A VISUAL FEAST
THE AWE-INSPIRING BEAUTY OF VATICAN CITY
Avisit to Vatican City can cause a neck sprain due to its 360 degrees of sheer beauty. It is simply a visual feast.
Despite being the world’s smallest country both by land area and population, Vatican City is of great religious, historical and cultural significance. Located within the Italian capital city of Rome, the Vatican is an independent citystate. It has its own laws and is governed as an absolute monarchy with the Pope, the head of the Catholic Church, at its head.
The papal state has a population of 801, according to the United Nations’ World Population Prospects. It covers an area of only 440,000m², according to the World At
las, smaller than Bangkok’s CentralWorld. But despite such minuteness, the state is visited by millions of tourists a year regardless of religious background. The Telegraph reported in 2016 that the Vatican Museums received nearly 5.5 million visitors. That explains why part of its economy comes from the sales of postage stamps and souvenirs, books, posters, tourist mementos and admission fees at museums.
Without a doubt, the Vatican — the centre of the Catholic Church — immortalised in dozens of films like Angels &
Demons, Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible III or even Netflix’s biographical mini series
Call Me Francis, is a grandiose city, with those movies serving as the inspiration for many to pay a real visit. But seeing the citystate with your own eyes is something else. Michelangelo’s frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, including The Creation
Of Adam, achieve an unprecedented artistic vision, not to mention St Peter’s Basilica, which houses some of the most significant artworks of the Renaissance such as the world famous Pietà sculpture.
Despite the fact that the Vatican is a holy, sacred place supposed to be engulfed with a peaceful, religion-oriented atmosphere of sorts, the reality is a far cry from such an imagination. The huge crowd. The cameras. The noises. The mobile phones. The tour guides’ fluttering flags. All these make the Vatican a bustling tourist destination.
If you plan a visit to the Vatican, give yourself an entire day. Exploring the city cannot be rushed. Booking a ticket into the Vatican in advance is strongly advised. Otherwise you could end up waiting for hours in a line in front of the city’s entrance.
The focal point of the Vatican is the Vatican Museums. The museums comprise 20 galleries, or sala, including the most-anticipated Sistine Chapel. The Sistine Chapel is where a papal conclave — a meeting of the College of Cardinals convened to elect a Pope — takes place. The latest conclave took place in 2013 when Argentinian Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires was elected and took the name Francis.
The Sistine Chapel is packed with tourists even on weekdays. It’s quite hard to allow yourself to fully appreciate the sacred ambience and ceiling frescoes without being interrupted by other travellers or being asked to step aside to make way for others. Nevertheless, the Sistine Chapel alone is a trip of a lifetime. Just find yourself a nice standing spot and keep calm. Mobile phones and cameras are strictly prohibited in this part of the Vatican Museums.
There are more to the Vatican Museums than just elements of religious significance. Mummies, for instance. At the 179-yearold Egyptian Museum, visitors are able to learn the relationship between Egypt and the city-state. Although the Egyptian Museum spans across nine rooms in total, the highlight is mummies and the mummification process.
The idea behind the mummification concerns the preservation of the body so that — according to the funerary thoughts of Ancient Egypt — the ba, or soul of the deceased, should be reunited with the body after death.
The museum displays several jars of internal organs and provides tutelage about the embalming process. Over a 70-day period, the body was entrusted to priests. It was washed, eviscerated and covered with the mineral salt natron for about 40 days for it to become completely dehydrated. The empty thoracic cavity was then refilled with bundles of bandages and packets of resins. The skin was softened and perfumed with oils and other fragrant substances. The body was then wrapped in linen bandages. Before the mummy was put in the coffin, a mask was placed over the head to protect the face.