Day 18 (21 May 2025)
Our Rome hotel provides breakfast every morning and it's a highlight of my day, not because of the food but because of the housekeeper who always greets me with a bright "buongiorno!" and makes me a brilliant cappuccino without me asking. Often, she'll ask if I want a second cup 😊 It's a small and charming dining room with a surprising large assortment of food for breakfast - eggs, ham, bacon, pastries (filled and plain), fruit, yoghurt and so on.
And Nutella! After being in Italy, I have developed an addiction to Nutella and taken to eating them straight from the packet, much to the horror of my son 😆
I did a drawing of the dining room on the first day.
Initially when booking the air tickets, I'd regretted booking return tickets from Rome as I realised too late that we could have flown back from Venice at around the same price, saving us a train trip back to Rome. Well, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise because we couldn't visit Vatican City on our first leg as the Sistine Chapel was closed due to the conclave (election of Pope). Fortunately, the new Pope has now been elected so the Sistine Chapel has been reopened to the public. And since we're back in Rome, it's back up on our itinerary! God really arranges schedules perfectly for me, I'm so blessed.
Before we went on our afternoon guided tour, we had pasta and pizza lunch at a restaurant close by.
It's a walled city. Everyone entering Vatican City has to go through thorough security checks and metal detectors.
This is the main entrance into the city.
I tried sketching at one of the walled sections but
it didn't go well and started to rain, so I abandoned it.
The other way to enter Vatican City is via the Vatican Museums. The two statues on top of the entrance are of Michelangelo and Raphael. Founded in the 16th C by Pope Julius II, the museums display artworks collected by the Catholic church over the years (about 20,000 of them!), including loads of rare Roman sculptures and famous Renaissance masterpieces.
View of the Vatican Gardens from the terrace.
The Vatican has several courtyards. This is the Pinecone Courtyard with the double ramp staircase designed by Michelangelo.
There are many statues in the courtyards, but the most famous one is this: Laocoon and His Sons, by virtue of being the very first sculpture purchased for the Vatican in 1506. It depicts the Trojan priest Laocoon and his two sons being attacked by giant serpents.
Then we entered the Vatican Museums proper and discovered that it was a trek in itself - 24 galleries, all building up in gradiosity. It felt like it was deliberately designed to build suspense until you reach the climax - the Sistine Chapel. You can think of it as an experiential movie during the Renaissance!
I thought this was funny. It's the Hall of Animals with sculptures of what they deemed to be "exotic" animals, from viewing the animals that were introduced at the Colosseum. Everything from wild boars to giraffes to crocodiles. Remember National Geographic didn't exist back then so these animals must have been fascinating to people!
This is the Round Room, built with a rotunda to imitate the Pantheon. The floor is made from mosaics from 3 BC!
The room also contains a statue of Hercules. It's a bronze statue which is rare as most bronze statues were melted down after the fall of the Roman empire.
The Vatican museums are beautiful and so much to look at - from the ceiling to the floor. To be honest though, I lost the plot halfway. After a while it all started to look the same - rooms of gold, paintings, sculptures, pots. The guide's unceasing commentary became white noise. I really wanted to hear what she was saying, I did. It wasn't her fault. But after more than an hour of walking corridors, the ageing brain couldn't absorb any more.
Finally, we reached the Gallery of Maps, which is the last room before the Sistine Chapel. The long over-the-top ceiling that greets you was clearly designed to strike awe because it is indeed magnificent. The 120-metre gallery is a gigantic mural with 40 massive frescos of topographical maps of Italy, painted by Danti in the 16th C. The maps were used back then to navigate the region and are estimated to be 80% accurate, which is freakin' amazing!
And finally, we reach the pièce de résistance - the Sistine Chapel. Here, we see Michelangelo's giftedness in all its glory. Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to paint the ceiling when the latter was only 33. Michaelangelo was reluctant to accept the commission, he considered himself more as a sculptor. But the Pope insisted so how do you say no? He agreed to try, he wasn't even familiar with fresco painting and learned as he did it.😮
Completed over four years from 1508-1512, the ceiling displays 9 scenes from the Book of Genesis. Contrary to popular belief, he didn't paint the ceiling lying on his back but standing up. Apparently he complained about how he hated painting it, how it hurt to reach above your head to paint and how he wasn't a painter. He even wrote a sonnet detailing the pains he endured (I guess artist tantrums are not a new phenomenon!) Because of the sloping sections of the ceiling, he painted some characters taking into account perspective - eg. Jonah is seen to lean back even though the ceiling curves towards us.
Classic Michelangelo, he used vibrant colours and all his figures are muscular, showing his familiarity with anatomy. It's
quite insane looking at the paintings in person. I stood in the middle
of the room and stared right up the Creation of Adam. Unreal.
The Sistine chapel is deemed so sacred that photography is not allowed here, to provide a contemplative environment for visitors. If the guards spot you, they might force you to erase your photos. Andre managed to sneak in a few blurry ones, as you can see here. ðŸ¤
The
wall fresco, The Last Judgement, was painted 25 years
later and also took 4 years. It shows Jesus Christ in the centre pronouncing his verdict on the final judgement day. The saints and angels are gathered around him, the saved are ascending on the left while the damned are descending on the right. St Bartholomew is holding his flayed skin which is a portrait of Michelangelo himself. Satan is not depicted here. Instead there's Minos, a classical character, ushering the damned into hell.
Fun fact: Michelangelo faced some criticism that
there was too much nudity and his people were too muscular. (Art critics
are apparently an ancient and everlasting breed!) One of his
harshest critics ended up being painted as Minos with donkey ears and his nudity covered by a coiled snake 😆 Never mess with an artist!
No expense
was spared - gold was used liberally and lapis lazuli for the brilliant
blue skies. Lapis lazuli is a rare precious stone and was ground to produce ultramarine blue. It was so rare and expensive (the pigment was more expensive than gold!) that only rich patrons could afford it, and it was mostly reserved only for important elements eg. the Virgin Mary's clothes. (Ultramarine is now made synthetically, phew!)
After Michelangelo's death, growing opposition to the painting led to a decree for the nude characters to have drapery painted over them. 😡 Most of these were removed in the 1990 restoration.
After the Sistine Chapel, we went on to visit St Peter's Basilica. Since it's
the seat of the Pope, it was designed to strike awe. It's the largest church in the world and its architects
included Michelangelo, Raphael and Bernini.
The interior of the basilica is one of the
most magnificent I've seen.
When you first enter the basilica, the first statue you see is Michelangelo's Pieta. (It's behind plexiglass because in 1972, a loony attacked it with a hammer, causing substantial damage 😡.) The statue shows Mary carrying the body of Christ and is carved from a single block of Carrara marble. Like all Michelangelo's sculptures, it's mesmerising. The limp body of Christ
is soft and weighted, it's crazy to think it was carved from marble.
The basilica has many statues. The movement on some of these is simply quite amazing.
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| St Longinus by Bernini |
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| St Veronica by Mochi |
The dome is the tallest in the world at almost 140 metres high and a giant bronze canopy by Bernini is the centrepiece.
More pics of the interior.
If I'm being completely honest, while St Peter's is magnificent architecturally, I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. It was very crowded and many visitors were on a pilgrimage, participating in processions with a leader carrying a huge cross. There were also many touching the holy doors reverently and the guide told us people would queue up before a statue of St. Peter's to kiss his right foot and ask for a blessing. It all made me feel rather uncomfortable.
Outside, there are the Vatican guards.
And here, Andre is pointing to the balcony where the Pope addresses the crowds.
Outside St Peter's is the signature colonnade designed by Bernini. 284 columns form an elliptical shape, representing the church's embrace of all humanity. Can't show in the photo but it's really beautiful if you can see the full 360 degrees.
St Peter's at dusk.
A few years ago when I first discovered art, I drew this view of St Peter's from a photo. So stoked to finally be here in person. The light was against me though, I guess this view would be perfect at sunrise.
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Walked to our dinner venue and on the way, passed Castel Sant'Angelo. Originally built by Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself almost 2,000 years ago, it was later used by popes as a fortress and castle. I wonder what it's like to be a citizen of a country with history dating back to before Christ. The sheer richness of heritage is something people like me, coming from young nations, will never understand.
We met up with Lesley-Anne and Joel for our last dinner in Italy. Decided to go back to our favourite pizza place - Spizzica!
We bought a huge selection and proceeded to an open square to feast. Two ladies walked by and asked where we got the pizzas as everything looked delicious. It was!
Walked past a building with the Singapore flag. It turned out to be the Singapore embassy! Of course the two civil servants had to take a photo with it 😆
Finally, sharing gelato and coffee. Perfetto 💙
