Chez Vatican

Today was one of two days where we actually had a plan.

Before leaving Florida I had purchased for us tickets to the Vatican Museums.  The advantage of this being "skip the line" (see above) and the disadvantage is that it is an appointment and some of us don't do appointments well.

As far as the "skip the line" thing goes, it was a snap if vaguely ambiguous. The sign said something like "Group Tours Advance Reservations"; there should be an "and" in the middle.  There being no other non-line we stood in that one and in five minutes or so we were inside with along half the population of Earth.

I will now vent my spleen about the crowds so that I can be more positive about the art.  The bottom line is that people in crowds lose any sense of how their behavior impacts their environment.  The group tours spread out until they occupy the entire width of what were in this case large but nonetheless residential hallways.  They spend their time looking at the tour guide who is speaking to them and not at the artwork.  I could go on about groups but I have some particular venom for some individuals.  Let me just say that doorways and stairways are not the best places to spread out and have conversations or to exercise your "selfie stick", the onanistic overtones of which I will not belabor.  However the ultimate had to be the couple who in, again what are essentially residential double doors, turned their baby carriage sideways directly in the doorway blocking one side and then had Mama bending over the end with her butt hanging into the next.  What were they thinking?!?!? Thinking? What was I thinking?

A really tired looking Madonna holding a really petulant looking Christ child

I love the pietas where people actually look anguished at the death of a child or friend 

We started in the pinacoteca, the painting gallery; medieval through renaissance. Extraordinarily good as one might expect. You get a sampling of our photographs here. As all this was in a side gallery off the direct path from the entrance to the Sistine Chapel it was (relatively) little touristed.

We next tried to find some art that wasn't awash in humanity and ended up in the Etruscan gallery which Nancy had been excited about seeing. The Etruscans were Latins (or at least Italians) who preceded the Romans and who dominated the Romans until the tables were turned. This gallery also included some very early, contemporaneous, Roman items.

Dead bodies afloat in the Great Flood as recorded in the Gilgamesh Epic.  You probably need to enlarge this one.

I at least was beginning to get a little cranky and we decided to see if there was anything else that needed to be seen.  I wanted to check out some Greco-Roman sculpture which meant we had to, HAD TO, go through the Egyptian Gallery which was packed with people so we just pushed our way through.  At the end of that however our progress was arrested by Babylonian artifacts.  Not a large collection but quite striking.

By the time we finally did get to the Greco-Roman sculpture Nancy was about done as was I so I elbowed my in front of the Apollo Belvedere and the Laocoon then we headed for the exit, crossed the street, and stopped at the first uncrowded cafe until our nerves ceased jangling.

Well, they didn't cease jangling but we got it down to a mild resonance and then took the train home, stopping for a gelato on the way.

You may have noted that we didn't see the Sistine Chapel. Well, call me crass but it's pretty much "been there, done that" for me.  The Chapel is quite small, it is a chapel after all intended for private devotion, and the artwork while great isn't thematically consistent in my mind.  Add in the crowd and it's not worth a second go.

Now, later in the afternoon, we're thinking about the hurricane bearing down on our homes thousands of miles away, making a nice call to our friends Shirley and Camille, and I'm doing the laundry.  Just another day in Rome.

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Stairs from Via Cavour up to the level of San Pietro in Vincoli. A similar set descends from Via Cavour into Monti, our district.  A lot of steps. 

Well, Nancy wanted to go to a meeting and, as we're trying to get familiar with the Metro system, I accompanied her there.  She went on to the meeting and I came back to finish the laundry.  Only I didn't; out to dinner.

The laundry thing is going to be a challenge. We've got a combination washer/dryer. This isn't bad except as nearly as I can tell the dryer doesn't expel the damp air; it just makes the clothes hot. What do you do then?  Hang them up?  I've cut down the load and punched different buttons; we'll see.  I don't know what I'll do if I can't get this to work.

Waiting for Nancy to get home.  I think I hear her now.