The morning looks very cloudy with a fine mist, not a very promising start. Nevertheless, we have “skip the line” tickets for the Vatican so, after breakfast, Ivano drives us to the train station and we head for Rome in a packed commuter train. Most folks are wearing masks as are we, 30 minutes later we are in Rome’s Termini Station > what a madhouse but we take our time and let the commuters get on with their lives. Outside it is lightly raining as we walk to our first stop the Cathedral Santa Maria Majore > one of the four cathedrals in Rome and an amazing edifice init’s own right…
Our tickets to the Vatican Museum are not till 15:00 so on the way to the Capucin Crypts we stop in at the Santa Prassede Basilica with very ancient origins…
Then onwards to the Capucin Church & Crypt. The Capuchins separated from the Franciscans in 1525 to live the spirit of Saint Francis in a more authentic way and wanted to go back to the basics. They wore sandals without socks and a tunic with a hood to cover their heads. The name of the Capuchins is derived from this cap. Cardinal Barberini who later became pope had the remains of thousands of Capuchins excavated at the Via de Lucchesi Monastery and had their bones placed along the walls of the crypt as if they were works of art and symbols.
We leave the crypts with mixed emotions, quite frankly the shrines would not look out of place in a pagan shrine deep in the jungles of wherever. Perhaps it may be time to bury these folks and do away with the rather creepy display. In any event, we head for the Metro, it is pouring now and rather unpleasant. Exiting the station the rain started to lets up, we then grab lunch on the Via Ripetta before going to the Vatican Museum. We were hoping to visit the Borghi Gardens but the weather put an end to those plans.
For those of you who have visited Rome and the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peters Cathedral you can appreciate these treasures. I have posted a few pictures to give some flavor to our visit. The Vatican Museum is hard to describe, you want to love it but it is simply too much. While we could stop and look at items for a bit, it still felt like we were being carried along like driftwood in a river.
The Sistine Chapel was even worse, we felt like cattle in a paddock with security personnel periodically yelling at people “Silenzio” and admonishing them for taking pictures. To be fair we did have a few minutes to take it all in when we scored some bench space along the back wall.
Then onwards to St. Peter’s Cathedral, a 40minute wait to get in, but well worth the wait as it is an amazing place, it is one of those sites where you have to actually see it for yourself to appreciate.
Everyone crowded around the Pieta by Michaelangelo but we took our time and got a nice long look at this remarkable sculpture:
As we leave St. Peter’s Cathedral the skies have cleared but we are running out of gas, so back on the metro and Termini Station. The place is crazy busy once again and we decide to take a break before heading back to Zagarolo. Looking for a resto was out of the question as getting” hangry” is not a good recipe > McDonald’s at the station looked like a good alternative…clearly, the guy in the pic is hungry and tired but then when was the last time you had a beer at a McDonald’s?
Ivano picks us up at the station and although not a fantastic day we still got a lot accomplished and are happy that everything went well, save for the weather.