fountains, gelato & museums, oh my! {more Wills in Rome vol. 4 - Trevi Fountain, Palazzo Zuccari Spanish Steps, Vatican Museums}

hold on to your hats, folks -- we're jumping ahead to October 5, when Rebecca and Sabrina returned to the Eternal City from their respite in Florence (which included a visit to the medieval town of San Gimignano, lots of gelato, and a horseback ride through a vineyard followed by a food and wine tasting at the winery. be still my heart). their train arrived in Rome around 10 AM, and we met up for some sightseeing after lunch. 

once again, we clambered aboard the 64 and rode for twenty minutes to Piazza Venezia. the girls refused to wave to the slightly dingy Pinocchio character loitering around the bus stop, not that i blame them. we turned off the main drag and had a lovely walk towards the Trevi Fountain.

the merriest dragon i've ever seen

as is often the case in Rome, you can hear the fountain before you see it. the sound is a cacophony of ancient and modern: the water flowing from the Acqua Vergine aqueduct, the chatter of tourists, the rumbling of wheeled suitcases over the cobblestones, the wooden clapping of vendors hawking carved souvenir toys, the whining drone of sirens in the distance, the laughing shrieks of children, a veritable Babel of languages swirling in the air.

* (photo credit: Rebecca)

throwing coins into the fountain to ensure a return to Rome! an average of €3000 per day is thrown into the fountain. the money is collected by the city and donated to Caritas, a nonprofit that serves the poor.

*

the girls were overjoyed when Nana bought them each a water balloon pig -- pink for Greta, orange for Cecilia. Greta's lasted a day or so, and i'm amazed to report that Cecilia's is still intact, two weeks later. then we escaped the crowds and walked up the street several blocks, to find this whimsical palace, the Palazzo Zuccari. the palace was built in 1592 by the painter Zuccari, whose depiction of the door to Dante's Hell looks just like the palace's own door. it now houses an art history library.

finally we crested the hill, to find the Chiesa della Trinità dei Monti looming on our right, and the Spanish Steps descending to our left. Greta, Sabrina and Rebecca enjoyed the view over the city while Nick and i explored the church. 

this obelisk was brought here as a blank pillar -- the ancient Romans inscribed it with hieroglyphs inspired by the original Egyptian obelisk currently standing in the Piazza del Popolo

the church was built in 1502 by King Louis XII of France, and it has remained the seat of a French cardinal ever since. from 1828 through 2005, the French Society of the Sacred Heart operated here, providing religious education for girls.

sixteenth century frescoes in the side chapel -- some of which were painted by Zuccari of Palazzo Zuccari

Deposition, a copy of a marble statue by Wilhelm Achtermann

i never thought prayer candles could look twee, until now

we joined the girls outside and walked down the Spanish Steps. the steps and the piazza (Piazza di Spagna) are named for the Spanish embassy close by. at the foot of the steps stands Bernini's Fountain of the Boat (Fontana della Barcaccia), which uses water from the same aqueduct that supplies the Trevi Fountain. he designed the fountain to take advantage of the lower water pressure here, so the water gently burbles over the edges of the boat.

it's a wonder Cece's orange pig didn't explode on my neck

giving a whole new meaning to the term "drinking fountain"

 by this point, we were all ready for a little gelato. (or a lot, as the case may be.) we took the metro two stops and then walked a few blocks to reach Gelateria dei Gracchi. this is now tied for my favourite gelato in Rome. for those playing at home, the current standings are: 1) tie between Frigidarium and Gelateria dei Gracchi 2) Fatamorgana 3) all the others. i can't choose between Frigidarium and Gelateria dei Gracchi because their gelato is so different -- Frigidarium's is creamier and denser, while dei Gracchi's has a lighter texture but more intense flavor.

vanilla bourbon + dark chocolate rum. yes please.

Cecilia started off sitting inside, but she quickly became a melting strawberry gelato time-bomb...

... so we moved her outside to minimize the damage. (** photo credit: Sabrina)

from the gelateria, we decided to walk a few blocks and catch a bus home. we had walked for about ten minutes when Rebecca double-checked the transit information on Google Maps and it said the next bus wouldn't leave for over 30 minutes! Rebecca and i had timed entry tickets for the Vatican Museums that evening, so we walked to the next intersection and found a providentially located taxi stand. Nick walked home while Sabrina, Rebecca, the girls and i took a taxi back to their hotel. Greta was beside herself with joy at her first taxi ride. for a kid who's used to being ferried around in an SUV all the time, she's had to adjust to walking or city bus rides everywhere. as we glided past familiar blocks, Greta said contentedly, "it's so peaceful in here!" 

the girls and i walked back to our house while Rebecca and i explored dinner options. we wanted to eat by 6 pm to ensure we had plenty of time to get to the museums at 7. our first pick, Abruzzi, didn't open until 6:30 pm, so Rebecca did some research and found La Soffitta Renovatio, on the Piazza del Risorgimento, just a ten-minute walk from the museum entrance.

when we arrived a few minutes after six, we were immediately ushered to a table for two and the waiter handed us the night's specials, handwritten on a photocopied piece of paper. an auspicious sign! i ordered the fried zucchini flower to start, knowing that this was a classic Roman appetizer. i confidently explained to Rebecca that "it's like their version of a blooming onion" and we both had visions of breaded zucchini spears artfully arranged in the shape of flower petals.

well ... it turns out that "fried zucchini flowers" are exactly what they sound like: the flowers of the zucchini plant, rolled up in breading with anchovies and fried. for someone who never thought about the zucchini plant having flowers, i found them quite tasty, reminiscent of a spring-roll, as Rebecca said (she tried a few bites, sans anchovies!).

Toto, we're not at Outback Steakhouse anymore (*)

after that albeit pleasant surprise, the rest of our meal was just as expected. i had the hearty oxtail ragu (which paired marvelously with my glass of Moltepulciano), and Rebecca had the pasta all'amatriciana. during the course of our meal, the restaurant rapidly filled up, with a mix of Italians and tourists. i finally looked at my watch at 6:45 and realized that we needed to be on our way. i'd say the service here is as close to American as you can get, meaning that the waiters were prompt, attentive and seemed genuinely interested in us having a good meal, but one key cultural difference is that they don't stop by the table unless you summon them. it's considered rude, akin to interrupting your meal, here. as we left the restaurant, several of the waiters stood in a line in the entryway, wishing us "buonasera" -- the icing on the cake! i'd definitely recommend La Soffitta Renovatio if you happen to be in the Vatican/Borgo neighborhood.

pleasantly full, we walked around the walls of Vatican City in the spitting rain until we reached the museum entrance. by this time, it was 7:10, and i was a little nervous that we would have to wait until the 7:30 time slot to enter the museum. (a practical note: the Vatican Museums are open on Friday nights from April through October, but you have to book online in advance.) however, we were able to bypass the line of 7:30 ticket-holders and walk right in. the lobby looks more like an airport terminal than a museum: you have to clear security first, and then there are numerous desks and kiosks for groups, ticket sales, audioguides, etc. we were using Rick Steves' audioguide, which promised us a manageable tour of the highlights. with 54 rooms and over 20,000 artifacts on display (out of 70,000 in the complete collection), it's impossible to see everything in one visit. however, my one regret is that we didn't realize that his guide skips entirely over the Pinacoteca (painting collection). by the time we got to it, the museum was closing (and we were pretty well saturated with art at that point, so maybe it's for the best).

after climbing the stairs to the main level, we walked out into an expansive courtyard to find this view of the dome.

*

then it was on to the Cortile della Pigna (Pinecone Courtyard), a huge open space dominated by a two-thousand-year-old bronze pinecone that originally stood near the Pantheon. the pinecone was later moved to the entrance of Old St. Peter's and finally brought to the palace here during the Renaissance.

we crossed the courtyard and entered the palace on the opposite side, with a brief glance down the hallway to the right at the collections of Greek and Roman antiquities.

then it was up a short flight of stairs to the Belvedere Palace, named precisely because of the marvelous view over the city.

these painted drapes somehow achieved the texture of real fabric

we then went through the Octagonal Courtyard, which houses some of the oldest sculptures in the Vatican collection. in fact, this statue of Laocoön was the first piece in what would become the Vatican Museum's collection. it was discovered in 1506 near the Colosseum, after being lost for over a thousand years. the statue was carved out of four blocks of marble, and depicts Laocoön, a priest of Troy, who tried to dissuade his people from accepting the Trojan Horse from the Greeks. because of his attempt to thwart the Greeks, the Greek gods sent snakes to kill the priest and his two sons. this statue had a significant influence on Michelangelo.

Laocoön

the remainder of the courtyard is filled with other famous statues, including the Apollo Belvedere and a statue of the River God, Arno. if Arno looks slightly familiar, it's because Michelangelo used his pose as a model for Adam's relaxed posture in the Creation of Man fresco in the Sistine Chapel. and he used the face of the Apollo Belvedere as a model for Christ's face in the Last Judgment fresco. 

Apollo Belvedere

Arno

the next room contains a mutilated piece of marble from the first century BC. despite its missing pieces, it still emanates power and movement. known as the Belvedere Torso, it is all that remains of an ancient statue that also served as inspiration for Michelangelo (he used it as a model for Christ's body in the Last Judgement freso in the Sistine Chapel). 

dome in the room containing the Belvedere Torso

the Sala Rotunda (Round Room) is modeled after the Pantheon. it holds an enormous red porphyry basin that used to stand in Nero's house (the Domus Aureus). the mosaic floor is 1700 years old, and comes from the Baths of Caracalla (so crazy to see it preserved here after having seen fragments at the baths just a few days before!). the bronze statue of Hercules used to stand at the Theater of Pompey.

I made Rebecca stand here for scale :)

from here, Rick Steves' tour leads up the stairs, but we ducked around the side to view the Egyptian rooms. this is one of my favourite sections of the museum because the artifacts are just mind-blowing.

this huge porphyry sarcophagus was made for St. Helena, the mother of Constantine (although it was not used)

the room dividing the Sala Rotunda from the Egyptian rooms

ancient hieroglyphs

Stele of Ptahmes and his mother Ruy (end of the 18th dynasty: 1550 BC)

wooden coffin of Amenhotep (end of 21st dynasty; 10th century BC)

a section of the actual Book of the Dead

the most impressive part of the room: a perfectly preserved mummy 

jars for preserving vital organs

at this point, a brass band began playing the Pinecone Courtyard, and as we continued through the hallways of the Egyptian rooms, they began playing a piece that could have been from the soundtrack to Charlton Heston's Ten Commandments. Rebecca and i kept looking at each other with eyebrows raised like "do you believe this is real life right now?!". 

Head of the Pharoah Mentuhotep II (11th dynasty: 2000s BC)

statue of the god Bes

funeral reliefs discovered at Palmyra, dating from the first few centuries AD

inscribed cylinder of Nebuchadnezzar II (yes, the Nebuchadnezzar of Daniel's fiery furnace!)

frieze depicting Assyrian archers, from the Palace of Sennacherib in Ninevah (700 BC)

still in awe of what we had just seen, we retraced our steps around the exhibit and set off down the Hall of Tapestries. there is just no way for my camera to capture the immense size and detail of these tapestries. even so, i felt compelled to try!

detail on the ceiling fresco: St. Thomas Aquinas and the Summa

the Massacre of the Holy Innocents

Assassination of Julius Caesar

Resurrection of the Lord

"I'm baaaaack!"

next is the Gallery of Maps. i loved this room far more than i anticipated. the walls are covered with paintings depicting Italy in the 1500s. the western side of Italy is on the left, while the eastern side is on the right, and the maps start at the southern tip as you enter the hall and move up towards the north as you walk through. i found it so fascinating to see the old names of the towns, and how much has stayed the same over the past five hundred years. 

the ceilings are decorated in intricate stuccoes that portray famous events in Italy or the church that occurred in the place corresponding to the map below. i could have spent an hour just walking slowly down this room with my head back, studying the ceiling (which i didn't anticipate doing until we reached the Sistine Chapel!). 

the Gallery of Maps

I just don't have words for this ceiling!

the region of Calabria (the "boot" of Italy)

every single square foot of the ceiling was covered with paintings like this

sixteenth century Roma

Something about Hannibal and Romans ...

Ancient Italy

Modern Italy (in the 1500s!)

Venice

finally, we entered the famous Raphael Rooms. these were the private apartments of Pope Julius II. first is the Room of Constantine, which was decorated with frescoes designed by Raphael (but actually painted by his students). 

The Baptism of Constantine

the second room is the Room of Heliodorus, which is where Pope Julius II held private audiences.

portrait of Pope Julius at mass (pictured kneeling, in the red cloak). his illegitimate daughter Felice is painted on the left. and in the lower right-hand corner...

... is a self-portrait of Raphael (in red, looking out at the viewer).

the Liberation of St. Peter

the Room of the Segnatura contains one of Raphael's most famous frescoes, The School of Athens. Plato (with finger pointing up) and Aristotle (beside him) hold court. Socrates is to the left, in green. the painting is set in the new St. Peter's Basilica, which was under construction at the time.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph above, surrounded by various philosophers, scientists, and saints

the next room is known as the Room of the Fire of the Borgo. this fire broke out in the year 847 in the neighborhood adjacent to the Vatican.

next, we entered Pope Urban VIII small chapel, notable for its moving painting of the Deposition of Jesus, as well as the sixteenth-century stamped leather "wallpaper".

i knew we were getting close to the Sistine Chapel, and had to laugh at this ominous sign:

we did, in fact, have to go down many stairs. but before we arrived at the Sistine Chapel, we went through the contemporary art exhibit, which left me feeling rather uninspired. i do find some modern art interesting and thought-provoking, but Raphael is a tough act to follow.

cope designed by Henri Matisse

Vetrata del Coro, by Henri Matisse (1949)

Madonna, by Lucio Fontana (1956)

Le Christ et le peintre, by Marc Chagall (1951) - I actually do like this one

The Trinity, by Salvador Dali (1960)

then, at long last, we went up a few steps and entered the Sistine Chapel. no photographs are allowed inside, and it's supposed to be silent, but people invariably begin murmuring to themselves and so every minute or so, a guard would announce "SILENZIO!! Silencccce" over a loudspeaker, which was sort of counterproductive. people would hush for a few minutes, and then as soon as more people entered, the volume level would gradually drift up again until it hit the threshold for the guard to repeat his (very loud) request for silence. i don't know if it would be practical since there are so many people coming into the chapel, but it seemed like it would be more effective if they had somebody standing directly at the door, reiterating "silence" and "no photography" to every visitor.

that aside, the chapel itself is absolutely stunning. like so many other things in Rome, pictures absolutely do not do it justice. i'd seen reproductions of many of Michelangelo's frescoes, of course, especially the Creation of Adam, but the details and the colors are so incredibly vibrant (especially for being five hundred years old!). the chapel is larger than i imagined, with the ceiling soaring much higher than i thought. and every square inch of it is covered in frescoes.

as soon as we walked in, Rebecca and i snagged a spot on the long benches that line each side of the chapel. from here, we just sat and took it all in for several minutes. i had the transcript of Rick Steves' audioguide available on my phone, but i didn't even want to look at it for a while, until i had absorbed the beauty of the room without analyzing it too much.

eventually, we did start scrolling through the guide, examining the Creation cycle frescoes on the ceiling, the prophets and prominent figures in Biblical history along the walls, and finally, the Last Judgment fresco that covers the altar wall. all told, we spent an entire hour in the Chapel, an hour i will never forget.

by this point, it was about 10:25 pm, and they begin ushering people out at 10:30 since the museum closes at 11 on Friday nights. so we decided to beat the rush and left of our own volition just before the guard switched from "SILENZIO!" to "WE ARE CLOSING!".

the route to the exit takes you through several other galleries, and passes the Pinacoteca (art gallery), but we didn't have the time or the mental space to process much more. there is a lovely early Christian art gallery, as well as several gift shops (of course).

artifacts from Palestine, Syria, and Bethlehem

pottery found in the catacombs

map of the world, by Giralamo de Verrazzano (1529)

Armenian cross erected in Rome in 1246

despite having seen multitudes of photos on Instagram, i had completely forgotten about the spiral staircase that leads you to the exit of the museums. we had to plan our stops for photos with caution, as many people were trying to walk and take photos at the same time (and poor Rebecca got squashed at one point when the people in front of her stopped suddenly and the people behind her walked right into her).

every inch of the staircase was carved as well!

 as we walked back home, our hearts and minds were full of all the beauty we had just seen. and we were stunned by the realization that we had skipped several large sections of the museum. but i don't regret our choice to spend an entire hour in the Sistine Chapel. to be surrounded by the work of a master for so long is a luxury that i don't take for granted.

we passed St. Peter's, the lights shimmering on the wet pavement, and then, dear readers, it was time for bed!

*