Showered for the first time in 3 days. The satisfaction was short lived when I realised I’d run out of clean clothes. Lovely. I didn’t have time to be all hung up about it. I had a date with the Vatican Museum.
The Vatican Museum held more than a few surprises. Beyond just a treasure trove of Roman Catholic art, it holds a whole host of spoils: Greek, Roman & Egyptian pagan artifacts and even modern art as well.
My first shock came in the Egyptian exhibit, where I found a statue of Antinous – the Emperor Hadrian’s male lover. I was irritated and suspicious to see that the writing on the placard explaining who exactly Antinous was to Hadrian, had been rubbed out. Antinous met his end drowning in the Nile. Some sources say he threw himself into the water while he and Hadrian were sailing down the river in a barge. Other sources, – Cassius Dio for example – claim Antinous was in fact offered up to the river by Hadrian as a sacrifice to the gods. And I really hope that’s not true. Thinking about Hadrian, I remembered that the ruins of Hadrian’s villa are to be found in a place called Tivoli on the outskirts of Rome. It’s not too late for me to go see it… I might be able to find out more about him and Antinous.
I could have spent a lifetime gazing at the statues of the Gods; there is something thrilling about looking up at them and having them tower over you – makes them feel transcendent. I could have done without the bustling crowds though. It was an effort not to grit my teeth as someone bumped me, or walked right in front of the piece I was examining. The tragedy of mass tourism continues.
The hours disappeared inside the Vatican Museum. Finally, I feel as if I’ve reached the peak of my time in Rome. The city has satisfied me at last. Through each exhibit, the oncoming presence of The Sistine Chapel loomed large. There was something ghostly about the way it constantly played upon my mind, and yet when I finally stepped inside, it wasn’t nearly as ethereal and heavenly as I’d imagined. The art work was amazing for sure – we all know Michael Angelo was a genius, but I far preferred my time in St. Peter’s Basilica. Not only was the basilica free to enter, the atmosphere there was one of peace and prayer. You could relax. There was nothing relaxing about the Sistine Chapel. It was crowded and noisy, so much so that security kept having to announce on the microphone: “Silencio! Silencio!” The atmosphere in the Sistine was far from pristine.
I rushed through the rest of the museum, too tired to take in any more information. I was starving and needed to get back to Trastevere so I could cook myself some dinner. I fought my hunger over half the way back, eventually giving in to the enticing smells from the endless alfresco diners. I swore I wasn’t going to have another meal out, but my resolution wavered more and more with each new whiff of pasta, and then finally collapsed. But I’m happy I gave in to temptation this time. It set me back almost 30 euros but sometimes you’ve got to cut yourself some slack and enjoy being spontaneous.
To start, I tore into two slices of garlic bread with truffle spread. It was FUCKING gorgeous. I’d ordered a truffle and porcini mushroom lasagna for my main – the very thing that drew me to this particular restaurant, but to my dismay the waiter returned to tell me the truffle lasagna was no more. So I ordered my classic favourite – what I’ve been eating in Italian restaurants since I was 10 or 11 years old. Seafood spaghetti.
The waiter soon set before me a metal pan steaming with pasta covered in clams, mussels, calamari and prawns. It was nowhere near the best seafood pasta I’ve ever had, and there should definitely have been more calamari and prawns, but it was still damn tasty, and they didn’t take the piss with the portion size. The wine was even better than the food. A lightly sparkling, wholly refreshing white, which I drank with the utmost pleasure.
And so, the evening ended on a much more pleasurable note than it would have had I not come so hungry from the Vatican. In the end, it seems that the spoils yielded to me by the Vatican included not just the artifacts inside it, but the luscious dinner I yielded to myself upon my return.
