Visiting the Vatican again

Vatican Museum

E left around 0330 and I fell back asleep, waking around 0600.  I thought I’d beat the crowd by heading out early, around 0700, after some muesli.

Since I got into the Vatican Museum free last time, I thought it would be OK for me to go again and pay this time.  And since I was up early, the queue may be bearable.

I got to the queue of the Vatican Museum at 0730.  The queue started moving intermittently at 0800 when the museum opened and I eventually got in at 0930.  That’s despite the queue not being very long.

During that wait, I got hungry and thought I may not last the entire experience.  Seeing a snack bar and café across the road, I bought a ham and cheese croissant only to be shocked by the EUR10 price tag.  It was generously stuffed and delicious though.

Once in the building and ticketed, it was a long escalator ride up to the museum level.

• The first section was the Egyptian section with a number of good sarcophagi, mummies and statues.
• Then came the Greek and Roman section with many of statues.
• As it was warm and stuffy in some of the rooms, the Octagonal Courtyard was a welcome relief.
• The route took us through more Greek and Roman statues, stunningly decorated hallways (in particular the ceiling), tapestries, many beautifully painted rooms, each telling a story if not more. There were some shortcuts available but FOMO prevented me from doing that.
• Finally, I got to the Sistine Chapel, entering from beside the altar. It was warm and stuffy again with a bottleneck of people staying to admire the frescoes on the ceiling and The Last Judgement on the altar wall.  I had no photos of the Sistine Chapel from the last visit and now I know why!  Photography wasn’t permitted in there.
• There were more displays thereafter, on the way to the book/gift shops but I had lost interest, having been exposed to so much beauty already.

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Around the book/gift shop area, there was a café with outdoor seating in the garden.  Not much of the garden was open but I found the entrance to the papal carriage museum where there was a small collection of carriages and cars.

With that done, I continued indoors to the Ethnographic Museum where there were displays of tribal art from the Americas and Oceania.  Surprisingly, there were also a couple of stupas from Borobudur, with one having a Buddha statue sitting in it.

I exited the Vatican Museum 2h15 after I had entered, at around 1145.  The queue was still about the same length but I’m sure it would be slower moving now.  Interestingly, people who had paid EUR5 extra to book online, seemed to have to wait as well.  Fortunately, both queues were in the shade.

Saint Peter’s Cathedral

The queue to go into St Peter’s Cathedral was in the sun.  While entry was FOC, the queue was for security screening and the wait was about 20 mins.

There was a queue for pre-booked entries but my planning had been sloppy, unlike for the China trip recently.  In part, it was due to not knowing what exactly I would be up to on this trip with E.

Also, it would have been hard to book for a specific time not knowing how long I would need at the museum especially if there was a wait to get in there was well.

Even though it was my third time in St Peter’s, it was still impressive.  I noticed that the main altar under the Bernini canopy was to be used with the celebrant facing the congregation.

As this had been a subject of discussion with friends recently, I wonder if the altar had been turned around since Vatican II, ie. was it facing the back wall before.

A search on the internet suggested that it had always faced this way, partly because St Peter’s Cathedral is built with the altar at the west end rather than the east end, which is the norm.

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After more than 30 mins in the cathedral, I left around 1300.  I was too tired to go up to the cupola again.  Besides, tickets must now be booked in advance online or purchased outside.

I also didn’t find the way down to the tomb even though I walked the entire length of the cathedral.  It was far busier than I remember.

Rest of the day

Back in my room around 1400, making do with a supermarket lunch.  I rested and fell asleep for a while due to the early start.

I headed out again around 1800, going to Castel Sant’Angelo to see it from the outside and enjoy the surrounding riverside area.

The area led on to Via della Conciliazione, a wide, open road that led to the Vatican City.  There were a number of embassies in the area and I was surpised to see that the various embassies to the Holy See were actually in Italy (and not the Vatican) but not serving both nations.

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I took a look on the internet and found that embassies are not located in the Vatican itself due to its small area.  And the Vatican does allow foreign embassies to serve both the Holy See and Italy.

However, it is cool with foreign embassies that serve the Holy See and other countries, even if the embassy is based far away (eg. the Danish embassy to the Holy See is based in Brussels).

I returned to the Termini area and had dinner in the Bangladeshi-run diner.  The baby octopus cooked in tomato gravy was delicious and paired nicely with a pinot grigio.  It was spicy, more so than I had expected for Italian food so I guess it is the Bangladeshi influence.  Loved it!