old out then we have to let them all out. It wouldn't be fair.

Next post I'll talk about my experience in the Sistine Chapel, which soured me on the Church touring experience. Yeah, I realize that is a major part of the whole Italy thing. Did I ever mention that I hate authority with an unmitigated passion? No, no, cross that out, I am some times mildly frustrated by the mindlessness..., no I'm sorry, let me start again. Something milder, how about "at times it can be difficult to exist in this reality?" Yeah, I know, I probably don't know the half of it.

Vatican City Part 1

 A trip to Vatican city formed the start of our second day in Italy. We dressed in pants and made sure our shoulders were covered (not tough for me) out of respect for Jesus and his disciples, hoped on the metro (subway) and after negotiating ticket purchase and our route found our way to the closest stop. Upon arriving we experienced an onslaught of con-artists posing as tour guides trying to get your business. We had tickets already purchased online, so it was just a matter of finding our way to the entrance. The con artists did serve a purpose in that they directed us in the correct direction since the entrance is not the intuitive gates of the St. Peter's Basilica, but rather at a corner of the walls surrounding the papal quarters and museums.

Despite having tickets there was of course still lines to wait in other lines, all of which were chaotic, poorly labeled, with just a slight suggestion of "order." Upon getting in we meandered around some of the court yards and outdoor space before ultimately deciding we were in desperate need of caffeine. Or at least I was.

 I made the mistake of accidentally ordering an espresso. It proceeded to make me jittery for a few minutes and probably left me in a state that was only slightly more coherent than how I started out.

The large piece of modern art in this court yard rotated. There were several interesting pieces here beyond the architectural flourishes of the buildings. It was an overcast day which would prove to be the only cloudy day of the vacation. It rained a little bit when we first arrived, and we lucked out by choosing an attraction that was mostly indoors.

 I don't have photos of the Medieval religious art halls we visited here, and I wish I did because so much of the propaganda was quite frankly very disturbing. Just very dark stuff, or just very weird almost scary stuff. If they weren't depictions of what would happen to you, they were depictions of frightening religious figures and saints with fierce glares, frowns, dark shadows on their faces, or supernatural beams shooting out from around their silhouettes. Seriously, if someone painted this sort of thing today, you would likely be suspicious of their sobriety. The politics of fear was alive and well with the Church.

There was a learning curve on what I could photograph, and how I could photograph things. I generally avoided taking pictures in the galleries at first, before ultimately realizing there was generally no problem as long as I didn't use a flash. The only exception to this rule was the Sistine Chapel. I'll get to that and some other great frescoes in a future post.

 Kate and a giant head.

 Kate and pot of flowers.

 Perseus holding Medusa's head. I'm not sure who the other statue is. I find the Vatican's collection of precursor religious art intriguing. On one hand, I'm pleased that at least some of this culture was preserved. On the other hand, the Romans were already known for collecting such items so it is perhaps only natural that the "Roman" Catholic Church would continue in the same tradition. The west would eventually do the same in contemporary museums, however I think the motivation was different. Where we typically are motivated by learning about people, history, and trying to relate to prior times, I'm suspicious that much of the motivation of the Church was to control contrarian propaganda, or perhaps use it to justify the Church's beliefs of superiority.

 I have many photos of the Vatican, and I'm probably going to write about this over the course of several posts. Think of this as a primer, an introduction. I realize I'm not giving many specifics, and that is partially because there was so much art to see it just is difficult to remember and write about it all. The picture above captures the masses of people. I've visited many major tourist sites now, and I think the Vatican probably has to be the place that had the greatest volume of people during a given moment.

First Evening in Rome

OK OK... yes there were half a dozen weddings happening outside the Colosseum. Italian men (or their possibly controlling brides, come on, you know it's a possibility!) have absolutely horrible taste in tuxedos. It was popular to have shiny, silver, metallic, tuxedos. You would have to pay me a lot of money to wear such a thing.

Moving along.

Following Rick Steve's stellar advice we went to this Pizza place near the Colosseum. Great location, nice patio, the food was just meh. The beer, well I really enjoyed the beer. Just sort of hit the spot. My pizza was sauce-less, with mushrooms, cheese and some smoke sausage which seemed, let's say a little rare, but I think that would be the smoking process that accomplished that appearance. It had a strong "wood" taste and I didn't love it. Other than that the pizza was fine.

We did some Roming (ahahahaha!) and found the Trevi fountain after eating. If you want to see what it is supposed to look like, Wikipedia provides some pictures. 

The Spanish steps and the Fontana della Barcaccia were pretty spectacular, and emblematic about how this place is pretty much a party. Half of the people you see out there on the steps are drinking wine and beer, because that is something you can do in public outside of the "Land of the Free." The steps are beautiful, worn marble, elegant, romantic, and the pictures don't do it justice. They are called the Spanish steps due to proximity to the Spanish Embassy, just in case you were wondering. This is one of the many attractions featured in Roman Holiday, and it is probably one of the better known things to see.

My complaint here was of course the people trying to push selfie-sticks and roses on us constantly. I got a bit nasty (nasty was just a glare, and "No!" after I'd already said no thank you several times... there was a price discount, which of course was going to cause me to reconsider something I don't want) with one of the vendors who let me know that Kate was much nicer than I am. It is totally situation dependent really. Totally.

We wandered quite a bit, and I don't have the pictures to capture it, or do it justice. It was a great introduction to Rome and to our trip. Before heading back to the room, which entailed a long strenuous hike over surprisingly steep hills, we went to one of Rome's famous tourist traps, an extravagant McDonalds. Yes, Rome boasts one of the biggest "fanciest" McDonalds in the world. Really it was over-rated big time, I don't know if it has been renovated, but I've been to more unique locations in the States, such as Freeport, Maine. Really it was just a large McCafe, with the standard decor that has become popular over the last decade, a sort of yuppie look that pretty much apes an attempt at sophistication. Poorly I might add.

The next post will include the Vatican. I had decidedly mixed feelings about the Vatican, stay tuned and I'll try to be civil when writing about it.

Rome: The Colosseum

The Colosseum or "Flavian Amphitheater," was our first site to see in Rome and we queued up in a line that was long, however I suspect it may have been short considering how long it could be. We started the line almost immediately within the lower outer ring of the structure giving us something to gawk at as we waited. Kate was a little indecisive thinking that the line would take too long and we should get out and buy our tickets from a less popular site such as the Roman forum. This was of course after we'd already had waited ten minutes and made considerable progress. (sighs and eye-rolls from yours truly). In another ten minutes or so we were in so, no big deal on the wait. The line was a good venue to watch people anyway, it was comprised of many cultures, surprisingly a lot of Italians. There were nuns in the line, and people of many different backgrounds. People used their selfie-sticks which was the item of choice sold by the pushy under-the-table street vendors walking around. I didn't know what they were at first, but I would quickly become really sick of them.

 This puppy dates back to 72 AD, and according to the informational signs at the Colosseum, held as many as 50,000 people. Wikipedia suggests even more, (80k) but alas, that is Wikipedia for you. The floor of the arena is gone, and instead you see the infrastructure where animals, props, and participants may have been held and brought through only to appear before many blood thirsty fans after perhaps being elevated through a trap door.

Someone lost their Frank Sinatra hat. It belongs to Rome now. These were being sold at every tourist kiosk in Italy. As someone who often just wants to be contrarian, I immediately sort of despised them. I will say that these hats are actually still worn by Italians, but you did see a lot of Griswalds walking around with these on.

In the lower right portion of this, you can see some intact marble seats/bleacher which at one time covered the entire stands.

 The free standing arch which you can see just outside of the Colosseum, is the "Arch of Constantine," which was erected by Constantine who adopted Christianity, and of course created what we now know as Catholicism, essentially it is what is left of the Roman Empire. Like most government (or religious for that matter) sponsored art, this Arch was a lovely propaganda piece. Constantine intended to marry Roman History and religion/mythology to Christian ideology to help ease the conversion of the Roman population. Catholicism is very much a amalgam of Roman mythology and Christian ideas. Being in the presence of this sort of art constantly in Italy, you get the idea that modern Christianity may share much more with Roman mythology than is commonly conceived of. We would see stories of saints in the Vatican pretty much directly co-opted from Roman mythology that we would later see at Roman ruins.

 A view towards Palatine hill from the Colosseum grounds.

The arch is surrounded by Roman paving stones which would be the first example we would see. The age of such items really is amazing, and it is astonishing how it has held up.