Roma Pass – Part 5: St. Peter’s Basilica

Okay, so you caught me: St. Peter’s is not part of the Roma Pass deal. By definition it cannot be, since Vatican City is technically its own country. But it was still free (they don’t charge entrance because it’s a church, which is understandable, yet unbelievable because this is where the Pietá, among so much other art, is housed) and it makes a nice final part to the little series I’ve got going on here, so you’ll just have to forgive me the literary liberty.

After Borghese I took the metro (for free!) to the stop closest to St. Peter’s, which left me with an easy 10-minute walk. I decided to rest my feet a bit and grab a bite to eat along the way and ducked into a café just as it began to sprinkle. Moments later it poured, complete with thunder and lightening. I guess I really will be taking a little break…

But like all the other rain I have experienced so far in Italy, it didn’t last for too long and by the time I was done eating (and lingering) it had let up to less than a sprinkle and I was ready to tackle St. Peter’s.

I don’t know if you know this, but St. Peter’s is HUGE. I mean, I had stood outside before and I knew the courtyard was quite generous, but the church itself was beyond what one can conjure upon first imagining. I think the most appropriate word for it is extravagant. It’s astronomical in proportion and everything about it is extravagant. As a whole, it’s quite overwhelming.

Again I rented the audio guide and obediently went where it directed me to go. It was slightly long-winded, but narrated by a voice that seemed to genuinely invested in the content (which was mostly interesting information about the basilica, but also largely evangelical).

Again, I won’t hold your hand and repeat the tour to you (there are some things you are going to have to come here and experience on your own), save for one stop: Michelangelo’s Pietá. Here, I simply must comment.

After you walk through the mighty doors of St. Peter’s, the Pietá is immediately on your right: no beating around the bush here. You walk in and BAM! there it is. As with the David, I was firstly shocked at so abruptly seeing such a great work of art (as though we had not been properly introduced), which was immediately followed with a feeling of recognition; as though I were seeing an old friend.

But whereas the David demands your captivation, the Pietá demands your reverence. It is so believably life-like, it feels as though you are intruding on an intimate, solemn moment between mother and son. Yet, Mary’s face and open hand beckon you forward. Through her sorrow, she invites you to join in the worship of her son.

This alone was enough to command my attention, but listening to the earnest audio guide describing Mary’s emotional state nearly broke my heart. It finishes with this message of hope from Psalm 23: “Yea though I walk though the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” If that’s not enough to make you cry, well, then, I don’t know what is.

After that, I considered everything else a frickin’ bonus. I had seen the ginormity of the church; I had seen the Pietá, what more could I ask?? I persevered though, patiently listening to the audio guide in its entirety before I returned it just before the deadline. Truthfully, by that point I was thankful to turn it in; I was simply over-saturated. I had seen a lot of truly spectacular art today.

In general it was too dark for pics (largely due to the lack of natural light from the stormy weather), plus I couldn’t muster the strength to be a “proper tourist,” so other than the Pietá, I didn’t bother. I was too late to take the elevator to the top of the dome anyway, so I figured I would come back tomorrow to snap a few pics and tour the dome.

Since I was so tired at that point, I decided to eat near home at a pizza joint Rick recommends. I finished my meal with a slightly different take on my favorite Italian dessert: ricotta panna cotta. Predictably, it had a little more texture, but was equally good as its predecessors. After that, I gleefully hit the sack.