{"id":2035,"date":"2023-11-17T22:46:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-17T22:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sarahanderictraveltheworld.com\/?p=2035"},"modified":"2024-12-09T04:20:58","modified_gmt":"2024-12-09T04:20:58","slug":"the-vatican","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sarahanderictraveltheworld.com\/index.php\/2023\/11\/17\/the-vatican\/","title":{"rendered":"Il Vaticano"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Activity level: \ud83c\udf36\ufe0f\ud83c\udf36\ufe0f\ud83c\udf36\ufe0f<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Modes of transportation: \ud83d\ude97 \ud83d\udc5f<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We slept as late as we could, but we had to get moving for our Vatican tour. We were running late, so we ended up eating the mozzarella, prosciutto, bread, olive oil, and marinated artichokes that we bought a few days before. Luckily we had them on hand, because we didn\u2019t get another chance to eat until dinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We ended up being able to get a taxi to the Vatican and showed up exactly on time. We checked in and joined the tour group of our tour guide, Giovani. He was an art historian, and really knew his stuff\u2014it was fascinating hearing him talk about all the works in the Vatican (there are over 5 million).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We started in the Piazza della Pigna, where we got a full briefing on the Sistine Chapel. There, Giovani explained all the \u201cEaster eggs\u201d in the chapel, since he couldn\u2019t talk much inside the chapel (it\u2019s very crowded).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Then, we started to walk through the museum. It was overwhelming. There are literally hundreds of thousands of amazing ancient sculptures and paintings that would be the centerpiece of any other museum in the world. Eric especially liked seeing the Laocoon statue, which used to be on all his Latin textbooks in high school (and was revolutionary because it\u2019s the first known sculpture to show emotion).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Eric had PTSD flashbacks to 8th grade Latin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Eric: “Quick, look like you’re a dramatic statue”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here are some images we snapped while walking around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We also saw \u201cthe torso,\u201d which is maybe the most influential statue ever because of its anatomy and lifelike twisting position. Michaelangelo viewed himself as a \u201cstudent of the torso\u201d and many famous artists came to study it. It even heavily inspires Jesus\u2019 famous position in The Last Judgment painting in the Sistine Chapel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Crazy to think that half of a statue of a guy hunching over could be so influential, but that’s how it was.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Even the floor of the museum was amazing. It was constructed of dozens of types of marble of every color\u2014and they just let millions of people a year walk on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We also were surprised to find so many Egyptian artifacts in the Vatican! It was as if we were there just the other day (actually 2 days before).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The most notable part of the day was the hall of maps, mostly made in the 15th century of Italy. There are about 50 maps in the hall, and we were able to find Sarah\u2019s ancestral city of Prata!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sarah was very excited about finding “PRATA”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We went to another hallway of even more art. Lots of art!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Finally, it was on to the Sistine Chapel. We spent about 20 minutes in there just admiring the iconic artwork of Michelangelo and other Italian artists (it had much better clarity than the last time Eric was there 15 years ago\u2014they removed much of the soot). No phones allowed, so no pictures from in there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ok maybe 1. Eric’s phone slipped and he accidentally got this strange shot out of his pocket.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

They led us out of the Sistine Chapel through the hallway where the pope usually walks (one of the benefits of the guided tour\u2014the regular ticket doesn\u2019t allow access here) into the St Peter\u2019s Square, where we ended the tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From there, we went into the Basilica and walked around. We enjoyed seeing the Pieta, Michelangelo\u2019s most famous statue of the Virgin Mary holding Jesus. We couldn\u2019t get close since some guy hit it with a hammer 50 years ago, but it was still amazing even from a distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s surprisingly hard to find the crypt, but we made it downstairs and saw the tomb of St Peter. We had plans to see the Capuchin Crypts, so we sort of sped through this part and headed to the exit. You’ve seen one crypt, you’ve seen them all (not really).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We wanted to send a few post cards and get a few gifts, so we quickly stopped in the Vatican post office and gift shop before heading out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We messed up and didn\u2019t realize it would be rush hour, so we couldn\u2019t get a taxi (one guy said he\u2019d take us for 47\u20ac, and it\u2019s about a 40 minute walk\u2026 so we said no thanks).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Its easy to go on a 40 minute walk when you get these views!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We ended up getting there too late, so we had to miss the Capuchin Crypts (until tomorrow).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We love Aunt Nancy!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Aunt Nancy very graciously picked us up and drove us to the city center, where we got out and had a native Roman-guided walking tour (by Aunt Nancy of course). We saw the Pantheon at night, which was beautiful (but closed), and went through Piazza Novena, one of the most famous squares in Rome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sarah loved the ancient Roman architecture at every turn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We also solved the mystery of these things throughout the city – They are water fountains for drinking! And yes, the water is delicious.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After that, we had dinner with Aunt Nancy and her friend Loretta (who gave us a tour of the embassy) at another one of Aunt Nancy\u2019s favorite restaurants, Babin. The food there was amazing, and Sarah ordered the best thing on the menu\u2014ravioli stuffed with bufala mozzarella and truffle cream. We also learned an important lesson about wine etiquette from Nancy, when the waiter poured us dinner wine before we had finished our champagne instead of waiting for the food to arrive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It was extra late when we finished up there, so Aunt Nancy drove us back to Sean\u2019s. It\u2019s been really nice having her guide us around Rome!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sarah and Eric get overwhelmed at the bonus country on the trip before enjoying yet another amazing tour and dinner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-2035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-italy","tag-rome"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahanderictraveltheworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahanderictraveltheworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahanderictraveltheworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahanderictraveltheworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahanderictraveltheworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2035"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sarahanderictraveltheworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3585,"href":"https:\/\/sarahanderictraveltheworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2035\/revisions\/3585"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahanderictraveltheworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahanderictraveltheworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahanderictraveltheworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahanderictraveltheworld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}