St Peter’s Basilica

On the last Sunday of the month, the Vatican Museum is open with free entry, so I thought I’d try to get there (on Sunday 27 December). However when I got there, the queue was so long, and barely moving so I gave up on that idea. Instead I headed toward St Peter’s Basilica to scope things out for when the girls come.

On my way there, I passed some tents. Inside there were some stalls, like a little craft/food fair, so I got side tracked and did some Christmas shopping! It’s nice come across unexpected treasures!

When I finally got to the Basilica, the queue wasn’t very long and it was moving quite fast. Since it was free entry, I joined the queue to just go in and have a look. It was my lucky day as just a few people in front of me there was an American guy called Steve who was giving a free tour. It was a way to advertise for the company he was working for (which takes people on different tours around Rome). He was a history student and has been in Rome for a while. He was really good. He told us about the outside of the Basilica, how the pillars line up if you stand on a certain spot (and they do!).

Inside, it was amazing. I thought it did not look that big, but when he explained that it has been built to proportions. All the ornaments and decorations were huge, so everything look in proportion. At first glance, you do not realise the words (which are actually lapis lazuli) along the top were 9 meters high, but when you see people near them, they are dwarfed. The angels and statues around the place are also huge when you get near them.

Lots of little things I learnt, like where they got the stones and metal to build the Basilica and the ornament (by raiding the Colosseo and Pantheon!!!). There was a large statue which was carved out of jasper. The most amazing thing was that the paintings in the Basilica are not paintings at all. They are mosaics made to look exactly like the real paintings. This is because the actual paintings would suffer damage with all the photography, incense smoke, etc that they made little mosaics in different colours and the painstakingly matched each colour to the original!

And of course there is the Pieta (the statue of a young Mary carrying the dying Jesus). It is behind glass now because a few years ago, a crazy maniac took a hammer to it. Some bits broke off and of course the crowd took them away as souvenirs. There was an appeal for the bits to be returned so that they can restore it, and every bit came back! Now, you can hardly see the damage!

I’m looking forward to going back there. It is such an amazing building!!