Vatican City and Rome

Early on the morning of July 13, the Roe family arrived in Rome and promptly ran as fast as we could to catch a 9 am tour of Vatican City. Vatican City, as my well-educated and enlightened readers are sure to know, is the world’s smallest independent state, with a population of under 1,000. This low population and the nature of the state leads to a few other interesting facts, that are not particularly surprising in and of themselves, but which make for good trivia: Vatican City is the richest country in the world per capita, and also has the least balanced gender ratio (of the 1,000 inhabitants, the only women are the 300 or so nuns). Interestingly, Vatican City’s status as an independent nation is much newer than I originally thought – it was only officially established in 1929. Another little-known fact about the Vatican is that the state (Vatican City) and the Holy See actually issue different passports, although both are very difficult to come by. Vatican City is a walled country, and I learned all these facts during the half hour or so wait to get inside, during which time I also developed a hearty appreciation of my own sweat glands and a hearty dislike for other peoples'. After this time had elapsed, we were pushed through security and entered the smallest sovereign state in the world.

One of the first things we saw upon entering the country was this rather large sculpture, prominently featured in the center of the courtyard. It was made by a rather well-known modern sculptor whose name I have since forgotten. I personally know about as much about sculptures as your typical slime mold, but apparently it represents the Vatican’s ability to connect to the world even in turbulent modern times.

It was easy to spot St. Peter’s Basilica, because it is the tallest building in the Vatican and also the largest cathedral in the world. It is built upon St. Peter’s death spot, and is the reason that Vatican City is located here instead of on some other square mile in Italy. On a slightly more personal note, St. Peter has inspired me to add Founding a Country to the list of things I do before after I die.

The interior was even more imposing than the exterior. The number of statues like these went far to convince me that Vatican City is, in fact, the richest city in the world.

To give you a sense of scale, the letters you can see in this photograph are 12 feet high. I am the shortest person in my family, and as you can imagine, this building gave me even more of a height-related inferiority complex.
Having seen all these sights, we left Vatican City. Because all roads lead to Rome, we shortly found ourselves there. Fortunately we took a road that also led to lunch, which was fairly delicious. Unfortunately, by the time we finished our lunch, we were almost out of time in Rome. We did, however, manage to stop by the Colosseum, which is, of course, one of the major tourist attractions in Rome.

The Colosseum, which hosted many of the famed gladiator fights of ancient Rome, is actually really interesting because, like the Parthenon, it is right in the middle of a bustling city. Having been raised in the relatively new cities of the United States, I found it a bit... different to have ruins rising only a few meters from traffic and sidewalks. However, I shortly got used to the juxtaposition, and am now heartily disappointed that Boston doesn't have an ancient monument to Russell Crowe in the middle of Beacon Hill.

Unfortunately, we had to leave Rome before exploring any more than just the Colosseum, but it's definitely on the To Re-Visit List next time I'm in Italy. Now Mum just has to win another contest for another free vacation...