Rome - Day 3

After yesterday's extra long day, I told Nan we'd take it easier today.  We didn't leave the apartment till about 10, then walked 15 minutes to the Colosseum to have breakfast, after which Nan wanted to go to a nearby church, St. Peter Advincula, because there's a statue of Moses there which was made by Michaelangelo.  After climbing the Palatine and asking around, we finally located the church.  Next to it is a university, I think specializing in Engineering, and it was graduation day!  This shot is of one of the graduates.  Apparently, here in Rome, when somebody graduates, they get to wear a crown of laurel leaves and berries!  What a lovely tradition!  Anyway, Moses was superb and I am thanful to Nan for this new bit of knowledge.

We then decided that the moment was right for what we really wanted to see today -- the Vatican Museum.  No walking now, we took a cab.  A man accosted us near the entrance, saying that we could skip the line and if we paid so much we'd get a guided tour.  We'd been warned about that and we said 'no'.  Lo and behold -- there was NO line.  We could go in directly, and there was no line either to buy tickets.  Instead, a huge crowd which we simply joined.  Words cannot express the ornateness and beauty of the interior!  Decorations of the highest quality displaying the immense wealth of the Vatican.  We gaped and oohed and ahhed our way forward, shooting as we went along from gallery to room to gallery.  I especially marvelled at all the Rafaels in one room ... breathtaking to see them all together, and the richness of the colour and size of the frescoes was unbelievable.  How to concentrate on your supposedly serious work if installed in an 'office' like that?  There was this long corridor lined with various maps where the ceiling looked like gold, and the spaces between the gold filled with various frescoes as well, and all the rooms were this way as well.

The huge prize, though, was the Sistine Chapel.  Unless you see this yourself, you cannot begin to imagine the grandeur and the size of it.  Anyone who does some online research will find out that it's all about Michaelangelo's assignment to cover the entire wall and ceiling with frescoes depicting scenes from the Bible.  Add to that the knowledge that it has been recently cleaned and 'repaired'.  What you will see exceeds all expectations.  Picture-taking is not allowed, naturally.  Just as naturally, though, many found ways and means to sneak behind the watchful eyes of the watchers, including Nan and myself.  You'll see a little extra which I couldn't resist.  The Sistine Chapel is followed by another long corridor of more lavish display, wall after wall, arch after arch.  There's a lot of justifiable overkill there and you end up taking a much longer walk than you thought, but then it is worth every cent you paid for it.  You also start wondering if this is the Vatican at all and not the luxurious chateau of some powerful duke or emperor.  There's nothing holy or sacred about it.  Was this someone's idea of 'heaven'?

Afterwards, we took a cab back to the Piazza d'Argentina because I wanted to see the spot where Julius Caesar was murdered.  Again, very thankful for having taken that Ancient Rome MOOC last October.  There are moments when things come together and you suddenly find some use for half of the stuff in your top drawer.  The exact spot is now marked by a pine tree and the rest of the area is filled with ruins.  There's an information tablet explaining it all.  A quiet spot that tends to be overlooked and passed by except for the fanatics.

Then we walked to the Victor Emmanuel moment, which was now close by, and then to the left of it as you face it, and explored more of the ruins on the Palatine Hill from there.  We could have gone in but, well, why pay (again) for something you can view from the street?  I took some time shooting various ancient stuff, which I really enjoy, and then slowly walked back to the Colosseum this way because it is actually at the end of this rather long and wide avenue (obviously good for parades).  From the Colosseum, and after a number of short rests, it was back up the familiar hill to our B&B.  On the way, I bought some postcards.

End of day.  But not quite.  About an hour after having settled back in our room and caught our breath, I noticed that the camera was not in my bag, and what I thought was the camera was a bottle of water.  Panic!  We thought it might have been left at the snack bar close to the B&B, but no, the owner said.  Then we thought of the postcard shop.  I literally ran back down the hill non-stop, but it was closed.  Nan met me on the way back up.  I found the receipt of the postcards and there was a phone number.  Our hostess tried to phone but no answer.  Tomorrow, for sure, I'll be waiting outside the door till it opens.  In the meantime ... time for a much-needed shower.

To be continued ... hahahaha!