Vatican City

St Peter's Square

We set Saturday aside for a visit to the Vatican. With temperatures rising above 30 degrees we were determined to take things easily. We had booked our tickets for the Vatican Museums in advance and began there. 

Modern sculpture of Christ
in the Vatican collection

The museums are vast and contain magnificent works of art by many famous artists. We had visited the Hermitage in St Petersburg on our Baltic cruise in 2010, and only there had we ever experienced so many masterpieces, from different periods, under one roof. No description can really do justice to what we saw, but we were particularly taken by the 'Gallery of Maps' and the 'Raphael Rooms', which were decorated by Raphael and his assistants in the early 16th century. There is an impressive collection of modern religious art as well. 

Detail from The School of Athens
fresco by Raphael

Eventually, though, your route brings you to the breathtaking Sistine Chapel, one of the most famous sights in the world. Michaelangelo's altar wall fresco, 'The Last Judgment', his incomparable ceiling, and the wall frescoes by various artists are breathtaking. Photography is not allowed so all that could be done was to gaze in wonder at these astonishing human achievements. The side walls show episodes from  the lives of Moses and Christ, and illustrate the exodus parallels in the life and work of Jesus. The ceiling is adorned with scenes from the Old Testament, centred on the stories of Genesis 1-11.


Leaving the museums, we sought out a restaurant for a leisurely lunch to gather strength for the next stage of the visit, to St Peter's itself. Thanks to our guide book we had spectacular success at Il Bar Sotto il Mare ('The Bar under the Sea'!), an real Italian seafood restaurant, only a few hundred metres from the Museums but full of local families rather than tourists. It was probably the most memorable meal of our stay and we were fully refreshed to join the queues in St Peter's Square for the basilica.

Interior of the Dome of St Peter's

Pieta - Michaelangelo

We didn't have quite enough freedom to look round in St Peter's because they began to close off some areas for a Saturday evening mass. The size and splendour of the square and the basilica are surely unrivalled. There can be no more magnificent, and opulent, church building in Christendom. Constructed, one trusts, for the glory of God, it is bound to raise questions in some minds about  how far it really does glorify the God of the poor, but if those doubts are suspended, it has to be acknowledged as quite magnificent. 


I can't testify to highly-charged spiritual feelings about the Vatican, but it did feel awesome to stand in the place that so many regard as the temporal focus of Christianity.


We decided to leave the ascent of the Dome for another visit and headed off towards Castel Sant'Angelo, the citadel that overlooks the Vatican and the city of Rome itself. There were indeed some spectacular views from the top (and the most expensive beer and Coca Cola we found throughout our stay).

The city from Castel Sant'Angelo

It was an exhausting, but richly rewarding day. We collapsed back into our hotel room and emerged only for a sandwich and a cheaper beer in Piazza della Republica, before bed.




Do everything for the glory of God

1 Corinthians 10:31