Tuesday we visited the smallest country in the world, Vatican City, with a population of under 1000 people (no children) and a size of around 100-110 acres In size it is about 1/8 the size of NYC’s Central Park; has no income tax, has a grocery store (only open to citizens of the Vatican), a post office. The Pope is protected by Swiss guards: males age 19-30, Christian, trained in the military and at least 5’8.5″ tall. They wear Renaissance era colorful striped uniforms (probably designed by Jules Repond and not by Michaelangelo) and free food and lodging (plus about $2000 a month). The official language of Vatican City is Latin. To become a citizen one must be appointed and ends when the appointment ends.
Vatican City of course is the home of the Pope of the Catholic Church. We first walked to the top of the St. Peter’s Basilica, an easy 500+ step climb (after the Phoenician steps in Capri, everything seems easy). The dome is beautiful and we saw it up close. The letters are around six feet tall; and when we reached the top and had the view of the statues adorning the front of the church they seemed huge close up…around 3-4 meters high! An interesting fact is that before the exterior was electrified it was lit by candles, oil lamps and torches. It was electrified around the 1940s.
We had a good view of the Vatican gardens and Rome from the top. In Rome no building can be higher than St Peter’s Basilica (which is the largest church in the world).
We next navigated the crowd to reach the Vatican museum. We were rushed through a bit but it was overwhelming nonetheless…there were hundreds of statues, an entire room of hand painted maps of Italy, a painting by DaVinci where, similar to the Mona Lisa, the main character’s eyes (and also feet) seemed to follow you as you walked past and the ceilings were beautifully decorated.
After leaving the museum we went into the meticulously painted Sistine Chapel, painted my sculptor Michelangelo, who painted it lying on his back. It took four years and was intense. He did not however go blind from the work, but did have transitory vision problems for a while after finishing his masterpiece. He was a sculptor and did not like painting…he was also an architect and poet…a genius. He also painted the Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel.
After leaving the Chapel, we had lunch at our apartment then headed out to see the Spanish Steps. Susan and I had visited them already but Tim and Tracey had not. It is a baroque staircase with a boat shaped fountain below, built to connect the Trinità dei Monti Church at the top of the hill with the Piazza di Spagna and the Spanish Embassy to the Holy See below.
We wandered back towards our apartment after that…I of course visited a grocery store and found a vegetable and fruit stand on the way home which had the broccoli romanesco which I like a lot.