This post continues the chronicles of Steve Bridge’s class trip to Rome.
Today we were off to an early start. After riding nearly the entire length of the metro line, we arrived at our destination: the Vatican Museum. The Vatican Museum is located within the walls of the Vatican. We snapped a group photo from its courtyard, and as you can see, it’s only a stone’s throw away from Saint Peter’s Basilica. It boasts a collection of some of the most renowned and classical masterpieces in the world. We observed sculptures, mosaics, paintings, and tapestries that comprise one of the largest collections of early Christian, Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek, and Roman art and artifacts in the world. The museum attracts more than 5.5 million visitors a year! It was opened in 1503 by Pope Julius II with only a small collection of sculptures, and grew from there into a labyrinth of Pontifical collections and rooms that we explored today.
We started our journey by examining stone and marble stone work chronicling early Christian history. We saw sarcophagi decorated with scenes from Creation Story, Noah’s Ark, Jonah and the Whale, the Nativity, and Peter’s Baptism of the Warders. The intimacy of the exhibits was especially impressive. Incredible pieces of art were left within arms’ reach, uncovered, and exposed without even a single “Do Not Touch” sign.
I was most impressed by the Egyptian mummy exhibit, the Hall of Tapestries, and the Gallery of Maps. The mummy exhibit hosted Egyptian art and hieroglyphics in the form of glittering sarcophagi, but the exposed mummy is what really sold me. Beneath ancient cloth and shroud we could see the graying skeletal face of a mummified body. It was both disturbing and incredibly cool. Further on we saw the Hall of Tapestries. The approximately 700-foot long hallway featured intricately woven tapestries from as early as the 14th century that hung from the ceiling to the floor. The Gallery of Maps is, to this day, the largest geographical examination in the world. The maps are a painted topographical examination of Italy commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII in approximately 1570.
The museum definitely has something for everyone. Dr. Callaway, our philosophy professor, found himself quite at home in the Raphael Room, where the famous “School of Athens” mural adorns the wall.
Meanwhile, Dr. Bridge was lost in thought while examining glass and bronze artifacts from the early Christian era.
Eventually, we made our way to the Sistine Chapel where we witnessed the breathtaking works of Michelangelo. The frescoes were even more magnificent in person despite the chaotic viewing. The enormous crowd jostles and disturbs you as the guards squeeze more and more people into the room, but all eyes are on the ceiling. Although photos of this area are strongly discouraged, we managed to covertly snap a few.
After leaving the Vatican Museum we stopped for our daily gelato at a shop just a block away from the museum. This destination proved to be our unanimous favorite so far–although our dedicated quest continues! We later ate at a pizza restaurant just a hop, skip, and a jump away from the Coliseum. The food was delicious, but most notable was the creative diversion that the restaurant offered. At each of the tables was a phone with instructions to “dial a number” from a list of the other tables’ phone numbers. We had a good laugh with that by calling a few numbers and joking with the British tourists at the table opposite us!
We look forward to returning to Saint Peter’s tomorrow for our Scavi (Excavation) Tour deep beneath the basilica!
Submitted by Lauren Sharples