The Vatican

Note: Photos are below!

It’s Tuesday. We wake up late, as we are still both jet lagged and incredibly wired from starting our trip. And today, we visit the Vatican. The center of the Catholic faith and an institution that still influences politics (including which politicians get communion).

The Vatican is incredible, and a bit unnerving. The first exhibit shown focuses on all the Egyptian relics that Italy, at least the monasteries has to offer. And there are a lot.

The historical context (from a book I read several years before): Egypt was a much older and more vast empire by the time Rome was coming of age, almost as a teenager. However, after the Egyptian empire was 6,000 years old, it had some political cracks to show. In fighting, murder between brother-sister marriages, and plenty of other complexities. This was kept afloat by Cleopatra for a while. However, Cesar Augustus, Julius Cesar’s nephew, became emperor and he hated learned women (he would brag how his wife was illiterate and stayed home obediently). So a queen who considered herself a God, who spoke 7 languages, was older and came across as more sophisticated, well, she had to go. With her fall, Egypt lost autonomous control of its own country for 1,900+ years. With her fall, Romans took a lot of war treasure and looted goods out of Egypt. In fact, most of their economy relied on plundering areas they took over, great for expansion and less great for sustainability. Beyond this, many Romans copied Egyptian art to build further on their status and prove how important they were. Of course, the exhibit doesn’t talk about any of this. But, with our knowledge of this dynamic, walking into it was both incredible and unnerving. That said, it was incredible to see all this Egyptian art in one place, and of such high quality. Truly incredible.

Touring the Vatican means seeing the museums of amassed art - millions of pieces and one of the biggest collections in the world. There’s Egyptian art, Roman art, Medical tapestries, and the Sistine Chapel. It was overwhelming. A couple of highlights:

• A medieval tapestry where the eyes of Jesus follow you throughout the room - the first of its kind
• The coffin of the daughter of a Roman emperor, decorated elegantly and also clearly a father trying to show his daughter love into her post-mortem existence and cope with his grieving process
• Door handles the size of a head, elaborately decorated
• Mosaics, everywhere. Incredibly intricate mosaics depicting people, scenes, animals (especially dogs),
• Intricate details within the ceiling of every room down to the last inch

That night we got gelato (of course) and ingredients from a supermarket - fresh pasta and tomato sauce. The tomato sauce had two ingredients: tomatoes and sugar. And it was the freshest sauce either one of us had ever smelled. Truly amazing. The ravioli was incredible. The Airbnb had an olive oil goose-necked pourer, along with 3 types of balsamic vinegar (including one that was in a spray bottle). We had a side of salad, bread with fresh mozzarella, and wine. It was one of the most delicious meals we’d had in a while.