Monday, October 1: a day in which the meteorologists got it completely wrong. we had a full day of sightseeing planned, starting at the Pantheon, but the forecast the day before said it would rain all morning, so we decided to meet at St. Peter's instead, as many of the museums and other indoor sights are closed on Mondays. that morning, the forecast changed yet again and called for sunny skies. ditching the umbrella and raincoats, i packed up the girls in the stroller and we headed down through the bus station to St. Peter's Square. when we met up with Sabrina and Rebecca at one of the large fountains there, we discussed going back to the original Pantheon itinerary, but i couldn't believe how short the line was to get into the basilica and thought we should take advantage of it. (evidence that my perspective has changed since we've arrived: this "short" line consisted of at least one hundred people, so it looked long to Rebecca, but i've seen it stretch all the way around the colonnades and across the square to the Vatican post office. in fact, i've
stood in it from that far back.) i'd say we waited for about fifteen minutes to get past security, and then we were in.
(note: * denotes pictures taken by Rebecca, whose phone captures far better photos than mine!)
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| Swiss guard sighting (*) |
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you can read more about the basilica in my post from last month. we followed the same route, except that a few more places were accessible this day than on my previous visits. the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament was open, with a guard posted at the entrance reminding visitors that it was for prayer only and no photos were allowed. we walked in quietly to this beautiful chapel, and i realized with a start that the Blessed Sacrament was exposed for adoration. we knelt to pray for a few minutes, then left through the thick velvet curtain that separates the chapel from the main church. it was a profoundly holy experience and i was impressed at the respectful behavior of everyone else in the chapel (the basilica itself can be a bit of a zoo with hundreds of different tour groups).
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| Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament (photo credit here) |
we walked up to touch the foot of the bronze statue of St. Peter (one of the only remaining sculptures from the old basilica), and then around to view his tomb.
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| looking down into the tomb (*) |
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| the monument to Pope Alexander VII, sculpted by Bernini (who was 80 years old at the time) |
the hallway to access the Treasury Museum was also open, in contrast to the three previous times i've been in the Basilica. the windows in the hallway were open and we congratulated ourselves on our good fortune of being
inside the museum, as the heavens had opened up and it was pouring. (thanks a lot, meteorologists.) by this point, Greta was tired of walking, and Sabrina and Rebecca were ready for a little break too. so we decided that the four of them (including Cece) would stay out in the hallway while i quickly explored the treasury museum.
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| St. Josemaria Escriva, seen from the hallway leading to the treasury museum |
no photos are allowed inside the museum, so you'll just have to take my word for it: if you're Catholic, or even if you're just interested in history and beautiful things, it is well worth the €5 admission (which includes a free audioguide). i could have spent an hour in there, marveling not only at the jewel-encrusted monstrances but also the dalmatic of Charlemagne (!) and dozens of reliquaries of some of the most famous saints, including Our Lady and St. Peter.
i emerged about fifteen minutes later, having spent longer than i originally intended, and found only Rebecca waiting for me in the hallway. apparently the Vatican staff don't actually want groups of people just sitting around on the floor (probably especially if two of those people are eating Cheerios out of a snack cup), so Sabrina had taken the girls out towards the front of the church to find a bench to sit on. Sabrina had said that if she couldn't find a place to sit, she would take the girls outside back to the fountain where we had originally met. but we both couldn't imagine that she would have gone outside in the rain, without umbrellas or coats.
we walked back to the entrance, stopping every so often to admire a new perspective on the huge hall, or one of the thousands of sculptures that cover the walls.
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just after snapping this selfie, we walked out onto the portico, confident we'd find them sitting just outside the door, since it was still raining steadily. and... nope. our best guess was that they had taken shelter under the colonnade, and in a perfect world, we would have just braved the rain and gone to try to find them. but we had left our stroller at the stroller check near the entrance to the basilica, and i couldn't retrieve it without the plastic tag they'd given me. and the plastic tag was in the backpack, which Sabrina had taken with her for the girls. and once we exited the basilica proper, we couldn't get back in to get the stroller without standing in the security line again (which was now looking more normal ... AKA stretching alllll the way around the square, despite the rain). and Rebecca's raincoat was in the bottom of the stroller. because of course it would be.
after much brainstorming (and even more actual overhead storming), i finally went up to the exit gate and explained the situation to the guards, one of whom thankfully spoke enough English to understand our strange situation. he said it would be okay if i stayed there, inside the gate, while Rebecca went to go track down Sabrina and the stroller tag, then returned it to me over the gate, and then i could go retrieve the stroller. and that's just what we did.
when we finally both exited, stroller in our victorious clutches, and found Sabrina and the girls, i didn't know whether to laugh or cry. all three of them were completely soaked, although thanks to Nana being awesome, the girls just thought it was part of the adventure.
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| darn you, meteorologists... |
we parted ways for a few hours so we all could eat lunch, change into dry clothes, and recover a little bit. then Sabrina came up to the apartment to watch the girls while Rebecca and i set out on our first duo-sightseeing trip. thankfully, by this time, the clouds had dispersed (but i certainly brought my umbrella).
our first stop was the Largo di Torre Argentina, which is a collection of ruins of four ancient Roman temples, including the platform on which Julius Caesar was stabbed.
the southwest corner of the ruins houses a cat sanctuary, which was a much more hands-on affair than the shelter at the base of the Pyramid of Cestius.
we then walked up towards the Pantheon, stopping at the elephant obelisk along the way. sculpted in 1667 by Bernini, the elephant is topped by an ancient Egyptian obelisk that was discovered nearby. the engraving on the base reads as follo
ws: "Sapientis Egypti / insculptus obelisco figuras / ab elephanto / belluarum fortissima /gestari quisquis hic vides / documentum intellige / robustae mentis esse / solidam sapientiam sustinere [These symbols of the science of Egypt, which you see engraved on the obelisk borne by the elephant, the most powerful of all animals, take them as the precept that a strong mind is needed to support a solid knowledge]."
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note the papal crest at the bottom: this was the last commission Pope Alexander VII would ask of Bernini
(the pope died later that year) |
i ducked into Santa Maria Sopra Minerva for a few minutes, knowing nothing really about the church except for the little blurb in Rick Steves' guidebook mentioning that it contained one of Michelangelo's statues, Christ Bearing the Cross. and there it was, up near the front left corner, without any fanfare (apart from a small sign prohibiting photos). one of my favourite things about Rome is that you can practically trip over a Michelangelo without knowing you're about to do so.
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| Christ Bearing the Cross, by Michelangelo (photo credit here) |
then it was on to the Pantheon itself. the last time Nick and i came here with the girls, Cece was riding on my back and kept yanking my hair every time i tipped my head back to look at the ceiling. oh the glamour of motherhood. so it was quite refreshing to soak it all in, without distraction.
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| the roof of the portico. the ceiling was originally covered in bronze. |
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| tomb of Umberto I, the son of Vittorio Emanuele II and the second king of Italy |
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| Raphael commissioned another sculptor to carve this Madonna and Child to stand above his tomb |
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| Raphael's tomb |
i could sit and watch the clouds float past the oculus all day. we sat on a bench and did just that for about ten minutes.
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| yes, the 15-foot diameter oculus remains open regardless of the weather ... these drains in the gently sloping floor prevent puddles from forming |
from there we caught a bus to Santa Maria della Vittoria. from the outside, the church looks unassuming, and in fact, it used to be a plain Carmelite church. inside, it's now a riot of gold and marble and the vault is frescoed with suitably victorious themes such as Mary triumphing over heresy.
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| Our Lady of Mt. Carmel |
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| a memento mori in marble |
having not done any prior research on this church, i didn't realize that it also contained Bernini's St. Teresa in Ecstasy until i rounded the corner and saw it. of course, this is the main reason most tourists come to visit it, and it was even more incredible to see it without knowing i would be. like the Pieta, the sculpture seems to move and breathe, and no matter how long you look at it, you continue noticing new details.
we sat in the pews whispering to each other for a while about how incredible it was to sit in a place surrounded by so much beauty. in a way, it's sensory overload. after a while, you just can't fully see and appreciate any more detail. but on the other hand, even when you're not paying attention to it, the beauty still surrounds you ... envelopes you ... permeates you.
back to the
memento mori. the last stop on our expedition was the Capuchin Crypt, where the skeletons of 3700 Capuchin monks are preserved in artistic arrangements. Nick met us here on his bicycle, and i just had to take a picture because he looked so European.
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| entrance to the church and crypt |
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| October in Roma |
the monks moved into the monastery here in the 1630s and began burying their dead here. Pope Urban VII, whose brother was a Capuchin monk, ordered that soil be brought from Jerusalem to use for this purpose. after about thirty years, each body was exhumed and the skeletons used to make various displays, intending to remind visitors and the monks themselves of the temporal nature of life. in fact, when you enter the first of the five small burial chambers, a sign reads pointedly: "what you are, we once were. what we are, you will become."
sobered, we said goodbye to Nick (who biked back home) and headed off in search of refreshment. after a long day, nothing quite hits the spot like gelato. we went to Gelateria Artiginale Corona, where i had no choice but to order the birra gelato. yes, that's beer. and yes, it was delicious, especially paired with a scoop of coffee.
we got a little turned around on our walk, but i was very pleased to pass the Fontana delle Tartarughe, a delightful fountain featuring turtles that i've been meaning to find.
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| a daytime view -- i just love the turtles scuttling over the edge (photo credit here) |
finally for some more substantial food. we went to Open Baladin, which you may recall is where Kira and i ended up just a few weeks prior. of course we had to order the garlic and pecorino chips, although they weren't piping hot the way they were when Kira and i had them. but they were still scrumptious. i ordered an Elixir draft and Rebecca tried one of their housemade sodas. a solid A+ from me, probably a C from Rebecca (the soda was described as orange peel and spice, but it had quite a bit more spice than she anticipated). what followed were among the best, if not the best, burgers either of us have ever had. i'm glad i had Rebecca there as a litmus test, because otherwise i may have thought it was just because i hadn't had a burger at a restaurant since we moved here. (i've made them for us a few times!) mine was called the Sherwood burger and it featured a rosemary bun, grilled mushrooms and onions, smoked provolone, guanciale and truffle mayonnaise. unbelievably delicious. Rebecca opted for a bacon cheeseburger and similarly voiced her approval!
and that's all she wrote! suffice it to say, we slept well that night!
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