Vatican and Gladiator School

Vatican and Gladiators - Last Day in Rome

We get a very early start as the Vatican City can get very crowded.  Ding dong ding goes the alarm. A whole lot of groaning ensues. A taxi ride later and we are cruising past the walls of the worlds smallest country - the Vatican City. Home to his holiness the Pope and a vast museum of history and art. It's Liam's second choice of things to see on this trip so despite growling about having to wake up early he is at his best - for the time being.

We've booked a few special tours on our trip, mostly through Context Travel, who specialise in small groups and family oriented tours. This morning is one of them. "The Vatican City for Families." It comes with an early entrance to the Vatican City and our own personal guide who is not only a historian but also trained in inquiry learning for children.Given the sheer scale of the Vatican it seems it would be one of the places that would best be explained by a professional.

It turns out to be the right call.

We meet Francesca at a little coffee shop across the street from the Vatican City entrance. I'm so glad we have her, just to navigate the crush of people, if nothing else. She gets us efficiently into the Vatican City, which isn't necessarily an easy feat. Although the general admission doesn't open for nearly an hour the queue of people already go a city block down the ancient walls.

Entering the Vatican City Museum

The entrance is all new, all modernised since I was last here. New high tech entrance facilities and moving stair ways. Security guards and surveillance cameras. Such a testament to how the world is going.

As we have thirty minutes before the general public are allowed in we decide to go straight to the Sistine Chapel to see it before the crazy hoards descend. That way we will be allowed to spend more time there and hopefully Francesca can actually explain what we are seeing. Not just get a quick peek at the figures and be herded through.

One of the ceilings of the hallways!!
(No pictures allowed in the Sistine Chapel)

We rush past amazing treasures. Statues. Paintings. Ceilings in Tromp D'oil that look so real it's hard to imagine anyone can be that talented. Sometimes we even have the hallways to ourselves. That is something that I wasn't expecting!

Finally we enter the  Sistine Chapel. It was famously painted by Michelangelo, who spent five years on the scaffolding creating his scenes. Apparently he worked so long and hard that he messed up his eyesight and back from standing in the contorted position for so long. A real perfectionist genius. He was the darling of Lorenzo de Medici "the Magnificent" of Florence and a name the is synonymous with the Renaissance and art of all kind.

Really and truly the paintings are amazing. I saw it when I was a teenager, but really didn't know what I was looking at. To be honest last time I saw it I thought that it looked more like a bunch of muscled contorted bodies on a ceiling and didn't give it much thought. (Ah, teenager hood!)


Everyone has seen the famous picture of God giving the touch of life to Adam, but there is so much more here than just that one painting. Slowly, and taking the time to answer all the questions that the kids throw at her, Francesca tells us the stories painted on the walls. Not just creation and the spectacular Judgement day, that covers the entire back wall behind the alter, but the other smaller stories that show man's need for the guidance by God. The drunkenness of Noah, the Great Flood  and Moses getting the Commandments from god. Clara was particularly excited to see that one as she has recently been there to Mount Sinai herself. It's the stories of the bible - both old and new - come to life in vivid detail. I feel like even if I had never read the bible I would know about the main characters and what they did. And a little about a the man who devoted half a decade of his life to paint them.

Roman Statuary

We are lucky enough to have the chapel for almost forty five minutes without huge crowds. When the people start pushing in, and the guards start getting grumpy and shushing everyone, we back track to see some of the other treasures of the museum. There is so much here - art, architecture, statuary, books, clothing - ancient, medieval, even modern!

We barely even scratched the surface of everything on display in the three hours that we have. I loved the long hall of maps that were painted to represent all of Italy. Randall and Liana were taken with the Roman statuary. And Liam was trying to figure out the meaning of the fig leafs that were strategically placed on most of the statues, and giggled whenever he found one that didn't have the leaves. Francesca got to explain to him about the pope who was offended by the naked statues and covered them up. Better her than me... but then he had just seen the story of the serpent on the roof of the Sistine chapel!

Eventually our tour comes to an end and it's time to say good bye to Francesca. We make our way back to the Sistine Chapel (which is more or less the end of the Vatican museum, before you get to St. Peters Basilica). This time we are with all the main tourists. It is a CRUSH. We are literally touching bodies with all the people around us as we moo-ve down the corridors (the ones we so recently had to ourselves). We finally have to reenter the Sistine chapel to get to the exit into St Peters Basilica on the other side and it becomes worse. I am completely claustrophobic of all the people. It's awful. I can't imagine a single person in that room has a chance to absorb any of the spirituality that was intended for that ceiling.

I pick up Juliet to keep her from getting stepped on (just imagine what her view was of that place! LOL) and we literally fight to get out on the other side. Eventually we pop out and are aside the basilica. The crush lets off as some people veer off to climb the steps to the top of the dome and others go to the souvenir shop and the rest enter the basilica, like us.

St. Peters Basilica was designed in part by...... Michelangelo.... yes, none other than the painter of the Sistine chapel. Back in the 16th century if you were an artist it was important to be well versed in all the arts - not a painter, or a sculptor or an architect - but all three! And St. Peters is amazing. Michelangelo (who was in his 70's) was arm twisted into becoming the architectural overseer by the pope and his influence shaped the church as it is today. It's the tallest dome in the world (inspired in part by the Pantheon as well as Florence's Duomo). It is the largest Christian church in the world and is a pilgrimage site for millions of people, an icon now of the catholic religion, and also of the ingenuity of the Renaissance period.

Liam is unimpressed. He tries to argue with me that the Pantheon is actually bigger. I know what he means. The Pantheon seems bigger without all the clutter of the icons and statuary to hide its austere dome. But really, it is not possible, even for Liam, to be unimpressed for long. Once you allow your eyes to be overwhelmed by the sensual nature of the building and just go with it you get drawn into a whole new sense of Christianity. The love of showing off, if I can say that. The amazing gold leaf, marble and paintings everywhere.

Four hours of being in the smallest country in the world and our kids have had enough of culture and religion. We go down the street for a pizza while the noon bells dong away across the city. It's time to go back to our lovely little apartment and pack up before heading out on our afternoon adventure. The kids number one excitement for Roma - GLADIATOR SCHOOL!

I saw the recommendation for Gladiator School on Trip Adviser and did a few searches online and finally a link to contact them. I must say it is quite a bit off the beaten track in Rome, not very touristy, hard to find..... but totally worth it!

Our taxi got us lost finding the correct address on the Apian Way (still haven't figured out if he did it on purpose for the opportunity to charge us an extra few euros) we discovered the recreation of an ancient Roman fort just off the Apian Way. The people who have started this are part of the recreation society of Rome and take their Roman gladiator history very serious!

I am not signed up (as Juliet is not old enough to participate) so just Randall and the three big kids get to change into Roman togas and go into the museum and get a personal explanation about the Roman fighting machine and how it worked. What weapons they used. How they built their fortresses and defences. Liam gets a gleam in his eye as he wears the helmet and raises the swords of the ancient Roman legions. The kids know a bit about the history of Rome, so this brings a lot of the things they know and the places they saw come together in a hands on way.

Before long they are out on the dirt practise arena. Their teacher gives them wooden swords and teaches them the blocks and strikes that any gladiator of the 1st century ad would use in battle and they work on it for over an hour. I am impressed with the way they are all brought into the "class" if you will. You'd think Clara was truly fighting for her life with the dedication that she put into her blocks.

Finally they get to have a one on one "battle" with the teacher in the small arena and come away with sweaty clothes and gigantic smiles on their faces. Before we leave each one of them are given "Roman Citizenship" and a Roman name.
Liana becomes Flavia
Randall becomes Crixus (after a famous gladiator of ancient times)
Clara becomes Invicta (meaning invincible for her courageous fighting in the ring)
Liam is given the name Maximus (probably because he has the potential to go all the way)

It's been a long and satisfying day. We're exhausted. After a spaghetti dinner in the Piazza de Spagna  we finish the packing and go to bed as early as possible. I've been feeling unwell all day so I can't wait to get horizontal. Tomorrow we say goodbye to Rome and head south to Naples and the Sorrento coast. Our train awaits early in the morning. Buona Notte. Goodnight.