The Vatican Museums

Moo! The crowd is thick, it is herded like cattle, and there's no Fire Marshal. Welcome to the Vatican Museums!

Our day started with a Metro ride across Rome. There was no sense walking since we were going to be on our feet the rest of the day.

The Vatican is built like a fortress on most sides (St. Peter's Square being the exception) with high walls where they can shoot down upon you as you try to invade. Ok, cancel the siege tower, we'll get in the line and buy tickets like everyone else. While waiting about an hour to get to the front door, we were treated to the mobile vendors. My Lovely Wife bought a couple scarves. Just inside, we checked our bags and coats and proceeded to the de-monetization booths. It struck me that if you are Catholic, you should be able to demand free entrance since you've been paying this church your whole life. Then I remembered this is Catholicism where you aren't allowed to make any demands.

Having inherited the Empire, The Holy See has collected, and collected and collected. It reminded me of the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn Michigan. Old Henry not only had a plow on display to explain the use of, but he had one of every model of the plow ever made throughout history on display so you could see the evolution of the device. Like Ford, The Holy See has a lot of everything.

If I gave you a blow-by-blow of all the rooms, I'd have to buy more storage for the web server. Just trust me on this; the Pope never had a garage sale; so just a few highlights. The Raphael Rooms are the best in the museums. Raphael captured the best of renaissance painting with a very fine eye for the true proportions of a three dimensional world. He's as close to painting a photograph you'll see until you get to the Dutch Masters.

There's a lot of propaganda in these paintings. Of course, Saint Peter is everywhere, usually depicted receiving the keys to heaven from Christ. The message is simple; Jesus put us in charge. Do what we say, or you don't get in. There's also a painting by Raphael's master depicting a pagan statue having been pushed off a table and replaced by the cruciform. The message is our religion is better than yours, so yours is now smashed on the floor. Even in the paintings, there's vandalism.

If you thought the Sistine Chapel was the only painted ceiling, you would be over-whelmed by the reality that almost no surface goes unpainted. By the time you get to the Sistine, you are painted ceiling'ed to death. But strangely, of all the places in the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel is the only place tourists cannot use their cameras. In fact, there are many rules in this small room. No photography. No video. No sitting on the floor. No talking. If you violate any of these rules you are yelled at. It kind of reminds me of the main beach in Santa Cruz where there is a very tall sign telling you all the things you can't do on the beach including flying kites, and playing with a Frisbee. One day, I'm going to add to that sign, "No Fun".

Why you can't photograph the Sistine Chapel is lost on me. Ten years ago, it was fully restored having several hundred years of soot removed. Since there is abundant natural light in the room, they can't be afraid of flash photography. The only conclusion I can come up with is the Vatican wants to sell you posters and post cards. By the way, the Pope over-charges for everything.

Final thoughts on the Vatican are that there's too much of everything. Too many statues, too many architects, too many painted ceilings. There's so much of this, it makes you want to go camping. On the flip-side, there are too few places to sit down, and toilets for the weary traveler.

Back in Rome...

A funny thing happened on the way to the forum, we surfaced from the Rome Metro into the middle of a Communist Party Rally. I'm sure I made Italian TV which means I can forget about running for the Senate.

George S. Patton was likely the finest General the US Army has ever fielded. When I read his war diary, I realized this was a man who learned from the past. In World War II (The Sequel), he decided to learn from the problem of foot rot in World War I (The Prequel). To that end, he ordered a clean pair of socks be delivered to every soldier everyday. What I have learned is that every morning, my camera needs delivered to it, a freshly recharged battery. When the battery dies in the camera, it corrupts the last picture, and until you delete that corrupt file, the camera does not function normally.

The night crawl was back to St. Peters Square. I as surprised to see how many people where still there after dark. The great thing about shooting at night is people tend to become invisible in very low light photography.