Vatican City: a country of its own

The first full day in Rome greeted us with rain and cloudy skies. Luckily, we had scheduled a tour of Vatican City for that day, which just happens to be an inside activity. The only downside of the day was that we had to move our tour up because of an ordination being held at St. Peter's Basilica. We were informed by our tour guide that you pretty much never know what's on the agenda in Vatican City, so you may be in for an unforeseen closing or something.

View of St. Peter's Basilica

Vatican City is amazing. The sheer opulence and magnificence of it all greets you from the moment you arrive in it's vicinity. This was probably my favorite thing that we did. The whole thing just intrigues me; specifically how much the Vatican symbolizes power and dominance (I say this as a non-Catholic)…it's just a little crazy to me.

We hired a private tour guide for the day, which I would highly recommend. We started in the Vatican Museum which is full of all kinds of art and historical artifacts, some of which were bought by various popes, some of which were commissioned and others that were gifted. When you think about this museum you should think of the likes of The Louvre and The Met. 

Globe sculpture in museum courtyard

The Vatican has more Red Porphyry that anywhere else in the world. It is a rare stone from Egypt and is the most valuable stone in the world no longer available for mining, which is a little crazy. I had never heard of this stone before, but it is all over Vatican City and is sprinkled throughout Rome. Additionally, the museum boasts many sculptures, paintings and tapestries. One of my favorite rooms we saw was the room with maps drawn as murals on the walls. Unfortunately, we had to kind of rush through the museum due to the closing of St. Peter's Basilica.

Red porphyry bathtub

Tapestry

Mural map of Italy

From the museum you enter the Sistine Chapel, which is breathtaking. The intricate detail and stories displayed on the ceiling and walls is really just a lot to take in. It is supposed to be a silent place, but it tends to not be so much. I would post a picture of it, but you are not allowed to take photos. Here's a random fact for you: it's not that you can't take photos because it's a sacred space, but because when they restored the Chapel a few years ago a Japanese media company funded the whole thing and now has the copyrights to it. So, no pictures. Weird, right?

From the Sistine Chapel you then enter into St. Peter's Basilica. It enormous to say the least. St. Peter's is actually open to the public and, barring any random events, anyone can go in. Since we entered into the Basilica from the Sistine Chapel we didn't have to wait in line to get in, which was nice. 

Jubilee doors- only opened every 25 years

One thing that I found really interesting about Rome in general, was that many of the materials used to build the Vatican were taken from other monuments from around Rome. So, for example, the Colosseum and Pantheon have been essentially stripped of all marble and copper they used to have. And now where do those materials reside? Inside, and as part of the Vatican. It's viewed as a sort of recycling in Rome, but I also think it's a shame that other monuments were stripped of their beauty to show the power of the church and to build these huge buildings and ultimately country.

Chancel in St. Peter's

St.Peter's dome

I cannot even describe the enormity of St. Peter's Basilica. It is the largest church in the world, and absolutely feels that way. There are markers on the floor showing how large other churches are in the world (Westminster Abbey, a Boston cathedral, etc). Two popes are here in waiting to become saints of the church and it is believed that St. Peter is buried under the alter of the church. Many famous artists contributed to both the building and pieces of work in the Basilica. It is a beautiful building and like nothing I have ever seen before. You have to visit if you are ever in Rome.

The "Arms of God" in Vatican Square

After we finished in Vatican City we decided to stay in that part of the city and went to Castel Sant'Angelo. This castle was formerly used as the Pope's fortress and is connected to Vatican City via tunnels that allowed for the Pope's safe escape, should Vatican City be attacked. If you have a limited amount of time, I would skip this one, but it was still interesting to see and had great panoramic views of the city from the top of the fortress.

Castel Sant'Angelo

We still had much more to see in Rome, and Saturday brought much more sightseeing and nicer weather for us. More to come!

Our last European destination this year

Remember how I said our motto in life right now is, "When in Rome"? Well, we finally made it to Rome to live it out. I shouldn't say finally, since we've been SO many places since we've moved to Basel, but Rome was the one last place we wanted to go this year, and before the Lentil comes along next spring.

BK and I traveled to Rome this past weekend and had an action packed time. The Lentil seems to be punishing me a little bit for our love of travel, as I seem to not be adjusting quite as quickly as normal after we travel to and from places. Such is life- only a few more flights before I'm grounded for the last trimester.

We started our first afternoon wandering around the city, just needing to make it to the Spanish Steps in time to meet our tour guide for an evening tour. Our first stop was at Santa Maria Maggiore. We didn't plan this stop, but found it near our hotel on the way to a more central part of the city. Like many of the cathedrals in Rome, it is beautiful and incredibly ornate. I love all of the ceilings in the buildings. It seems so often we forget to look up, but in older buildings, often the ceilings are given more attention than walls or other decor.

BK and I then stopped for a little afternoon snack to get some sustenance and do some people watching. Of course, in Rome, there are fountains and usually a church in every square.

From there we continued to make our way closer to the Spanish Steps, but first stopped at the Capuchin Church of the Immaculate Conception. My dad recommended that "we just Google it and go." Somehow we stumbled upon it unknowingly, then decided to go ahead and go in. We didn't go in the sanctuary part of the church, but the main attraction is the crypt. It is kind of weird, and a little serial-killeresque, but the crypt is decorated with the bones of deceased monks and other poor Romans. The rooms are divided up into types of bones, such as the pelvises, shins and thighs, skulls, etc. It's interesting, but like I said, a little weird.

From there we met our tour guide from Angel Tours for our Heart of Rome Tour. The tour could have up to 15ish people, but lucky for us, it was just me, BK and our guide. This was a great way to start off our time in the city, hearing about some history and being able to ask any questions we had. Like I mentioned, we started at the Spanish Steps, which aren't actually Spanish. They derive their name from the fact that the Spanish Embassy is in the same square. It's also where we took our weekly pic :)

From there we went to Trevi Fountain, which actually deserves all of the hype it gets. It's an amazing piece of work attached to a building. It was commissioned by a wealthy family in Rome many years ago and has over 3,000 Euros per day thrown into the fountain. BK and I threw our coins in, with our right hand, over our left shoulders, to ensure we would someday return to Rome.

After Trevi Fountain we stopped at a funeral monument and were pointed in the direction of a couple of unique churches we should see. One included a church that appears to have domes in the ceiling, but in fact, is 3D painting done on the ceiling with a flat roof. Very interesting…I'll wrack my brain, but the name escapes me right now.

We then saw BK's favorite site in Rome, the Pantheon; in fact, he liked it so much we went back every day we were there. It is an amazing building, and a true mathematical achievement.

The truly awesome thing about it is that it was built in 118 AD, is still standing, is still in use, and remains the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome. It measures 43.3 meters high as well as across. Raphel (the artist) and the first two kings of Italy are buried inside the building as well. The building has been studied throughout the ages as an architectural marvel.

From the Pantheon we enjoyed Piazza Navona, which boasts three impressive fountains, along with a church and cafes around the perimeter of the square. The fountain pictured below symbolizes the four rivers of the world coming together in Rome. It (like many others) was commissioned by the Vatican and each statue represents a different continent.

After we finished with our tour, BK and I enjoyed an easy dinner at a local pizzeria recommended by our tour guide, then called it a night. We spent Friday at the Vatican…more on that later!

The family CFO

There's a new CFO in town, and it's probably not who you expect…me! The position has actually been vacant for a while, with things being monitored, bills paid, and whatnot, but nothing else too serious happening.

If you don't know BK personally, but know that he's a CPA, you might have been thinking that he is the "typical" accountant: tight with money, monitoring every cent, balancing the checkbook down to the penny…not so much. In fact, not at all. Who even balances a checkbook anymore, anyway?

I got the job because, per BK, he looks at numbers all day and does not want to come home and look at more. Understandable. Of course, there's also the fact that I don't want him to spend his time in front of another computer when he is at home, when I could easily be doing this as one of my "jobs." And now that I think about it, I'm not even sure he knows how to log on and look at our Swiss bank account (it's more complicated than you think- I had to go to the bank for instructions).

Little did I know that my project would be quite the drawn out process. After I finished up in September, which also included numerous previous months, and showed it to BK, he liked what he saw and appreciated my effort. Following his first viewing, he carefully said, "I have some suggestions, if you'll take them and not bite my head off for them." Initially I was really thinking, "Why would I bite your head off, I can take feedback." Right.

Little did I know that we would have about four rounds of revisions before reaching "our" final format. During the revision process BK would give me ideas about how I could change our spreadsheet to be more useful. It was too detailed at first, then I simplified too much. The above picture is the final feedback I got for our summary sheet.

It's actually a really useful tool. I haven't quite finished October yet, but I seem to keep finding other things to do, such as plan our trip to Rome and do Christmas shopping. It will get done before the end of this week. I'm just a little behind on my month end.

Just for the record, there's another part to my title as well: Chief Purchasing Officer. That's the part that I really excel at, although BK does provide some serious competition!