WALK Virtue and Vice 1 in Vatican City

The labyrinthine Vatican Museums contain some of the world’s richest art. Over four million people a year view the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel. Vatican City is the smallest city-state in the world. It has been the residence of the popes since the 14th century, when they returned to Rome from Avignon after a 70-year absence. On their return, the popes used art and architecture to reassert their spiritual and temporal authority over the city. This period of unequalled artistic patronage fed the development of the Renaissance and Baroque, and artists flocked to Rome. The popes were, in effect, kings of Rome until 1870. When the creators of the new Italian nation conquered Rome, Pope Pius IX went into voluntary exile inside the Vatican. He died in 1877, having never left the palace again. The division between the church and the new state continued until the 1929 Lateran Pact, when Mussolini was hungry for political power and, in exchange for much-needed political support from the Holy See, allowed the creation of this independent theocracy within Rome. Over the past five centuries the Vatican palace has grown into a complex of long corridors connecting some 11,500 rooms. Expect long queues from May to September.

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H&M_ROME_008-049am.indd 8 1/10/10 09:51:48 Take Metro Line A to Ottaviano. WHERE TO EAT 1 Follow signs to San Pietro, heading south from the metro on Via Ottaviano 1 Old Bridge Gelateria, to Piazza del Risorgimento. Turn right Viale dei Bastioni di Michelangelo 5; 2 and follow the walls round Viale Bastioni Tel: 06 39723026.

di Michelangelo, turning left up Viale Tiny3 gelateria with great ice cream; Vaticano to the museum entrance. generous1 servings, central location.

On the south side of the square you will 2 Da Benito e Gilberto al see a corner of the Vatican City walls. The falco, 13 Leonine walls, as they are known, were Via del Falco 19; built by Pope Leo IV in the 9th century Tel:2 06 6867769. after Saracens from North Africa sailed Always packed. Famous for seafood. up the Tiber in 846 and raided the riches 3 of St Peter’s basilica. Michelangelo helped L’Isola della Pizza, to re-fortify the walls around the Vatican, Via degli Scipioni 47; and this stretch is named after him. Tel: 06 39733483. Expect to queue alongside these walls. Near the metro; serves good pizza. VATICAN CITY; CLOSED SUN. CHECK OPENING HOURS BEFORE VISITING. www.vatican.va view of St Peter’s dome. Turn right on the landing and then turn immediately Enter the museums through the left for the Pinacoteca or painting gallery. 2 modern entrance doors and proceed through the security checks. These galleries are home to Giotto’s Stefaneschi Triptych (c.1313), thought to This is the only public entrance to Vatican have been painted for Old St Peter’s. You City. After passing security you can hire will also find the last work ever painted a museum guide or book a tour of the by Raphael before he died at 37, probably gardens, which are restricted to guided from a venereal disease. The Transfiguration tours only. In the ancient world this area (1520) was carried in his funeral utside the vatican museums vatican the utside was called Vatican Hill, and not much has procession along with his body. Make o changed – you can see the hill rising sure you see the only Leonardo painting above the walls before you enter. Before in Rome, St Jerome in the Wilderness

the 4th century this spot was the site of (c.1480). Even in its damaged and lden sphere o a large pagan necropolis. unfinished state, the painting reveals site: g site:

Leonardo’s mastery of human anatomy. o

Head upstairs to buy tickets, and And don’t miss Caravaggio’s dramatic Opp 3 take the escalator to the entrance Deposition, in which it seems as if Christ’s landing. Before you is a breathtaking body is being passed to you. 9

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DISTANCE 1 mile (1.6km)

ALLOW 3 hours

START Ottaviano San Pietro Metro

FINISH Ottaviano San Pietro Metro or bus from Via della Conciliazione

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Leave the Pinacoteca and return to Walk straight through the the entrance landing. Turn left this courtyard. Climb the stairs to your me 4 5 o time, to the courtyard of the Pinecone. left. You are now entering the ancient galleries. Turn left and walk into the eter’s d P This rectangular courtyard holds a bronze Belvedere courtyard. t S pinecone that once decorated a fountain of r

o in the courtyard of Old St Peter’s. When This famous courtyard takes its name the new St Peter’s was built in 1506, the from the view from the landing; bel old church was demolished, but the means beautiful and vedere, view. Donato site: interi site:

o pinecone miraculously survived. Legend Bramante built it for Pope Julius II to

Opp has it that the pinecone has a pagan past, house his ever-expanding collections of and originally decorated the end of a staff ancient statuary, which once formed the 10 that was part of a statue of Bacchus. basis of the Vatican Museums. In the four

H&M_ROME_008-049am.indd 10 1/10/10 09:52:01 H&M_ROME_008-049am.indd 11 1/10/10 09:52:03 1 H&M_ROME_008-049am.indd 12 12 Vatican Museum, spiral staircase the and afloorfrom a the RoomofMuses. Michelangelo The R 6 later.the statuewas foundfourcenturies of arm right – theoriginal gifts bearing Trojan againstGreeks whowarned priest stipend from thepope. Itdepictsthe who foundthestatuereceived alifetime was rediscovered in1506. The farmer Laocoön group, by Pliny, described which Hermes Rome; BCRomancopy a1st-century of by the Vatican afterNapoleonplundered Canova’s classical Greek sculpture; Antonio praised asthesupreme achievement of niches you canadmire: otunda and R A Proceed through the Belvedere Torso oom oftheMuses, nimals, filledwithanimalsculpture afterPraxiteles; andthefamous Perseus R oom ofthe (1797-1801), purchased standsatthecentre of R oman aviary, into Apollo Belvedere R R oom ofthe G oom of reek C ross. , of Emperor Constantineandhissainted Greek Cross you willseethesarcophagi marble.porphyry IntheRoomof made from asinglepieceofrare Pantheon andhousesafountainbasin Rotunda isnamedandmodelledafterthe Sistine Chapel. The Room of the in for Christ admired anduseditasamodel itgreatly for thebones, shrouds inside. andtrinkets tombslike thesewereChristian ransacked became ahighlylucrative hobby, early mother, Helena. When collectingrelics Tapestries isdecoratedwith17th-century candlestick onyour right. The Hallof look outforthebigtoebelow thefirst the vastness of the Vatican collection – The HalloftheCandelabrademonstrates T 7 apestries andtheHallofMaps. of the Head upstairsandthrough theHall C andelabra, theHallof The LastJudgment ofthe 1/10/10 09:52:07 tapestries made with wool, silk, gold and Perugino, painted the walls in 1481-82. silver threads. The Hall of Maps is covered Michelangelo painted the ceiling with frescos of maps created by Ignazio between 1508 and 1512. He returned Danti in the late 16th century. again in 1536, at 61 years of age, to paint The Last Judgment on the altar wall. By At the very end of the corridor, this time he was known as Il Divino, 8 turn left into the Sobieski Room Divine One. The ceiling was a huge and continue through the Room of the undertaking for Michelangelo, who was Immaculate Conception, around the not an experienced fresco painter. Three outside corridor to the far end of the stories from the Book of Genesis Raphael Rooms. (Creation of the Universe, Creation of Man and the Life of Noah) are told in The four Raphael Rooms were intended nine scenes. Contrary to popular belief, to be Pope Julius II’s private apartments. he did not paint lying on his back, but The first of these is the Room of standing. Michelangelo’s work greatly Constantine, a banquet hall decorated impressed his fellow artists, but they all with scenes from the life of Emperor agreed that he painted like a sculptor. Constantine, who granted religious freedom to Christians in AD 315. The Leave the chapel through the Room of Heliodoros was Julius II’s 1 0 back right exit, which will take bedroom; the theme is the salvation of you into St Peter’s church. the church. The Room of the Papal Seal is home to what is considered Raphael’s St Peter’s Basilica was built in AD 326 on greatest masterpiece, The School of Athens. the site of an ancient pagan necropolis. At its centre stand the fathers of This early church was demolished under philosophy, Plato and Aristotle. Look for Pope Julius II and a new cornerstone set the pleasant face of Raphael himself, just in place in 1506 by architect Donato visible on the bottom right, looking out Bramante. Michelangelo designed the at you. The Room of the Fire in the dome and Bernini executed much of the Borgo is the last Raphael Room. Pope bronze and marble sculpture. The largest Leo X oversaw its decoration in 1514. Christian basilica in the world, it is home to Michelangelo’s Pietà, his first Leave the Raphael Rooms. Follow commission and the only work he ever 9 the signs to the Sistine Chapel. signed. He made it in 1499 when he was 24 and at the start of his career. The Sistine Chapel is named for Pope Sixtus IV, who commissioned its The walk ends here. You can construction in 1471. New popes are 1 1return to Ottaviano Metro station elected here. Early Renaissance painters, or take bus 23, 271 or 280 from the end including Sandro Botticelli and Pietro of Via della Conciliazione. 13

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