The Vatican Museum: A Day of Waiting, Making New Friends, & Pizza

Our second day in Rome dawned on us a little later than we meant for it to.

We knew we needed to get downtown early to stand in line for Vatican Museum tickets. You see, we did not plan far enough ahead to obtain tickets in advance.

In order to see the famous Sistine Chapel ceiling, you must have Vatican Museum tickets. We were not about to leave Rome without seeing the Sistine Chapel.

But did we see Vatican City?

No, not really. Sort of. We went all through the entire Vatican Museum, which takes up half of Vatican City, but we missed St. Peter’s Basilica and St. Peter’s Square, mostly because we did Rome with no plan. I explain why we took such a last minute trip in this post about our thrifty vacation in Italy.

That is how we ended up waiting in line for the Vatican Museum for three or so hours.

Thankfully, I have dragged us on two Disney World vacations in the past seven years, so waiting in excruciatingly long lines for hours is not something we are afraid to do.

Most Christians are familiar with King Nebuchadnezzar. He was a pretty famous Old Testament character. He destroyed the temple in Jerusalem and carried off the Jewish population to captivity in Babylon, where he came to appreciate Daniel.

For Bible scholars, Bible characters are like celebrities. Seeing these artifacts from the very people we have read about and studied is so exciting. This must be what Elvis fans feel when they visit Graceland.

Assyria is the country that destroyed Israel.

So many things happened with Israel, and King David, King Solomon, dividing into Judah and Israel, and then the devastation of the first temple. It used to be hard for me to keep it all straight. What finally helped me is this home school time line song that includes all of these events, along with other world events, all together in a format that is catchy and straightens all these historical events out in your head.
Here is a link to the timeline song I am talking about. You will like it. I know it sounds crazy, and it is made for kids, but it is so helpful and easy, without being all high pitched and annoying.

Here’s the lyrics to the part that helps me keep my Israel history straight. This goes from around 1000 BC to around 500 BC:

• (1000 BC) Early Native Americans
• Israel Divides into Two Kingdoms
• Homer and Hesiod
• Rome Founded by Romulus and Remus
• Israel Falls to Assyria
• Assyria Falls to Babylon
• Lao-Tzu, Confucius, Buddha

• Judah falls to Babylon
• Temple Destroyed
• Babylon Falls to Persia
• Jews Return and Rebuild the Temple

But before we ever got into the enormous Vatican Museum, we had a fun time waiting in line for three hours. I mean that, and I need to explain that before I go any further.

Behind us in line was a family of four. This family was from Portugal. The people in front of us were from Brazil, and the people behind the Portuguese family were also from Brazil.

I could communicate with them a little with my Spanish, but I did not have to much because the two Portuguese youngsters spoke such good English.

Thankfully, Alan had the presence of mind to take a photo of our two English-speaking Portuguese friends. I won’t post their photos here, though, since the youngest was only eleven, and I didn’t ask permission to share his picture.

The Portuguese family was a classic family of four. Their daughter was the oldest. She was a medical school student in her early twenties. Her little brother, who I literally talked to for hours, was eleven. He reminded me of my own twelve-year-old. Having four boys of my own, I am more comfortable than most people at talking with preteen boys.

This particular boy could have talked to anyone, though. I don’t remember his name, so we will call him Jose. Jose had so many thoughtful questions and stories. He talked all day and was not even boring. For a little while, he even got out his cell phone, and he and I played games on it. I beat him at tic-tac-toe, but he crushed me at these other games I had never heard of and did not understand.

Jose’s sister, we will call her Julia, had even better English than Jose. Together, Alan, Jose, Julia and I discussed the world’s view of former President Trump, President Biden, what it’s like to go to war, life in America, Lego, YouTube, Catholicism, you name it. We had such a surprisingly jolly time.

I know you want to know what they did say about Trump. We all agreed he has his strengths (in policy) and his weaknesses (in personality).

After spending hours in line, in the ninety-something degree heat, we would take turns going to pick up lunch. Alan managed to find us a large gluten free pizza to share, along with gelato and the most delicious sparkling water I have ever had in my life. When you are pouring sweat and dehydrated, cold sparkling water takes on a whole new meaning.

And then all of a sudden, the line started moving again. They would let in about thirty people at a time, and just like that we were in! We hugged our new line friends and said good-bye when we got inside. I figured we would run into them at some point that day, but we never did. The Vatican Museum is enormous and filled to the brim with people.

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The paintings covered the walls and ceilings of many of the rooms. It is hard to know where to look. There is so much to see.

I am sorry to tell you that we were clueless tourists going through most of the museum. We conducted zero research in preparation for this, so we usually did not know what we were seeing. Our eyes were overwhelmed.

However, most of the rooms were so ornate and incredible that even without knowing what we were looking at, it was fascinating.

If I had it to do over again, I would buy a book like this to give me some information first, https://amzn.to/3EjDxaH.

Of course, we went through all of these amazing exhibits with the goal of seeing the Sistine Chapel at the end, which we did see. No photographs are allowed in there, and of everything you see in Rome, I would say it is the most spiritually moving artwork that we saw.

I will include a stock image from Canva of the Sistine Chapel at the end of this. First, you must weave through the museum displays with us.

I do wish I knew more about these paintings to tell you. As we were going through I kept thinking, “I wish I knew who painted these and what they mean.”

The painting above and below were painted by Ludwig Seitz. I did look up the Latin writing on this one because everything means more when you understand it. It reads, “Dvininarum veritatum splendor animo exceptus ipsam iuvat intelligentiam,” which translates in English,

The splendor of divine truths received in the mind helps the intelligence itself.

Pope Leo XIII, 1879

I looked up the Latin on this one too. It was commissioned in the late 1800s by Pope Leo XIII and painted by Ludwig Seitz also.

The Latin on this one translates to, “The ancient arts have happily returned to life by the patronage of the Roman Pontiffs.”

I feel like this guy sometimes.

This was such an incredible ceiling.

There was this room that was all wall sized maps. As you can imagine, Alan loved it. The only map I remotely recognized was the Italy one.

The tapestry above illustrates the murder of the infant boys that Herod ordered when he heard about the newborn king. This was Herod’s attempt to kill Jesus off as a baby. It didn’t work because God sent Jesus and his family to Egypt to hide until that Herod passed away.

There is at least one whole room of Rafael frescos, and we could not find it. Either that, or we walked right through it and did not realize it, which is completely possible.

No matter how much art we make, God still outshines us with his beautiful green creation. Vatican City does a lovely job tending this green space.

Look how empty and ancient the doors to the Vatican Museum look at the end of the day.

I promised you the Sistine Chapel, though, didn’t I?

We did see that, and it is just as wonderful as we’d hoped. And it’s hundreds of years old! People come from all over the world to see it. You are supposed to be quiet in the Sistine Chapel and not take any pictures.

Also, you are allowed to stand still and gaze up at the ceiling from the middle of the room only. The perimeter is for people coming and going. Then all around the room are benches on the wall to. sit on, but it is difficult to get a spot on the bench.

Alan and I lost each other in there. I just stopped and looked up, but Alan did not rest until he found me. I felt badly about that. If I’d known he was focused on finding me, I would have helped more. This meant I got to look at it extra long because once Alan finally found me, he had not even looked at the ceiling yet, so then I stood and stared at it with him.

I could not find a free stock photo of my favorite part of the Sistine Chapel though. The entire front altar wall of the chapel is The Last Judgment fresco, also by Michelangelo. It is incredible and thought provoking. You can find images of it on Wikepedia.

By the time we left the Vatican Museum, we were exhausted. We went from there to a grocery store and picked up some gluten free snacks.

Alan was always on the lookout to make sure he could find me food that would not make me sick. Thank you, Alan!!!

Most of the restaurants were able to make me a gluten free pizza.

Between the airports, Italy, Outer Banks, and Alabama, I still managed to get gluten-ed several times though. My body still has not fully recovered. My nails are a disaster.

After our grocery shopping, we visited a street gift shop and had the best time. We bought all sorts of little things.

There is something purely invigorating about shopping that got me through the rest of the afternoon. I call it a shopping high.

Fresh off our shopping high, we boarded a train to a few stops away to do some more exploring. My legs were not used to walking in flip-flops. In fact, according to my reading, Italian people don’t usually wear flip-flops in the city. I should have just worn my tennis shoes.

We got off train. I had one goal. “Let’s find a green space with benches where we can just sit down and rest.”

After our little rest, we somehow managed to get to the Spanish steps for some sightseeing and and early dinner. In Italy, dinner is eight o’clock. I seriously doubt we waited that long for dinner.

See if you can find Alan in the above photo at the Spanish Steps.

This area also had the expensive designer clothing stores. We saw people who we were pretty sure were fashion models walking around. They were giant, thin, polished young people with slightly unusual clothes. Sorry. I didn’t take any photos of the fancy people.

Everywhere we went it was pretty crowded. I did get a photo of that:

And of course, the buildings themselves are beautiful.

Here’s both of us at the Spanish Steps. Note how much better women dress in Italy than people dress when touring America. Not a single person was wearing an “I Heart Rome” t-shirt. Can you believe it? I felt underdressed every single day, and yet I did nothing to fix the situation. My overall mood was “tired tourist with a little anxiety” every single day.

That particular day was a happy one though. We so enjoyed talking to our new friends in line at the Vatican. Then there was the shopping. The street vendor had excellent prices. Plus, we ended the day in a restaurant on a beautiful street, enjoying an Italian meal.

Looking back on it, I must say our Rome days went quite smoothly. Imagine if you actually prepare for your trip and know what you are doing. You could have a fun vacation in just Rome itself.

This was supposed to be our last day in Rome. That is why we crammed in so much. However, things changed when we set out for Naples the next morning. I will tell you all about that in my next post on Italy!

Ciao!