Crazy Trip: Day 5: Vatican City

Yes, that will be fourth country in five days! (Well, if you consider Vatican City as a country, which it is!)

Woke up at about 7 am, very much excited since my best buddies will be in town, it is not every day that you get to meet your best pals in a city like Rome. Checked the mail yesterday and they will be reaching Termini at about 12 pm. They means Ach and Raja. I booked our visit to the Borghese gallery for tomorrow. This is an important point, the Gallery admits only few people at the same time and only for two hours and hence appointment is a must even though you have a Roma Pass (which is accepted). The Museum is closed on Mondays, but booking lines are open (lines are closed on Sundays).

After taking a bath, I packed all my luggage since I will be moving into a three-bed room later. Checked out (just gave the keys), the person at the desk was kind enough and said that I can pay later altogether. It was breakfast time. Had lots: eggs, croissants with honey, cereals, tea, home-made cake. Really filling and tasty. I think the Papa Germano Hotel is run by a family. Whoever sits at the reception are from the same family, and the lady in the kitchen and the cleaning lady are the same, and looked like a old and trusted servant (like they show in the movies). Later, Ach and Raja also arrived at the same conclusion.

Started the morning with visit to Santa Maria della Vittoria which is just about 500 metres from the hotel. Walked till there without any traffic hazard. The church was under renovation, and hence covered with scaffolding printed with the church’s picture. It is a cool thing to do, as your photographs will not get spoilt due to those covers. It is a common practice here in Rome. Another awesome church, complete with huge chandeliers, rare marble floors and pillars, chapels with beautiful artwork depicting Mother Mary and/or Jesus. But my main attraction was towards the Bernini masterpiece, “Ecstasy of St. Teresa”. Made popular by Angels and Demons, this sculpture has trademark of Bernini with flowing clothes and freely standing hands and wings made of marble. Arguably more erotic than religious, this sculpture is exotic. (Wow, that rhymes!).

Next stop was Santa Maria Degli Angeli e Dei Martiri which was just a few steps away. This basilica is dedicated to the Christian martyrs, known and unknown. Definitely one of the largest churches I visited in Rome (actually second largest after St Peters). Great architecture and huge paintings once again. But more interesting thing is that in this church science and religion come together. The church has a meridian line inside, complete with a hole through which the sunlight comes in. This line was used to predict Easter correctly. There was an exhibition going on Galileo Galilei.

After coming out from there, I headed back to Papa Germano, in search of my friends. They haven’t arrived yet, and hence I roamed about more in and around the Termini station. The station has a mall attached to it, hence killing time was an easy job. Back to the hotel after roaming here and there, and I found them, struggling to get the huge suitcases inside the hotel. Yes, they were here. After a lot of hugs and kisses (well not the kisses), we came to know that our room won’t be ready till 2 pm. To that I asked if it can be quicker since we had booked the Vatican City tour at 2:45 pm, and the person was kind enough and checked with the house-keeping lady and she confirmed another similar room was ready, but it was on second floor. Well, something better than nothing. We lunged the luggage till second floor, and thanked the lady and rushed into the perfectly arranged three-bed room; same décor with green upholstery, wooden racks and a wash-basin inside. Toilet/ bathroom was shared and were same as the other floor, one big one and another smaller one.

It took some time for the America-returned guys to freshen up, and time to get my things which I ordered: a tripod, a pack of filters, a wireless remote control for camera, a wired remote control, a set of Quenchua jacket and trouser. Yes, that is a lot of things, but that is the least Ach can do to thank me for making this trip happen. Both of them had like a world of gadgets, I do not know how they got through customs! Raja had a laptop, a kindle, film rolls, two new lenses, and Ach had a Canon camera with all possible accessories (thankfully he did not carry it to India as it was destined for Milan).

We got late for our date with the Pope. And to add to it Raja lost the printout of the booking at Vatican, and we had to run back to the hotel, take a print and run back to catch the Metro A till Ottaviano San Pietro. Lunch was doner kabab from a local shop. We looked very clumsy eating it inside the train, but we did not have a choice. Once outside the station, we ran towards the entrance to Musee De Vaticani  which is to the right side up on the hill. Thankfully no one asked for our passports (since we entered a different country). We were late, but it was ok. I got the tickets while Ach deposited the tripods (no tripods inside Vatican). We checked our dresses too, as shorts and sleeveless dresses are not allowed inside.

And our date with the Pope began. There were a lot of tour groups, we did not take one, as we know we will lose the group when we start clicking pictures. We started with the courtyard, and then a hall of statues. An excellent collection of marble statues (though few were restored versions), and learnt a new thing about sculptures which is all river-gods were represented in a sleeping posture. After adoring the enormous mosaics on the floor, we moved to the central courtyard or the belvedere which had the best sculptures collected by the Popes over the years. The Apollo Belvedere (finest cloth fabric in marble), the Laocoon (or Athenodorus, Agesander and Polydorus fighting two serpents), the Torso (from school of Michelangelo), and the sarcophagus of Constance.

After roaming about the great rooms with amazing frescos (actually it was kinda boring for me, since I did the same thing for last 4 days), and amazing carpets with stories from Jesus’ life woven (Ach said those people must be mad), we got late and had to rush to the Sistine Chapel as the Vatican was coming to a close. We followed the signs towards the Chapel, and lost Ach on the way (later found him, he was lost in the contemporary art gallery). Suddenly we entered into the chapel and was overwhelmed by the crowd there. Then it was time to be overwhelmed by the paintings. To tell you the truth, this is not a hyped place, it is actually amazing. After a point your neck starts paining, and yet you cannot have completely seen everything. The beautiful frescos on the ceiling is really one of its kind. I cannot imagine how Michelangelo painted this in four years, it looks like work of a lifetime. The best samples of renaissance art, the Judgment Day, the Creation of Adam, the Creation of Eve, the Temptation and Expulsion. It was just fabulous.

Though a sign said no photography, no one was stopping the crowd and everyone was going click-click. We found a place to sit and waited for Ach. He walked in after sometime. Soon, we started feeling exhausted, and slowly moved outside. Our next stop was the St. Peter’s Square. After a lot of photographs there, we walked towards Castle St. Angelo, it was time to shoot the castle at night. A lot of interesting shots of the castle and the basilica, we entered a pizzeria near Castle St. Angelo and got looted. Yes, it was our mistake, we should not have entered a restaurant near an attraction. Anyway, the food sufficed a bit of our problem, it was delicious , specially the pasta I ordered.

Then we took the Metro and went to Termini and back to our room. It was late and the other guys were jet-lagged (though they won’t agree). It was time for a some good old friendly gossip and then a good night’s sleep.

Cash register:

• Vatican Museums: about 13 Euros.
• Lunch: 9 Euros
• Dinner: 50 Euros (!!!)