Lana didn’t sleep well last night.  Something beeping had kept her up, and she guessed she only got about 4 hours of sleep.  I slept like a rock.

 

We were up at 7 to meet Christopher at 9.  The Vatican Museum opened at 10, and there are always huge lines.  We were to meet him in line at 9 for a private tour, just the three of us.  He said that during the hour we waited in line, he could give us a historical overview of the Vatican, and then we would spend about 3 hours going through the displays.  Keep in mind that the Vatican Museum is huge.  It has over 8 kilometers of corridors, and thousands upon thousands of displays.  4 hours would only scratch the surface, but any more would simply be overwhelming.

 

Christopher had emailed me a couple of days before to confirm that we were still on, and I had emailed back, telling him that we were, and that we were really looking forward to the tour.  As a matter of fact, we had told the Irish couple last night that we expected this to be a highlight of the trip.

 

Travelers Tip:  Confirm, confirm, confirm.

 

We took the #64 bus (renowned for pickpocket activity) across town to the Vatican and got in line about 8:45.  The day was sunny and cold, but not as cold as we expected, which we were quite happy about!  We were also happy to get as close to the entrance as we did…about 400 yards.  The line piled up behind us, and beggars and tour-salespeople worked the line.  One guy in dreadlocks approached. 

 

“Do you speak English?” 

 

“No, as a matter of fact, I don’t.” 

 

“Oh, OK…but it sounds pretty good to me.” 

 

I smiled; he got the message, and moved on.

 

9 came and went.  Christopher had been quite punctual the last time we saw him, so I waited a few minutes, and rung him up.  He seemed surprised to hear from me. 

 

It seems that he had not gotten my email replying to his, confirming that we still wanted to do the tour.  He had waited to hear from us until last night, and then took another tour booking with a 7 person private group.

 

How the email got waylaid, I don’t know.  All of my emails to hotels and friends back home were getting through, and he had gotten the first one I had sent him last week.  But however it happened, he was booked.  He was extremely apologetic, and after a minute or two, suggested that he MIGHT be able to add us into the small group that he was now committed to.  It would depend on them, since he had agreed that their tour would be private.  He promised to do the best he could, and to call me back as soon as he knew something.

 

I was REALLY disappointed.  I had been looking forward to this tour, specifically with this guide, since we had met him last week.  But here we were.  Lana, as always, was nonplussed.  “If we don’t get the guide, we will just use the guidebook and do it ourselves”.  Things like this just don’t upset her…what a girl.

 

We pulled out the guidebook and started reading.  About 9:40 the phone rang, it was Christopher.  He asked where we were, and asked me hold up my hand so he could spot us.  A moment later he appeared out of the crowd, and once again was very apologetic.  “I just heard from the driver for the group, they are just arriving.  I will go and see what I can do”, he said, and disappeared back into the crowd. 

 

Saturdays are one of the busiest days at the museum.  People start queuing up at who-knows-what-time; remember that we were there 1.25 hours before opening, and the line was already around the corner.  For some crazy reason they only admit people for 2.5 hours a day (at least in the off season), and the lines are just crazy.  They often wrap around the Vatican wall all the way back to St. Peter’s Basilica, at which point you will stand in line for two hours once they open the doors.  If you are still in line at 12:30, they close the doors, tough luck, try again another day.  What makes it even crazier is that the entrance fee is only 13E, and they are losing money!  They could easily (it seems) double the fee, be open regular hours, and turn a profit.  But, you know, it’s Italy.

 

My point is that people has been streaming in ever since we got there.  By this time, the tail of the line had been out of our sight, and growing, for over half an hour.

 

Right at 10, the phone rang.  It was Christopher.

 

“Where are you?”

 

“Just down from the entrance, maybe 100 yards now, across from the café with the green awnings”.

 

“I have the group with me, we are coming to join you.  We are good”.

 

Although Christopher never said it, I can imagine his conversation with this small group went something like this:  “I have two more people that want to join us.  See this line?  It’s about a half a mile long.  They are at the head of it.  Whaddya think?”

 

Whatever he said, we were very happy to have him guide us.  And all he charged us was his entry fee to the Museum, 13E.  Christopher is a first class guy.

 

I really don’t have the skill to write about the tour, other than to say it was, as I expected, one of the high points of the trip.  Chris only hit the highlights.  As we stood in front of Laocoon, he said that a full college seminar could be taught on that one statue alone. 

 

I will take the time to tell an interesting story about Laocoon.  The statue was created by three Greek sculptors working in Rome.  During one of the many sacks of Rome, it was lost.  Hundreds of years later, a peasant farmer found bits of it as he tilled his field.  The field was excavated, and most of the statue was found (in several pieces) and reassembled.  The one missing piece was Laocoon’s left arm.  Of course, in those days, there were no pictures of the statue, so when it came time to carve a replacement, there was some discussion about how the arm should be formed.  The decision, made by the majority of experts in the field, was that the arm should be extended, and that’s how it was carved, so that the statue looked like this.

 

There was one prominent dissenter.  Michelangelo.

 

Michelangelo argued that, for the form and movement of the statue to be proper, the arm should be bent, with Laocoon’s left arm reaching to grab the snake from behind. 

 

 400 years later, in 1902, the original arm from the statue was found.  In the 1950’s it was carbon dated and examined scientifically.   The marble matched, grain for grain, the rest of the statue.  Michelangelo had been right.  Here is the complete statue, as it was carved around 42 BC.

 

More pictures from the Vatican Museum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Vatican tour typically ends in the Sistine Chapel (photos not allowed).  Again, the work was overwhelming, especially when interpreted by an expert.

 

Let me pause here to say that if you are even in Rome and need a guide, Chris is your guy.  You can contact him at celongh@lycos.com, or in Italy at 333-271-0373.

 

From here, the group went on to St Peters, and we left, since we had already seen it, and had other things we wanted to see.  We walked east and crossed the Tiber, stopping in Piazza del Popolo for pictures, and then walking down Via del Corso, picking up some pizza on the way.

 

 

 

 That night, we walked back to the Spanish Steps area to have dinner with our friend Melissa, her son Travis, brother Adam, and family friend Mike.  The six of us had a wonderful dinner, and Lana and I got to recount some of our trip highlights to them, just as they were starting their one-week vacation.  Sadly, Melissa’s husband Sven was not feeling well and unable to join us.  Still, it was good to see them, but it reminded us that our trip was just about over.

 

 

 

 

 

The Panama City group had to bug out early, since they had to catch a 9PM shuttle back to their hotel on the outskirts of Rome.  Lana and I stayed on to have dessert and grappa, then had a leisurely stroll back to the hotel.  We were in bed a little after 10.

 

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