Vatican II: just popeless 

We missed out on seeing the Basilica of St Peter last week, but we weren't worried because we knew we had this week to catch up.

However...

When we arrived at the Vatican there were thousands of people everywhere. We forgot Wednesdays were one of the days the Pope comes out and addresses the public.*

In any case we wanted to see the nearby Castel Sant' Angelo, so we bailed on the Vatican and went there instead. We guessed this would take an hour or so, and then we could try again.

Originally built as a Mausoleum for the Emperor Hadrian and his family.** Over the years it's been repurposed as a fort, papal apartments, and a prison.

Cool fact: there's a secret tunnel connecting the castle with the Vatican, which Pope Clement VII used in 1527 to escape from the army of Charles de Bourbon.***

The castle has a large statue of the Archangel Michael on the top. The current statue is "only" two hundred and sixty years old. The original was a marble statue erected in 590 by Pope Gregory the Great, who promised to build it if God stopped a plague ravaging Rome.****

I found the papal rooms interesting, especially the bedchamber. One several of the walls are the expected religious paintings with a spooky-looking baby Jesus, stoic-suffering Jesus and seriously-bored dead Jesus. On another wall is a painting of a unicorn with Giulia Farnese - a mistress of Pope Alexander VI.*****

So wrong, and yet so fitting.

Plenty of interesting parts: the treasure room, ornate ceilings, places were prisoners were left to starve to death, old Roman passages... it took more than an hour to explore.

It also provides the best views of Rome in the city. We had lunch on the terrace of the restaurant on the top level. The food was as expected - average is a kind description - but we couldn't pass up the view on our last day in Rome.

Once again we headed for St Peter's, but the queue was horrendous, snaking around the front and along the plaza. Oh, we'll, not this trip. Guess we'll just have to come back again.

On our return to the hotel we had a final coffee at our little cafe and said goodbye. They were suitably sad to see us go, and the manager joked we'd have to stay ("there's a strike tomorrow; the planes, the people in the towers, everybody...")

This was also our last chance to see the Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore, the one outside our hotel.

Seems we left the best for last.

The Basilica is stunning, somewhere between the usual Roman Baroque magnificence and the starker understated approach of the Duomo in Florence. "Best" is subjective, but Emma and I were captivated by it. It was also the most active church we'd been in, with several chapels in use, and numerous priesthearing  confessions in various languages, all conveniently posted on the confessionals.

We had time for a last Italian meal just up the street, with a superb minestrone and a very good gnocchi ai quatro formaggi - almost as good as the one at Napoli in Boca in Haberfield.

On the way back to our room we saw the American family from Detroit sitting on the fourth floor balcony, said our goodbyes and exchanged email and Facebook info. They were sitting in the fresh air, enjoying their last night before catching a 6am flight, which required them to be at the airport at 3am.  This makes our 8am check-in/11am flight decadently late.

Any more decadent and I could be a pope.

* I have no idea what he says when he comes out. "Buy low, and sell high. Yellow cars are more visible on the road, which makes the, safer. Never overcook pasta, it should always be al dente." Something like that, I guess.

** Emma noted that Hadrian got around. We've come across Hadrian stuff in Rome, Athens and Ephesus. Yeah, I know he didn't personally build it all himself as DIY weekenders, but there's still an awful lot of crap with his name on it.

*** The Holy Roman Emperor's army had just finished beating the French army only to find out the Emperor was a bit short of cash, and maxed out on his credit cards, and unable to pay them Unenthusiastic about fighting for free the army suggested pillaging Rome was a reasonable alternative.

**** Trivia: the roof of the castle is also the setting for the final scene of Puccini's Tosca, which Floria Tosca swan dives from.

***** Alexander VI had at least two mistresses and seven illegitimate children. He was so debauched that the priests at St Peter's initially refused to bury him.