Study Abroad: Vatican Museums

On Wednesday morning, Nov. 2nd, we woke up early to get a good spot at the Papal Audience inside Vatican City. We got good seats, a little better than we had at the canonization mass. We could see the Pope pretty good. He gave a speech and a Cardinal of each nationality read a message then the Pope addressed the people. Some groups got specially acknowledged by the Pope and they cheered and hollered. After that we came back to my apartment to drop our stuff off and we grabbed a sandwich and cappuccino on the way to the entrance to the Vatican Museum. We decided to get the audio tour to follow along with. The Museum is set up in a way where each hall or section is dedicated to a different time period or group of people. Some of the museums are explained below and what was in each exhibit.

Collections of Modern Religious Art
Houses famous religious paintings and sculptures from artists Carlo Carra and Giorgio de Chirico.
Museo Pio-Clementino
Pope Clement founded this museum. It contains Renaissance, antique works, and Greek and Roman sculptures.
Museo Chiaramonti
Founded by Pope Pius VII and is only open on special occasions, usually to people for reasons to study the sculptures.
Museo Gregoriano Etrusco
Etruscan museum that contains artifacts from various excavations.
Museo Egiziano
Egyptian museum that contains ancient Egyptian artifacts like scrolls and animal mummies.
Map Room
A hallway of maps from the early Roman Empire.
Hallway of Tapestries
Hallway of Hanging rugs that depict religious events. They are upkept by nuns.
Sistine Chapel
This is the Pope's personal Chapel. Michelangelo decorated the church with frescoes. Frescoes are made from dyed plaster that is sculpted before the plaster dries. Michelangelo painted the ceiling from 1508-1512 and he painted the "Last Judgement" from 1535-1541.

It took a couple of hours, but once we were done with our tour of the Vatican Museums we went to St. Peter's Basilica. It was getting late in the afternoon and we only had an hour or so before the elevator stopped going up to the top dome of the Basilica. We had one of Rick Steves' books for Italy and that helped with our tour through the Museum and the Basilica. We followed his tour of the Basilica and read about the different sculptures and mosaics in the Basilica. It was really informative and it seemed like it explained pretty much everything inside the Basilica. We went and got in line for the 'ascencore' just in time because they were shutting down and there were about 50 people in front of us. We were relieved once we got tickets and we headed for the elevator. The elevator takes you up the first couple hundred steps to the roof of the Basilica where there is a big Piazza, they have a bar and bathrooms up there! Then we had to make the trek by foot up the last 304 stairs.

For the last hundred or so steps you had to lean in because of the curved shape of the dome, you could not walk upright on the steps. Once inside the Dome atop the Basilica the view was amazing. Roman law says there cannot be a building taller than the Basilica and you can definitely tell this when you're up there. You have an amazing 360 degree view over Rome. You can walk all the way around the Dome too. You can go to one side and see the walls of Vatican City and go to the other side and see St. Peter's Square and Rome! We were up there at dusk and got kicked out once the sun set and they ushered everyone to the elevators. While we were up there I got some really cool pictures overlooking Rome. We took the lift down and went to eat and plan our trip to Assisi for the following day, Thursday Nov. 3rd.

From Mom and Mary:
We woke up early AGAIN to have breakfast and get in line to see the Pope at his general audience each Wednesday at 10:30 am. We got nice seats in the front section with in the first 40 rows. The Pope gave a nice hour+ sermon and greeted us in many languages. He read the Gospel and then Priests and Cardinals read the same Gospel in native languages, English, Spanish Polish, German italian and Portuguese?? Then the Pope recognized all the native groups and was very welcoming. There some singing and chanting also. There were schools from the Unites States that were mentioned by name and people clapped. Lots of Priests and nuns were in the audience. We then proceeded to tour the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, St Peters Basilica and climbed to the top of the Basilica Dome. We just ended out 10 hour day at the Vatican, No really and we didn't see near enough. Going out to supper and catching the train to Assisi. Don't plan to spend as much time in a Church tomorrow but many more to see.