My Brief But Spectacular Day in Rome

Remember the PBS show, “Brief but Spectacular,” in which ordinary people gave their quick “take” on an ordinary subject? Well, here’s mine on visiting The Vatican for the first time….and eventually connecting (in a manner of speaking) with Pope Leo XIV.

I was in Rome for 3.5 days and St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City and The Vatican Museums, which I’d not seen on previous visits, were at the top of my list. I didn’t buy an advance ticket for the St. Peter’s line, which was a mistake as I stood in line for more than one hour. Yet, once inside the magnificent basilica, I had all the time I wanted. Hundreds of visitors were milling around but the space is so immense and the timed entries so well managed that I was able to take in everything at my own pace. Much has been said, written and photographed about St. Peter’s so I won’t repeat it, except to say, you must do this. Roman Catholic or not, it is indeed a spiritual experience, and I was awestruck.

What the guidebooks don’t tend to make very clear is that it’s a long walk around the Vatican walls to the Vatican Museums effectively about a half-mile and 180 degrees around the sovereign city-state, which is effectively the smallest country in the world. Sidewalks are narrow, crowds dense and, once near the entrance, the lines were seriously chaotic.

That said, this is one of the largest and most important art collections in the world, and you get a real sense of history and context in viewing the treasures, often tightly linked to the rise of Rome over the centuries. I highly recommend the self-guided audio tour. You could spend a day wandering through the labyrinth of rooms but the guards keep you moving along without a lot of time to absorb everything.

The Sistine Chapel is located here, and unfortunately it was jammed with no place to sit and regard the iconic art – the ceiling masterpiece painted by Michaelangelo in the early 16^th century and the massive Last Judgment fresco also painted by him but now partially hidden by scaffolding and plastic as it undergoes restoration and the side walls painted by a team of Renaissance masters. As we meandered through the mammoth museums, I have to confess that my favorite areas were the small passages displaying such acquisitions as Matisse’s majestic wall hangings from his cut-outs phase in the late 1940s. Holding his soaring “Tree of Life” and other similar works, this interior space felt like a chapel in stained glass.

I had another motive, which was finding something appropriate for my granddaughter’s First Communion. In the Vatican gift shop, I decided on a cherubic angel tree ornament.

When I bought the ornament for my granddaughter, I also had the option of requesting a special papal blessing for her. Once home, I was a bit stunned when the Pope's office that handles these requests actually emailed me to ask me there was any urgency, as the Holy Father was traveling in Africa at the time. It was such a generous and thoughtful gesture from the staff of such a remarkable man. The gift did arrive in time, with his personal blessing and the date he gave it.

While I didn’t see Pope Leo, I did have another brief but spectacular moment at my hotel. I was at breakfast when someone resembling actress Isabella Rossellini walked in. I had to blink a couple of times because I had recently seen her in The Conclave, the film about Vatican succession. It was indeed the actress! She walked through the buffet line just like the other guests, and sat by herself, quietly, seemingly unnoticed except by me. During the rest of my stay, she was in various small, earnest meetings - once in the garden at lunch and another in a parlor early evening. I see she is now shooting a new film, and I was "there" at the run-up!