Mishap Sunday, I: At The Vatican

The Vatican Museums have free admission on the fourth Sunday of every month, so we had the bright idea of going in to see them, at least for a reconnaissance. It was the first act of a day-long comedy of errors.

The Museums open at 9 and we got there by 9:15, only to find there was a line...

Wrapping around the walls of Vatican City

And on, and on

And on, until its terminus, more than a kilometer later, just outside St. Peter's Square

None shall pass, quoth the Swiss Guard

In Bernini's colonnade, 4 massive columns deep all around, the 
grandest of all such structures, I think

So at this point, just about that far from the great church, we decide maybe we'll
 just visit St. Peter's instead of the Museums

Outside, by one of the fountains in St. Peter's Square, some younger persons 
practice transubstantiation with their brewskis

Inside, one of the most famous of all masterpieces, behind a 
glass wall and twenty feet away

We wandered about the great nave for a while, and then there was music and 
a procession; and mass began; "oh, right, it's Sunday"

One of the guards told us we could enter the holiest bit when mass was over, 
maybe 45 minutes, so we sat in the chapel of Pope John XXIII (that's him), 
contemplating relevant things and trying to look pious

This is about as close as we got; another guard, 45 minutes later, told us there 
would be masses and other religious events all the rest of the day, but that we 
could see the nave, the treasury, etc.

The great Michaelangelo dome

Operators are standing by...OK, by this point I was feeling more than my usual 
cynical/impish self

Mine's bigger than yours department: the central aisle is paved in these markers 
showing where other major (big) cathedrals would fit; alas, there are probably Baptist

and evangelical monstrosities in Texas that could swallow St. Peter's whole; sic transit, 

Gloria

One of my favorite images of St. Peter's; even a hardened cynic has to be awed 
by all the history, majesty, art, and architecture

So as we step out the door, we are astonished to see St. Peter's Square absolutely 
filled with people, banners and signs, cheering someone who is speaking to them; 
at first I figured it was a political rally, or they were watching futbol on the big 
screen, or maybe it was even Father Guido Sarducci...

But no, it was His Holiness, Himself, delivering His Sunday message; a bit of 
a thrill even for us, indeed redeeming all of the day's mishaps, so far...

An Evening in Rome

We spent our first afternoon in Rome setting up camp and relaxing. I took the bus and metro into the city center to find a Wind store and to get our Wind internet USB working. No satisfaction there. I'll certainly post again about Wind if it doesn't get fixed. In the meantime, if you're contemplating cell or mobile internet service in Italy, I'd certainly recommend Tim or even Vodaphone--anything but Wind.

Most of my birthday, apart from the veal and pasta (and cherry tomatoes and mozarella and pecorino cheese, etc.) dish Vicki fixed for lunch, I spent catching up on the blog--using the campground wifi. Then, later in the afternoon, we went into town to do an evening stroll, from the Campo di Fiora to the Spanish Steps and Spagna metro station. With a minor detour for gelato.

In the flower market

The Giordano Bruno monument in the center

of the Campo di Fiora; Bruno was among the

earliest Renaissance critics of the excesses of

the Church; was tried and burned at the stake

in this square; over very strong Vatican

objection, the city of Rome built this

monument and placed it ensuring that Bruno's

critical gaze would always fall on the Popes;

from the 19th century, the Vatican has not 

always been as popular in Italy as one might

imagine 

Bernini's Four Rivers

After all these years, still my favorite building, the

Pantheon

Gelato detour

A very famous column, Hadrian's, I think, or

possibly Marcus Aurelius'--we'll visit again

by day

The Trevi Fountain

Spanish Steps

And accompanying boat fountain

Nach Rome!

So from Caserta, we drove on, spending the night at a huge rest area on the autostrada, finally arriving in Rome on Friday morning. Our first goal was to find a suitable place to store the camper for our return to the States in April. This we did, on the first try, near the Laurentina metro station, on the Eternal City's south side. Vicki achieved another screaming deal, not only storing the rig but allowing us to camp on site for the next ten days, with wonderfully simple and quick transportation to the great city center.

Driving by Monte Cassino--"never was so much suffered by

so many for so little"--parodying the author of the campaign
in Italy in WWII

Caserta Curiosities

Driving to the Royal Palace, Caserta featured the worst

traffic jam we have yet seen, anywhere in the world--again,

no accident, no construction, just the simple matter of getting

Italians to merge two lanes into one and allow entry from a

side street

In the Royal Palace, a delicate reminder from

The very tactful School of Public Administration

Marble everywhere...marble veneer, that is

Kings of Naples..room for six more, too

One of the kings was an avid modeler--here, a model of

flying sailing ships



Touchdown!



Bird-cage clock

Baroque trash-can; seriously

And: the very best nativity scene we have seen yet,

anywhere

Closer up detail

Caserta Gardens

The great palace building and original furnishings at Caserta should rank among the top few of such sights in Europe. For us, however, the gardens, and especially the English Garden--a multi-acre park really--have to rank among the very best things we have seen.

The garden runs a mile or more, up a man-made series of

cascades, then a man-made water-fall, to the top of the

mountain; the English Garden is on the right 

From the pond at the foot of the water-fall, looking back to

the palace

Including today's wedding pix pix

The pond and waterfall and cascade above

Pond sculpture; sculpture everywhere

Some of the quarter mile of lower cascades

In the English Garden, beautiful old pines

everywhere

And Cedars of Lebanon

And trees weird-worthy of New Zealand

Rock gardens, leading to a beautiful pond and

A folly/re-creation of Pompei--after all, these

were the royalty mining Pompei for its

treasures

Everything in bloom

Closer up

The grounds, a carpet of wild-flowers



Vicki assembling a bouqet



You can never have enough Follies at your Royal Palace;

this one a temple on an island in a pond

But it's time to head back to the palace; we're seriously

considering a trip back to Caserta, from Rome, to see the

gardens again