La Terre est ronde!

Vatican

Découvrir et planifier

Quand partir

Dangers et désagréments

Santé

Livres et références

     Récit de voyage

We wake up at 6:30... well, I'd rather say 5:30. We were putting the clocks back during the night and I had forgotten this detail. We go back to sleep for one hour, but I only manage to doze. When we arrive near the Vatican at 8 AM, we run to overtake a group near the fast forming queue. This saves us about fifty places, but there is still a substantial crowd in front of us. We will manage to access the Vatican Museums only two hours later and by a small door. We will only see the great door of the Vatican Museums when we exit the museums!

After that Steph and Nico were forced to leave their bags in the cloakroom, we hurry to see the Sistine Chapel. We take a short way and walk quickly through the rooms (gallery of tapestries, gallery of maps, ...) that lead to it. Although the chapel is beautiful, we are a little disappointed. Actually, we didn't know that the famous fresco The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo was only a part of the fresco among others. Steph didn't think the chapel was half buried and I imagined it more like a church. Photos are prohibited but we quietly steal some shots. I dare not too much because supervisors have sharpen eyes and piercing ears and go into the crowd to remember that pictures should not be taken. The persons next to Steph and Nico are caught red-handed, forcing Steph to stop his attempts. We'll learn later that the photography ban is due to the financial participation of Nippon TV in the restoration of the ceiling as they got in return the rights to exploit the restored work. We are leaving through the same door that we took to enter when a guard is stopping us and telling that we must go down, the entrance of the chapel being in the middle of a stairway. We leave the Pio-Clementine museum by following the fast itinary. We got a glimpse of the New arm gallery , which access was unfortunately closed.

We will have to follow again the same itinary to see all the rooms dedicated to Raphael. But for now, we will see the papal cars in the Carriage pavilion , they range from the barouche to the armored card. We walk through the Pinacoteca in which are paintings on plaster, wood and canvas from the 12th to the 19th century. There, we see beautiful paintings and fragments of frescoes from Melozzo da Forlì figuring musician angels (these frescoes are from the Basilica of the Holy Apostle). After that, Nico being too hungry, we go to the cafeteria and Nico and I have a sandwich that we pay 3.50 € each, which is a fair price. Unfortunately, all the outdoor tables are already taken, so we go back in the cafeteria . Too bad for the view on the Vatican Gardens !

We want to find the Raphael rooms , so we head back again to the stairs. But instead of taking the short way, we have to cross a large courtyard, the Court of the Pigna named because of the pine cone sculpture contained therein and we vaguely perceive, our eyes being attracted by the big golden ball in the center , a sculpture by Arnaldo Pomodoro whose inner sphere symbolizes the Earth and the outer sphere, the Christianity. After shooting the sphere from all angles, we move to the other door to follow the official itinary, but there are already too many people waiting. We line up under burning sunlight, every 10 minutes we move a little toward the entrance and at the same time, as we progress, we find ourselves increasingly packed like sardines in a can.

Finally, after half an hour, we are able to enter, we climb some stairs and arrive in the octogonal courtyard that we had not seen and that seems round to us. Steph and Nico notice the devil in the details: an erected penis . Then, we enter the Round room where is located the Belvedere torso sculpture which exerted considerable fascination on artists from the early 16th century.

We continue on the gallery of candelabra , which, besides a magnificent ceiling entirely painted, contains classical sculptures and has a marble floor with colorful geometric design. Then, we arrive at the gallery of tapestries, which, as its name suggests, contains tapestries made by the Pieter van Aelst workshop according to cartoons from Raphael students. There is, in particular, a depiction of the Massacre of the Innocents . We reach the gallery of maps which owes its name to the forty painted maps that represent italian regions and the possessions of the Church at the time of Pope Gregory XIII, each regional map is complemented by the map of the main city.

We now turn to the Sobieski room and the Room of the Immaculate Conception which paintings date back to the 19th century. The first room is named after the large canvas covering the north wall and depicting the victory of John III Sobieski, king of Poland, against the Turks. The second room holds a fresco by Francesco Podesti describing on the one hand the Immaculate Conception and on the other hand, the celebration that took place December 8, 1854.

Finally, we reach the rooms devoted to Raphael: The Room of Constantine Constantin , the Room of Heliodorus , the Signature room , and the Room of the Fire in the Borgo . It is decorated throughout, the first room is very nice and large, but the second is in restoration and too small to enjoy....

There is a change in style, we are now in front of the collection of modern religious art . Among the most famous artists, we find the work of Auguste Rodin, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Wassily Kandinsky, Marc Chagall, Paul Klee, Francis Bacon, Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso...

We are back in the Sistine Chapel, the mandatory waypoint as there is only one itinary. And there, we have a pleasant surprise because there are so many people and the guards are so busy to get all the visitors out because it's almost closure time that everyone takes pictures without being bothered. We also take pictures.

On the way out, we walk through the Vatican Library which hosts a long row of souvenir shops and after seeing another shop, we go out by the staircase of Bramante (wrongly attributed to Donato Bramante, it was designed by Giuseppe Momo in 1932 ).

We head towards St. Peter's Basilica, but there are so many people that we give up the idea of visiting it today. The queue is huge and spirals around the place.

We move towards the Janiculum, the eighth hill of Rome, located south of the Vatican. Walking near St. Peter's Square , we realize that the queue for visiting the basilica is not very big (unlike the two circles and a half of the day before) and more people are quickly going through.

So, we change our plans, we queue up, we go through the security gate (like at the airport!) and enter St. Peter's Basilica . It is simply huge, the central nave is left free of chairs on the 3/4, thanks to barriers, which gives us a beautiful view of the interior of the basilica . We walk and admire the place .

We move under the dome designed by Michelangelo (and completed by Giacomo). At its base are four statues nestled in the dome pillars, they represent St. Helen, St. Veronica, St. Longinus and St. Andrew.

Huge statues are lining in the aisles and a tiny shop is located on the far end on the left, just after the plaque holding he names of the former popes . I bought a book on Rome here for 10 €.

Near the exit is a huge monument in white marble , a memorial to the three members of the Stuart family (James, Charles, and Henry).

While we go out, we see Swiss gards, wearing a suit with blue, red, orange and yellow strips. It is hard not to spot them with their traditionnal suits . Standing gard, they remain calm in front of many tourists taking pictures. The bells begin to ring and resound for almost 10 minutes. We have time to film them, go to the restrooms next to us and even leave them before the bells stop.

Queues are relatively lengthy and you must be patient and come with a good conversation subject to pass the time. It is unfortunate that the Vatican Gardens cannot be visited and that there is only one possible way through the Vatican Museums. The photographs are allowed except in one place: the Sistine Chapel. The guards take great care to ensure photographs are not taken, except when closing!

Visiting the Vatican is worth it for its commissioned masterpieces collected and preserved over time. Not to mention than visiting the Vatican is also visiting the smallest country in the world.

Galerie photos