the.vatican: take.2

After getting back to Orvieto from our three-day South Trip, we celebrated our homecoming at the local cafes, who were featuring live music, crowds, etc. Paul Megli made a quick comment about "Boy, I'd really like to go to Rome before the Vatican gets crowded."

Next thing I know, we're planning our 6AM departure for Rome.

Our mission: conquer the entirety of the Vatican Museums. Oh dang.

We visited everything, included my new favorite portion of the museums: an often overlooked garage under the Vatican featuring all the Pope's transportation history. aka...POPEMOBILES!

(Back when the popemobile had 4 legs and neighed)

Then it was off to the Early Christian, Egyptian, Etruscan, etc et etc before beginning the hike to the coveted Sistine Chapel finale....this walk shall now be referred to as the Vatican Marathon.

During hour 5 in the museum, we finally made it to the Raphael Rooms that precede the Sistine. The sheer detail of these spaces is incredible...former papal apartments, clearly, as even their shutters are over the top:

Now that the tourist path is set up like a maze, we went up and down about 90 staircases, finally surprising ourselves with one last little, nondescript turn, then BOOM! Sistine Chapel.

Our intelligent move to visit the Sistine in the mid-afternoon paid off...all the tour groups had filtered out by 1, leaving us so much elbow room in the famous chapel that we scored bench seats to just sit and stare. No pictures of the Sistine--my apologies to my adoring fans. The Vatican was under contract with the restoration contractors that no photos will be allowed. And there was no cheating and shooting pictures from the hip...one particular short ninja-like Vatican guard was so not falling for it.

After over an hour of gawking, Paul and I finally crossed the finish line of the Vatican Marathon. 7 HOURS IN. But we were rewarded with a nearly empty St. Peter's at sunset.


Despite about 1 foot of bulletproof glass between me and the Pieta's genius, my lil' Nikon was a champ.

Everyone should be as lucky as to visit St. Peter's right before closing...forget the typical tourist experience. The lighting is fantastic, there's usually music drifting around (we had a splendid children's choir performing during our visit), and no crowds to fight with for the coveted nave shot...it's a rare chance to experience the spiritual, personal identity of St. Peters.