Day trip outside Italy: Walking through 50+ rooms of art at the Vatican

domenica 8 marzo 2009

So I realized I never wrote up Sunday from the Barcelona trip. There wasn't really much to say, other than entire day of traveling (11 a.m. to 9 p.m., or thereabouts) and a sequel to that first time I missed a train to Viterbo from Rome on a Sunday and had to wait two hours for the next one. Of course, it was also raining, so kind of an eh way to end the weekend.

Things picked up again this week though, despite my first final on Thursday. Got a 20/20 on the oral part, so that's a plus. Jacky declared next Tuesday black bean burrito night part III, which is another success. Monday night will be stereotypical italian/Purim dinner, which should be fun since I haven't been to a Monday night dinner in about a month.

Time is flying here, because sometimes cliches are the best way to describe the situation. I come to a lot of random realizations that I tell myself I should blog about later, but I never remember to write them down so they mostly end up lost somewhere in my memory. Mostly cultural things, I think, but just more stuff to send me to shock when I get back to the US.

*******Friday********
Friday our Renaissance class had a field trip to the Vatican with the art history class. It almost seems unfair to count it, but you can call this trip number two outside the country.

Being in Vatican City was pretty fascinating, and I managed to control the weather by bringing both an umbrella and sunglasses and not much room to carry either. So it was cloudy most of the day but didn't rain, although I did don my shades at some point for a few minutes.

Anyway, seeing inside the Vatican was way, way more awing than the outside, but was more of a downer when thinking of the reality behind it. That building is ridiculous inside. Gold surrounds and fills everything. Statues, mosaics and paintings of Jesus and other holy scenes and characters are everywhere. Towards one end is basically what can be construed as a giant wooden chupah that I think the art history professor said was something like 48 meters tall. A fountain of holy water with two giant angel babies that are taller than me stand near the entrance. A massive, probably holy clock surrounded by fiery bursts of gold towers over everything at the exact opposite site of the building from where we walked in. And, since the building is shaped like a cross, two huge open spaces where the hands go housed more giant art, sculptures, gold and marble. I'm also pretty sure at least three masses were going on in there at the same time.

The Vatican museum tour was kind of disappointing, partly because of the fact that I could hear virtually nothing the art history professor was saying even as she gave us some background info before we even entered either of the buildings. The other part was because she needed to leave at 14:30 so her plan was to rush us through the museum to the Sistine Chapel and then peace out, leaving us to decide what to do next. Our Renaissance professor basically let the art history prof. handle the trip, which was disappointing because she probably knew all kinds of things that we'd never find out otherwise about the Vatican.

I somehow ended up separated from most of the group for most of the trip through the museum. For a while I was with Christine, Hana and Emily, but pretty soon it was just Emily and me. We realized later on when we met back with the group that the four of us had taken the long way to the Sistine Chapel, which explained the rooms of art that we walked through, eventually numbering past 50-something before we got to the chapel.

Emily and I lost Christine and Hana somewhere around the School of Athens. I know it was there because in everyone's craze to find the chapel, I had forgotten that painting of Raphael's was there. Absolutely. Incredible. After seeing it in photos so many times, it was completely breathtaking to see in person. We must've just stood in front of it for at least a good 10-15 minutes before moving on. Looking through all the greats that Raphael painted took a while to soak in. I knew even as we were walking out of the room that painting would be the highlight of my day.

And it really was. We also saw Rodin's "The Thinker" and two of Dali's paintings, neither of which we had known were there and both of which we were amazed to see. Fifty-plus rooms later, we got to the Sistine Chapel. Maybe I was jaded by walking a literal mile, at least, to get to it, maybe it was low expectations after Raphael's work, but I honestly wasn't nearly as impressed by the chapel as I thought I would be.

Don't get me wrong, Michaelangelo is a master. I was so struck by the lines, columns and other shapes on the ceiling he made appear completely 3-D by simply painting them. Especially considering how long ago he painted it, he got all the optical illusions completely perfect. At first I didn't realize some of the columns and frames around the art on the ceiling weren't actually there, but made of shades of white paint. Seriously, wow.

Maybe it's just been too overhyped. But where Adam and God nearly touch their fingers (aka the ET hands) in the "Creation of Adam" is a small panel in the center of the ceiling, virtually unnoticeable unless I looked for it. I had to search and then turn my head upside-down to find it. Maybe the problem is it's too far away to thoroughly study. All I know is, along with the Pieta, these were the only works I've wanted to see that were more unimpressive when I saw them in person.

Still, for Raphael, Rodin and Dali, the trip was worth it. Emily and I found the group just as they were leaving the chapel (we must've spent half the time in there that they did) and just as she'd promised, the art history professor was gone at 14:30. Our Renaissance professor was lost somewhere in the museum, possibly still looking at the chapel or possibly in some other room; where ever she was, she didn't have a cell phone so no one could reach her. It'd been weeks since I'd had some good gelato and Christine said she knew a great place with soy (!!!) gelato on Corso Italia and she was going over there to go shopping with Lauren, Hana and Felicia, if I'd like to come.

Would I!! We metro'ed from the Vatican back into Italy, my mouth already watering for some good gelato. We walked to the street through a huge gate that I hadn't remembered seeing before, but maybe I'd never been all the way down the corso before. Just inside the gate was a huge obilisque carved with hieroglyphics, a tribute to I have no idea what.

What I do know is we walked into the first tiny shop on the corso because it looked cute, and hanging there inside was exactly the kind of bag I'd been looking for to replace my one that's begun ripping. Figuring it'd be at least 15 euro, I flipped over the price tag to see how much I wouldn't want to pay for it. Printed on the back of the tag, it told me: 4.90 euro. I did a double take, figuring it was a mistake. But the guy at the counter told me the bag costs 4.90. So I bought a new bag to replace my ripped one. A few stores down, right next to H&M, I bought vanilla soy gelato and frutti di bosco regular gelato and it was absolutely incredible. Next time I'm in Roma I'm heading directly to that gelateria.

A good day all in all. A long day, for sure, filled with interesting thoughts and realizations about christianity, but more importantly, filled with appreciation of knowledge from Raphael and appreciation of gelato from my belly.