…and yes, I know it’s the Holy See
No rest for the wicked or the passionate young traveller (that’s right, I called myself young) ! Turn around times on my holidays are notoriously short, part of that being alcohol related and the other part being my desire to loose myself in a new city where the objective is to check things out rather than check out late. Also, on this day I had another objective, cracking the Vatican City State effectively means that I’d be leaving Italy behind for a few hours and entering another country. No additional stamp on the passport but then again, in these modern EU times, passport stamps are increasing becoming a rarity.
So, this state is effectively a walled enclave within the city of Rome, and with a burgeoning population of 900 people, coupled with a vast territory of 110 acres, is also the smallest country on earth in reference to both size and population. Hmmm, I wonder what their birth rate is ? It is in fact the big police doughnut if you wanted to know.
My morning in Rome effectively involved a bit of a cruise around on one of those ‘jump on – jump off’ buses but the primary stop for me was to be Piazza San Pietro (St Peter’s Square). As I ‘jumped-off’ the bus and strolled up along with the few thousand other pilgrims, I noticed that St.Peter’s Basilica was actually quite freakin’ enormous. Right, so this is where the Pope and his cohorts kick it during the week hey, it’s kind of grandiose in that typically Catholic way and slightly reverent ….in that typically Catholic way also. On this occasion I wasn’t in for any sort of guilt trip although I noticed a few of the Papal police kicking people out of the queue to enter the Basilica for not wearing ‘appropriate’ clothing? Go figure, the Hard Rock café lives by the credo of ‘love all, serve all’ and here the centre of the universe for Catholics goes by the credo ‘Love all, serve all of those dressed appropriately’. Apparently the large forecourt in front of the Basilica was designed so that the largest number of people could see the Pope during mass /prayer time / blessings etc. Right in the centre is an enormous obelisk, again, from some background reading it’s apparently an Egyptian obelisk made of red
granite and stands at 40+ mtrs from its base.
St Peter's Square
The queue to get in was definitely the most disorganised that I had stood in over the past few weeks but they’re Italian ( or are they ‘Vaticano’), either way, you kind of expect it. You could see the Catholics just wanting to ‘lose it’ but we’re unfortunately beaten back by their own moral standing and the inevitable judgment that would have come with the line, ‘Aren’t you Catholic’ .
Once inside I can say that the place was as enormous as it was on the outside, and I guess that’s what got to me, just the sheer vastness. I did at that moment thing that the acoustics in the joint would be befitting of a rock concert, but who would do the gig ? Perhaps God himself ? Aka Bono ! I guess there’s nothing too much additional to report about the interior, the more impressive element was the walk up to the top of the dome. I did encounter momentary flashbacks to my Chu Chi tunnel experience when the staircase closed in on me as I wound around the outside of the dome and my brain told me that the ‘fear’ trigger was being alerted because we were being enclosed. Stupid brain, I got over that one quick smart by convincing myself that I’d be such a pansy if I lost the plot - and so I didn’t !! lol
The view from the top of St.Peters was spectacular! Again, what took me by surprise was that it seemed like the outskirts of the city was actually quite close to the city centre. None of those sprawling suburban landscapes that we mentally equate as being a typical characteristic of a well known city.
….hmmm, am stopping here, one more Roman fixture to go before I wrap up my European escapades and start discussing the anguish, pain and logistical nightmare that. was Laos.
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