Beauty around us / Vatican

THE VATICAN EXPERIENCE

One of life's greatest pleasures, I believe, is visiting museums. Therefore, it was not surprising when, on our first trip with my then future wife, I suggested that we also visit the Vatican.

I had dreamed of this visit since childhood and the reality far exceeded my expectations.

Having devoured so many scrapbooks of great works of art over the years, my eye was constantly drawn to the captions showing the location of each work. And too many times that was "The Vatican Museums".

THIS IS THE SMALLEST SOVEREIGN STATE IN THE WORLD.

Entering through the imposing entrance, you have to be prepared for a lot of walking. For a little size reference, the Vatican Apostolic Library alone, known informally as the Vat, has 42 kilometers of shelves!

You will see many photos below and get a glimpse into the magic of having so many masterpieces of human art and thought standing before you. Few times in my life have I felt more enthralled and I am extremely lucky to have been in there, if only for a few hours.

SOME IMPRESSIVE FACTS

VAT city

The Vatican, or Vatican City State, is an independent city-state, on the western side of the city of Rome in Italy and a continuation of the papal state of the Middle Ages. It is characterized as the smallest independent state, in terms of its area (0.44 sq km) and population (according to the official estimate of 2023) of just 764 people. The Vatican is home to the Holy See, which is the spiritual and administrative centre of the Roman Catholic Church.

In 2023, the Vatican Museums were visited by 6.8 million people. They rank second on the list of the most visited art museums in the world after the Louvre. For reference, my beloved Acropolis museum has an average of roughly 1.5 million visitors each year.

Vatican Library

The Vatican Apostolic Library, more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in the Vatican City. It was officially founded in 1475, although it is much older; it is one of the oldest libraries in the world and contains one of the most important collections of historical texts (remember the 42km mentioned above). It has 75.000 codes from throughout history, as well as 1.1 million printed books, which include about 8.500 Incunabula.

Vatican Museums

The Vatican Museums were founded by Pope Julius II in the early 16th century, with the acquisition of the sculpture "Laocoon and his Sons" being the impetus for the museum's establishment.

The plural in the title reflects the fact that the museums consist of a vast complex of buildings, covering over 42,000 square metres of exhibition space.

The Vatican Museums house a colossal collection of art, which includes more than 20,000 works on display and almost 50,000 more kept in storage.

Saint Peter

St. Peter's is one of the most famous works of Italian Renaissance architecture and is the largest church in the world by internal measurements.

More impressive numbers:

14,000 tons in weight,
133 meters high,
Diameter outside 59 meters,
Diameter inside 42 meters,
Interior 15,160 sq m,
Capacity of 60,000 standing or 20,000 seated.

The Pieta

The Pietà (1497-1499) is a Renaissance marble sculpture, sculpted by Michelangelo and located in St. Peter's Basilica.

The statue was met with great enthusiasm and admiration. According to Giorgio Vasari, shortly after Pieta's placement, Michelangelo heard someone say that the sculpture was the work of another sculptor, Christoforo Solari. He then engraved the phrase MICHEL.A[N]GELVS BONAROTVS FLORENT[INVS] FACIEBAT (Made by the Florentine Michelangelo Buonarroti) on the band running across Mary's breast. This was the only work he ever signed: he later regretted this burst of vanity (!) and vowed never to sign any of his works again. What a guy.

“Miserando Atque Eligendo”

— Pope Francis

A FEW PERSONAL NOTES

As I mentioned, this was the first trip together with the woman I was to marry. I had already known her for a few years, but essentially even this trip was part of our first time getting to know each other.

Beautiful Rome, well, was waiting to host us, like so many other couples in love in the past. My poor wife thought this would be a beautiful, romantic trip and I naively thought this would be the start of a perfect relationship.

Don’t get me wrong; Rome was all that! But with a slight difference, as far as the Vatican is concerned.

There, after hours of wandering the endless corridors of the Vatican museums, I somehow managed to convince her to climb to the top of the dome of St. Peter's, even telling her that "we'll take an elevator"... Well, indeed, there is an elevator, which saves you 231 steps, takes you up to a certain point, but then you have to climb another 320 tiny, tiny, tiny steps into the dome (!), with your body twisting and turning, and then follow the corresponding route to the exit. Extremely scary for heart patients and claustrophobes, but also for... exhausted people, like the woman who accompanied me. I was thrilled, of course, but this was almost my last trip with her.

A lovely dinner at an enoteca in a pedestrian street in Rome on our last night there fixed everything, thankfully.

NIDIPRESETS

LUCKY US

We visited Vatican Museums back in 29th of January, 2017 and therefore we have been lucky enough to witness the special homage to the Dutch genius in the

“Rembrandt at the Vatican-Images from heaven and earth”

exhibition (24 November 2016 – 26 February 2017).

What in another city of the world would be the exhibition of the year, here was just a temporary exhibition, hidden in a small dark room and that tells you enough to understand what a great pilgrimage it is to visit this museum.

EPILOGUE

I would recommend everyone to visit Rome, the eternal city. But if someone makes this trip, then I would also recommend that they take a full day, at least, to visit the Vatican. And even then, it won't be enough. Perhaps the wisest thing to do would be to take a trip sometime, dedicated solely to properly exploring the treasures of this tiny state.

I, for one, intend to do just that.