So bright and early yesterday we were off to the Vatican Museums. Our local guide was a young Italian woman who carried a extendable metal wand with a gold scarf tied to the top. This was so the group could see her as we moved about the Vatican. There were lots of groups there, each with a guide carrying some kind of flag or scarf identifying themselves. To get into the Vatican museums we had to go through security much like at an airport, with metal detectors and x-ray scans for our bags and such. Once inside it was a bit frustrating for us because the tour guide kept moving at a quick pace and we could never stop and spend some time at an article or display of interest. It also didn’t help that the guide's transmitter mic kept cutting in and out (each person in the tour group got a receiver with an ear bud to listen directly to the tour guide - which allowed the members of the group to spread out a little more, without needing crowd around the guide to hear her - at least theoretically).What an amazing collection of art and artifacts - it boggles the mind to think of how much there was to look at. But look isn’t even the right word for most of what we saw, glance would be more accurate. Part of the reason for our hurry surely had to do with the Vatican Museum people wanting to move people through efficiently simple because so many people were visiting the museums every day. But part of the reason for our haste also had to do with a Pope’s Blessing in Saint Peter’s square later that morning. Every Wednesday that the Pope is in the Vatican he has a special blessing ceremony, and the guide was making sure we got there for that.
The only place we got to spend some decent amount of time on the tour was in the Sistine Chapel. That certainly is something to see, though Beth was surprised it wasn’t larger. My memory of the Sistine Chapel (other than standing under Michelangelo’s amazing painting on the ceiling) was having the Museum attendants shushing the crowd every few minutes, and giving stern reprimands to anyone who held up a camera. I am amazed at how many places prohibit the use of cameras - I could understand that at La Scala where flashes going off during a performance would be distracting (though I couldn’t understand why that was still in force after the opera was over). I suppose it could be that the amount of flashes going off over time could fade or damage the artwork, but more likely they don't want photographers clogging up the movement of visitors through the museums, or (more cynically) they want people to purcase postcards and books if they want to take an image home.
After the Sistine Chapel we were hustled outside the museum, then around the outside of the Vatican wall to the entrance to Saint Peter’s square. Some of the folks in our group are not fast walkers, and we kept having to stop to wait for them to catch up. Once at the entrance we had to go through security again (just as at the entrance to the museum). There was a huge crowd trying to get in, and since it was close to 10:30 AM (the time the Pope would arrive) people were getting frustrated at the slowness of the security check - the guards didn’t seem too concerned however - certainly didn't speed up the process. Our group was able to get in and made our way to the back of the crowd. I estimate there were 100,000 people in the square (based on my experience of the size of Rider crowds); young and old, and every colour of skin under the sun. There was even a young bride and groom there in there wedding garments! There were also jumbotrons and television cameras placed around the square. The air buzzed with anticipation.
Soon applause began to break out and the Popemobile was driving through the crowd, though most of the time we had a hard time seeing anything except on the jumbotrons. However at one point the Pope was less than 100 metres away from where we were standing. We both tried to take pictures, but so were thousands of others and it was hard to get an unobstructed view. Eventually the Pope made his way to a large stage built on the steps of Saint Peter’s Basilica and the ceremony began. The Pope offered some kind of Invocation prayer or blessing (in Italian), this was followed by a reading of some verses from Psalm 24 by various priests from around the world (in various languages, including English). Then the Pope began reading a sermon or something like that - all in Italian (as far as I could tell). After about 5 minutes of the Pope’s speech we heard the guide calling the group over the headsets and we left Saint Peter’s square in the middle of the ceremony! I thought that rather rude, but maybe that was just the pastor in me thinking about how I would feel if a group of people suddenly got up and left in the middle of one of my sermons!
Leaving the ceremony early was indicative of the whole tour that morning, just a quick view of something then move on! We also saw the Coliseum and the Forum that day (on foot) as well as many other buildings and monuments from the bus, but that will be for another post.
So my dream from the previous night came partially true, I did see the Pope, me and a hundred thousand other people! He didn’t tell me to go on my journey, but while in the presence of the Pope I did hear a voice from out of the blue saying “andiamo” which meant “Let’s go!” (This of course was our restless tour guide).
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