Churches and Things

Sunday the 28th June (these are the days I wrote the post...internet gets sketch, so I write things up in advance, and post them when I can.)

We went to the Vatican today. Sunday is “free day” so you can get in places for free. I don’t know if they usually cost or not, but we didn’t have anything else to do. So off we trundled.

We took the metro, and a brief note here on the metro: it rocks. I love it. Admittedly, Rome only has 2 lines, so if you want to get anywhere that isn’t on one of the lines things get tricky…also they get packed. Small metro trams and lots and lots of tourists, locals, and anything else you can imagine (including once a man playing the accordion. No joke). At times there is nothing even remotely resembling space between you and the person next to you. Cozy might be a “nice” word for it.
But. It’s fairly inexpensive (and I bought my student month pass today! Thrilling!) and fairly easy to work out.
I suppose it’s a good thing that I enjoy the metro because it’s how we are going to get to our dig site every day. By 7am. So I have a 30-minute metro ride to look forward to at 6:15 in the morning… sigh.

ANYWAY. Metro. To the Vatican. Right.

So, we get up from our stop and have to walk a few blocks. As we walk towards it we pass all sorts of stalls, restaurants, and buskers.

One of the men out on the corner had flyers and was advertising “big pizza, American traveler, big pizza!” He makes eye contact with me, I go “Non grazi” and keep walking…he pats me on the head with the flyer twice and goes “Chriing chriing” in a friendly sort of way. Yeah. I don’t even know. It did make me laugh though.

So we get to the Vatican and it’s packed. Apparently the Pope was going to be speaking, and I did hear his voice over some loudspeakers, but I was in line for the crypts and couldn’t figure out where he was speaking from. One of my friends says she saw his hand. From a window about 8 stories up, on the side of the plaza I couldn’t see…

I got to go into the Basilica and the crypt. We are going back another day for the museum and the cupola. The basilica…was…big. Really I think that is the best word for it. Really, really, big. Towering ceilings, massive columns, irrationally huge statues of angles and Popes. I felt like it should have been a really impressive place, awe-striking or some-such. Really, it has a fascinating history, grand constructions, and it’s a holy place right? Awe should have happened. Instead it just felt too BIG. It might have been imposing and impressive if it wasn’t so extensive…and if it weren’t for all the people. There were all sorts of tourists rushing around and shoving you out of the way so that they could take their pictures. A bit sad really.

The crypts were interesting. Popes are buried there. I was more interested in the older burials and some really nice mosaics. Pope John Paul II is there. Many people come to pray at his monument. One lady just stood there and cried. I felt so out of place. To me this is something I cannot comprehend. Many churches, old churches, mediaeval churches, I don’t feel out of place in. The hushed respect they demand, the history, the quiet they hold, I can understand this. But at the Vatican…I didn’t fit. I can’t understand, I can’t really sympathize with these people. I don’t understand their stories, their worries, why they kneel on hard marble to pray for, or maybe to, a departed pope they never knew.

Also…where is the respect? Shouldn’t a church this size impose if not silence then at least a respectful hush? But here, you come, you pay respects then talk loudly, and your voices bounce back, reflected by the golden ceiling, or the marble walls of a subterranean vault. I can’t understand the decadence, the opulence, the imposing faith that causes those who visit in its name to push, shove, talk loudly, and stop every so often to kneel, pray, or cry. This is not a place I understood at all.

It’s difficult for me to really express this right…I keep stumbling over what I mean. I can’t feel a presence here. I can’t even feel at peace. In many other places of faith I at least feel something like that. I suppose Catholicism is too alive here for me to be able to fit myself in. This faith is not something I can find even a spark of in myself, I am too alien, to unknowing of the stories on which it is based.

Don’t get me wrong. I am glad I went. I learned something about people, and very possibly something about religion. And while the basilica was arguably a bit overdone there were some very impressive statues. Really, being honest the whole thing was breathtaking, huge, imposing, and the amount of work that must have gone into it, and must still go into its upkeep is staggering. The gold ceiling is rather intense. And the Michelangelo “La Pietà” was lovely. Even behind feet of glass, the art and emotion speaks to you in a very powerful way.

Oh! And the Vatican Guard…dress a bit like court jesters! Lots of colors and stripes. I think I’m glad they never bothered to update the uniforms…they are quite entertaining to see.