A Practically Perfect Day

Picture us in the line for the Vatican museum with Jay and his tour-group of English-speakers. Snaking in and out of the shade, through the touts, pickpockets and beggars, we shuffle ahead with the line for an hour and a half, listening to Jay riff on life in Rome, Vatican politics, and where to buy the best polish sausage. He’s got the expat fantasy down – it’s all temporal poverty and cultural wealth, serendipity and opportunism. Then, a mere two hours after the tour begins, we enter the museum.

First stop is Raphael’s last painting, the kind of work that makes you gasp at the secret source of light that makes some figures shimmer while others are left in shadow. Jay leads us through the rudiments of Christian symbolism (St. Peter is the one holding a ring of keys – why? They’re the keys to heaven) which we’ve been reading about in preparation for this trip. I could stand here forever, but we’re roused by the sound of an alarm going off. Apparently, someone has allowed their five-year old to stray under the barrier which protects the priceless painting, bringing the museum guard to investigate…let’s draw a curtain of privacy around the remainder of this scene…



Raphael's last painting.


The hours fly by as we wander through gallery after gallery. Jay seems to have an inexhaustible knowledge of whatever comes up – minutia of catholic doctrine, mythology of various cultures, life stories of the artists, and the origin of everything in the museum, such as the mosaics underfoot (constructed in the first centuries AD, but moved here just a few hundred years ago. Now how did they manage that? I didn’t get to ask.) Kobi falls asleep and I carry him on my back for an hour or so, till we finally make our way inside the Sistine Chapel, which pictures a dizzying array of saints, including Middletown’s own St. Sebastian, shown with his arrow in the Last Judgment. Jay shows us where the floor was singed by the stove that sent up the smoke signal when the cardinals gathered here to choose the last pope –



Listening to Jay.

It feels quite strange that they let those millions of feet tromp across this artwork, just because it is on the floor!

It was the lion skin that tipped us off -- this is Hercules.

The vaulted ceiling in the hall of maps

In a courtyard, Jay delivers a lecture on Michaelangelo's Last Judgement, which covers one wall of the Sistine Chapel and was painted 14 years after the ceiling.


Now it’s been six hours. The tour is over, but Jay is still dispensing wisdom, and we collect some restaurant recommendations, which we are desperately in need of by now. Standing in St. Peter’s, which is so huge and beautiful, we reflect that we have been in Rome just 24 hours.


The main alter at St. Peter's Basilica, where only the Pope can lead mass.

Outside of St. Peter's Basilica

Now we make our way back to our hotel, stopping for a quick bite at another pizza joint, as all the Ristorante are closed – the chef is sleeping, it was explained to us. We catch the #40 bus and start a collection of photos of smart cars (which I'll post sometime when I have unlimited connectivity!)

While some of the family naps and relaxes in the cool of our room at the Anfiteatro Flavio, Karma and I pay 1.5 euros for 45 minutes of internet access down the street. We check in on Kidcity and send a few emails and determine that a hoped-for trip to the cinema to see the new Harry Potter movie in English (with Italian subtitles) is just impossible tonight.

The good news is that the Almost Corner Bookshop, carrying books in English, will be open until 8 pm, and is located in Travestere, a cluster of ancient and atmospheric streets. We gather the rest of the family and try the “H” bus, which takes us right there. We buy some cut watermelon from a street kiosk and locate the tiny shop on the twisty little “Via Del Moro” – and settle down for some book-choosing. Tenzin and Maggie still don’t find the next volumes of the Alexander & Roman Empire series they are reading, but Tenzin does find an Otori novel he hasn’t read and Karma gets an old-fashioned children’s novel and a mary-kate and Ashley she’s wanted. Kobi gets a sticker book on magic tricks, since he spent the day giggling at Mark pulling euros out of his ears whenever it looked like he was going to disrupt the Vatican. Maggie begs for the complete works of Alexander Pope, but we’ve already paid our bill, so she’ll have to wait for that one. Most important, we order our copy of the seventh Harry Potter, since we will be back in Rome on the 21st, though sadly not at 1 am when they will go on sale.

It's books floor to ceiling...

We have a fantastic dinner at a sidewalk cafe, where Maggie tries a remarkable 6 new foods, including salad and red wine, a miracle which I attribute to 6 hours spent in the presence of the Virgin Mary. (Maggie credits the several consecutive meals of pizza.)



Our table at dinner.

After we return to our part of town, we collect our nightly cones of gelato (amazing how quickly some habits can develop) mixing mint & tiramisu, raspberry and chocolate chip, strawberry and melon. And Vanilla for Kobi. Our hotel is just across the street, and bedtime comes quickly – or at least more quickly than usual. Counting blessings, I find that there’s nothing I would change on the day.