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The Holy See -
Official Site
Vatican City
Information -The
Holy See - Vatican
City - Rome-Vatican
City The Holy See,
the world's smallest
country contains the
world's largest
museum, piazza, and
Basilica.
The Holy City-
Vatican
City - Rome
Vatican State - The
Holy see
The Pope does
nothing on a small
scale; by a mystery
of the faith, the
world's smallest
country contains
the world's largest
museum,
piazza, and
church.
If cruel destiny
decrees that you
must see
the Vatican Museums,
St Peter's,
and
Castel Sant'Angelo
all in one day, make
it a Monday (when
all the state
museums are
closed anyway).
It is the only day
that
Castel Sant'Angelo
is open in the
afternoon, and if
you've had the
foresight to book an
afternoon tour of
the Ancient
Necropolis under
St Peter's you
can even, with some
fancy footwork, fit
that in too though
our publisher
refuses to be liable
for any blisters or
fallen arches you
may sustain in the
process.
Remember the dress
code: no shorts,
sleeveless blouses
or tee shirts.
The one attraction
that even the
saints in heaven
couldn't squeeze
into a single day
itinerary is the
three hour morning
tour of Vatican City
(though from the
dome you get a
bird's eye view of
the little state
and its gardens).
If it's not Monday,
make sure to start
early in the
Vatican Museums,
and leave by 11.30
for
Castel Sant'Angelo,
as it closes at 1
pm.
Or in the summer,
begin with
Castel Sant'Angelo
and
St Peter's,
have an early lunch,
and then move on to
the cool corridors
of the Vatican
museums.
If you will be in
Rome on the last
Sunday of the month,
take advantage of
papal charity the
Vatican museums are
free.
Vatican City
Vatican,
curiously, means 'prophecy',
for it was on this
eighth hill of
Rome that
King Numa received
tips on religion
from the Sibyls.
But as it was on the
wrong side of the
Tiber the land
was cheap, and
Caligula used it to
build his personal
circus, later known
as Nero's; here
St Peter was
crucified upside
down, at his own
request, so that his
martyrdom would not
resemble Christ's.
He was buried in a
nearby cemetery, on
a spot that has been
hallowed ever since.
It has been 1111
chief residence of
Peter's successors
since the late 14th
century.
'The
Papacy is not
other than the Ghost
of the Deceased
Roman Empire,
sitting crowned upon
the grave thereof,
said Thomas Hobbes,
though since Hobbes
this imperial
ectoplasm has been
confined like an a
frit in a magic
lamp.
 Better know as the
independent state of
Vatican City
(pop. around 1000),
But the temporal
power of the popes
had been in decline
for centuries; the
old Papal States by
the 18th century
were the worst run
in Europe,
kept 'alive only
because earth
refuses to swallow
them, as Goethe put
it. Unfortunately,
thanks to
Mussolini much
of the evil
of the Papal
States has been
concentrated in a
country the size of
a
golf course-one
where the duffers
don't always count
all their
strokes.
For
instead of creating
a realm of the
spirit, as Vatican
brochures would like
to believe, members
of the Curia who run
Vatican City
have used its
sovereignty (read
unaccountability) to
create the
Corporate Papacy,
the world’s last
real autocracy, with
a tiny tax haven all
its own.
The
scandal of
Vatican finances,
Mafia connections,
the laundering of
drug money through
the Vatican bank and
the circumstances
surrounding the
sudden death of John
Paul I have been soI
unsavory that the
government across
the Tiber has
responded by
decreasing the
Church's role in
the state,
legalizing divorce
and abortion, making
religious
instruction optional
in schools, taxing
Vatican
profit from the
stock market, and
taking away Roman
Catholicism's
special status as
the official
religion of Italy.
Yet as you stroll
among the merry
crowds of
pilgrims and
tourists
chattering in every
known language,
remember Boccaccio's
story in the
Decameron, of two
friends who live in
Paris, one
Christian and
one Jewish,
the former
constantly pestering
the other to
convert.
Finally the Jew
agrees, on the
condition that he
first Visits Rome,
to see if the life
and habits of the
pope and his
cardinals were
evidenced of the
superiority of their
faith.
The Christian
naturally despairs,
but off the Jew
goes to Rome,
returning with the
expected tale of a
thousand
abominations,
declaring that the
pontiff and the rest
were doing their
level best to reduce
the Christian
religion to naught
and drive it from
the face of the
earth.
That the faith could
survive and prosper
with such sharks in
charge was enough to
convince him that it
must indeed be holy
and genuine, and he
converted
immediately.
Vatican City
is surrounded by a
high wall, designed
by Michelangelo;
its only public
entrances are
through St
Peter's Square
and the Vatican
Museums.
Swiss
guards
(still recruited
from the four
Catholic cantons),
dressed in a
scaled-down version
of the striped suits
designed by either
Michelangelo
or Raphael,
stand ready to
smite you with their
halberds if you try
to push your way in
elsewhere.
Borgo
Someone has
calculated that
there is room for
about 300,000
people in the
piazza, with no
crowding. Few have
ever noticed
Bernini's little
joke on antiquity;
the open space
almost exactly
matches the size and
dimensions of
the Colosseum.
And
as Norwood Young
wrote, in the 1901
Story of Rome,
the
intention of the
architects is not
dissimilar to
overawe and crush
the individual.
But
now I feel the cold
scrutiny of
Bernini's
self-complacent
columns, writes Mr
Young.
Their
long octopus arms
ready to encircle
me, while the body
of the monster waits
eyeing me from the
distance.
I
cannot
escape.Bernini would
prefer us to see his
Colonnade,
with
its 284 massive
columns and
statues of 140
saints, as 'the
arms of the Church
embracing the
world'.
Stand
on either of the two
dark stones at the
foci of the
elliptical piazza,
and you will see the
forest of columns
resolve into
Mill
rows, a subtly
impressive optical
effect like the
hole in the dome of
the Pantheon.
Bernini designed the
Colonnade so that
the nobility could
drive their carriage
underneath to St
Peter's,
sheltered from sun
or rain.
Flanked by two
lovely fountains,
luxuriantly spraying
water all over the
pavement the one on
the right by Carlo
Maderno (1614), and
the other, copied
1from it in 1667-the
Vatican
Obelisk,
though only
average-size for an
obelisk, Is one of
the most fantastical
relics in all
Rome.
Off to the right of
the square
is
a confusing cluster
of buildings, the
Vatican palaces,
built over the years
to satisfy some of
the bigger papal
egos. Modern
popes don't take up
much room; since
1903,
when the
newly-elected Pius X
refused to move from
the servants'
quarters of the
Apostolic Palace
(the tallest
building) where he
stayed during the
conclave, the popes
have chosen to live
there, behind the
last two windows on
the right, on the
top floor.
on
Sunday at noon Pope
appears at the
window and blesses
the crowd in the
piazza.
The gallery along
the right, the
Corridore del
Bernini,
leads to the great
Bronze Door,
the ceremonial
entrance to the
Vatican for visiting
,dignitaries; it
leads to the
Scala Regia. On
the left side are
the Vatican
information office.
At the end
is
the
Arco
delle Campane,
under St Peter's
bells, guarded by
the Swiss;
if
you 're booking to
see the necropolis,
just tell them
“Ufficio degli Scavi'.
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