Rome - Monday - Vatican Museum and Spanish Steps

Monday, it was back to finish Rome. Our goal was to do a guided tour of the Vatican Museum (Sisteen Chapel), and to experience the Spanish Steps. Despite our efforts to get their early, taking the 9am train and then the Metro across town, we did not get to the Vatican until after 10am, and by that time, the line was wrapped around the Vatican, block after block. We didn't get quite to the end of the line when a rep from a tour company told us about a tour starting in 10 minutes. Realzing that the wait in line would probably be a few hours, and already being prepared to spend the bucks on a tour, we quickly agreed to do the tour. Another rep lead us to an ATM and back to the tour office and within moments, we were rounded up with a group of 25 or so other folks, and lead into the museum without any further delay. With our tickets in hand, and wireless headsets on and functional, the tour began, our guide being a pleasant Italian young lady. I don't think I've every experienced a more crowded museum, in fact, I don't think it could have been any more crowded because if it was, you'd have to double-up on people's shoulders to get around. We litterally shuffled, shoulder-to-shoulder, nose-to-neck, down the halls, into the gallerys, until finally reaching the Sisteen Chapel where we were left on our own. I thought it was a shame, since there was so many amazing pieces to see. It is my opinion, in hindsight, and after talking to some other folks (specifically, Sue and Ernie, some super-friendly new guests at Anne's Place) that we may have been better off waiting until the early afternoon to get into the museum, when the lines were almost completely gone, and foregoing the guided tour. Maybe, at that time of day, there would have been fewer people shuffling around, and we would have been able to see more of what we wanted to see. On the flip-side, we would not have had the thorough explanations of the pieces we were looking at, but, we could have just rented the self-guided audio tour headsets, and accomodated that issue. Anyway, crowds and expense aside, it was a very worthy experience and the Sisteen Chapel is spectacular, as is the Rafael room, which I enjoyed even a bit more. We walked back through the other leg of the museum, and exited for a small snack, before walking over to another section of the city that Han and Trudie recommended, for an afternoon lunch. We loved this part of town, with it's plethora of sidewalk cafes, bars, pizzerias, and ristorantes. After perusing a number of menus, we finally found just the right spot, and for 10 EUR each, had a tasty 4 course meal of bruschetta, pasta(penne, lasagna), meat(chicken, veal) and dessert(flan, tart). To finish the day, we hiked it back over to the Spanish Steps and with the sun shining brightly, lounged on the steps and people watched for close to an hour. We got a kick out of the young Italian guy with his huge gold-rimmed dark sunglasses, tight blue pants and gold jewelry, playing his guitar and singing like he was an outtake from "Italian Idol" (if there is such a show). Also, the smooching German couple to our left had Vee in a tizzy, and they finally had to take their smooching elsewhere before it got even MORE out of control. We had a bit of ice cream, then crammed into the Metro for a quick ride back to Termini, and headed "home". Luckily, Anne's sixth sense kicked in, and she just happened to think that we might be there at the train station, and sure enough she was right, and we got a quick ride back from Zagarolo station. Since our lunch was quite filling, we weren't hungry for dinner, even though we had planned to go into the little town for a meal at the restaurant David recommended that everyone has been raving about. Once again, after some computer-work and reading, off to bed.
(Vee reporting) Adding on to Cliff's notes of the day, here are some of the highlights that personally had the strongest impressions on me. This section of the log might be a bit boring, so please feel free to skip this part and move on to the next day, since this is mostly a recollection of impressions meant to be a document for ourselves over time.
- Unfortunaley it was forbidden to take pictures in the sistine chapel. This explains the bad quality of the 2 most famous pictures that I was able to take (under the table). Sorry :-(
- Most of the Vatican museum's floors, walls and ceilings were decorated with marble and finished stones stripped from the Roman Coliseum.
- Michelangelo as well as Leonardo Da Vinci was obsessed with perfecting the human body in their sculptures and paintings. Most of their learning came from working with cadavers (forbidden at the time!) to understand the anatomy of men and women, and they also used as primary inspirations some of the original Greek sculptures of Hercules, Neptune and Ulysses.
- It took 4 years for Michelangelo to complete the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (alone!). He painted STANDING on his feet rather than laying on a hanging platform. The restorations of this same ceiling were done from 1981 to 1990 (more than TWICE the amount that it took to paint it).
- Raphael and Michelangelo worked at the same time in different parts of the Vatican Museum. While Michelangelo was charged with the Sistine Chapel, Raphael was assigned with painting the walls and ceilings of the preceding galleries. A strong sense of competition emerged between these two; however after Raphael saw some the finished ceiling in the Sistine chapel, his jealousy turned into admiration and respect towards his colleague. When painting an homenage to the greatest philosophers of all times, he used Leo Da Vinci and Michelangelo as faces for Aristotle and ..respectively.