Going to the Vatican

You know, I had never really been particularly interested in visiting art museums or galleries. I think my parents dragged me around too many when I was a kid. However, when I was planning this trip to Rome, it just didn’t feel as though it would be complete without a visit to the Vatican. I opted for a semi-private tour. This meant there would be a maximum of ten people in our tour and an English-speaking guide. It seemed horrendously expensive at the time of booking but I can honestly say it was worth every penny. Francesca, our diminutive Italian guide, was a bundle of energy. An archeologist by profession, she was also passionate about art history.

Having a guide put meaning to the art that we were looking at, important for me because I have to admit to being rather ignorant about the Renaissance period. The Sistine chapel and St Paul’s Basilica were predictably fantastic but so also were some of the other rooms we passed through on our way to the chapel. One, that I can only call the Map Room because I can’t remember its real name, was a real highlight. On the walls were intricately drawn maps of every region of Italy while the ceiling was covered in the most amazing artwork. We couldn’t take very good pictures in here because you weren’t allowed to use flash photography (the flash makes the color in the art fade). Our guide got quite irate at other tourists who were not in our group and were using flash.

Before we went into the Sistine Chapel, Francesca warned us that she wouldn’t be able to talk us through the art because you are supposed to be silent in the chapel. However, I was amused by the way she completely ignored the strident calls for silence by the stern guards in the packed room. Even as a guard was pointing and walking towards her shouting, “Silence!” she just ducked behind another tourist and continued. I thought she was going to get chucked out of there because the guards do strong arm people out of the chapel from time to time. We saw a man get expelled for taking photographs, strictly forbidden due to copyright.