The Vatican

I’m just going to take a moment to rub it in.  Have you been to the Vatican Museums?  Ever been the only person in a room there?  Because I now have.  It’s great!  Really, the only thing that could be called a crowd was in the Sistine Chapel.  There are so few people the guards remember you if you backtrack into their rooms (and just to be honest, the Vatican guards [not the Swiss Guards] are quite attractive).  I’ve even run into fellow tourists who were at the Borghese yesterday.  The same thing happened at the Acropolis.  There are so few of us, we’re a bit of a family.

A few artistic notes:

1.     I am really enjoying the mosaics.  I may need a house of my own at some point just so I can put one in.  

2.     The “Etruscan Collection” was anything but.  But the Greek ceramics were gorgeous.  Unfortunately, all I could think of was Brianna’s cake when looking at them.  B – you’re on tap for that!

3.     If you are an oil painter, avoid a metal “canvas” (copper, bronze).  I have yet to find one that doesn’t look awful.

4.     The ridiculous post-facto fig leafs on the Greek and Roman statuary need to go!

After wandering the Vatican for over five hours, I popped over to St. Peter’s and climbed the dome.  Over 500 steps.  I needed to burn off yesterdays gustatory overload.  Though it was raining this morning, the sun came out in the afternoon and the views are gorgeous.  I just sat in the sun for a half hour on the roof of St. Pete’s.  Then down all the stairs into the church itself.  Since I wanted to rest my feet, I sat through a mass (why not?) which clocked in at a quick 45 minutes.  Good music, not much incense.  Despite being hungry by then, I did not take the cracker.  Antipasto, it’s not.   I do like that rather than the usual gory crucified Jesus, the main motif of the church is the Spiritu Sancto (dove).   

Y'know, views.... 

Selfies are getting better.

More views.

Did you know the Vatican has it's own tennis court?  I suspect this one is used by the Swiss Guard.  Either way, my usual "lava balls" would wind up three stories down.  Dangerous sport, tennis.