{"id":2862,"date":"2017-03-23T06:00:57","date_gmt":"2017-03-23T06:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/?p=2862"},"modified":"2017-03-23T06:02:03","modified_gmt":"2017-03-23T06:02:03","slug":"vatican-museum-day-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/?p=2862","title":{"rendered":"Vatican Museum, Day 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two days of scouting the Vatican Museums like a tricky location, and I’ve refined my strategy. I gallop in, turn right into the Pinacoteca\u00a0and head straight to the last room, the Raphael room. After 30 minutes alone with la Fornarina’s man,\u00a0I ambled around the\u00a0Egyptian\u00a0rooms. Thinking about the contrast of the beautiful marble effigy of the knight and the desiccated mummy. This is probably not the eternal life the Pharaoh was hoping for.\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I followed my nose around the sculptures lining the\u00a0Galleria dei Busti.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I walked the length of the\u00a0hall, looking into the face of long dead Romans and Greeks. Instead of the blank perfection of gods, people looked back at me.
\nHere’s a tip – on the right side of the staircase leading down to this<\/em>\u00a0is a narrow door, and down a few twisting steps is a miracle – an\u00a0uncrowded four stall bathroom. It’s staffed, so it’s always clean and somehow overlooked.<\/em>
\nTwo days of looking and not drawing had made me a little crazy and I decided to take a breather in the Cortile Della Pigna. I sat on a bench nearest the pinecone, flanked by peacocks and those serene Egyptian lions, and drew a few postcards for my family. The tide of tourists ebbed and flowed past me. Sketching takes me to that still place where the chatter of my monkey brains quiets down and it’s just hand and eye, line and light.\u00a0\"\"<\/a>It was nearly 2 when I checked the time, and I decided to grab a taxi and go back to Valentinos for lunch. On my way to grab a taxi from the stand directly outside the exit door, I looked left and saw the triple layers of security that have been in place every day.\u00a0\"\"<\/a>Now might be the time to mention visibly armed guards seem to be outside every monument,\u00a0church vestibule, museum, and palazzo.\u00a0I can’t figure\u00a0out how the branches of law enforcement and military divvy up the territory, but all the men cradle some kind of assault weapon and have intimidating stares, like they were raised by gyrfalcons. \u00a0I don’t know if they just look fierce, or are actually bloodthirsty, I just hope they’re competent\u00a0with all that firepower. I keep a nervous eye on where the business end of the guns\u00a0are pointed.
\nWhen I walked into Valentinos<\/strong>, it was such a good feeling to be greeted with recognition and pleasure. \"\"<\/a>I had a leisurely meal and was ready for bed, though it was only 3. \u00a0Uh oh. Turns out there are not enough hours in the day to soak in art\/eat\/write\/draw\/read\/sleep. I am getting up\u00a06am to fly through the Vatican doors at\u00a08am, but I stayed up until after midnight Monday and after\u00a01am\u00a0Tuesday night.
\nI have promised myself that I will turn off all electronics, no later than 10 tonight. I am so very tired right now that staying awake is really hard, and it’s only 7. I’ve got to keep my eyes open until 9 or I’ll be up at\u00a03am. That would not be an improvement.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two days of scouting the Vatican Museums like a tricky location, and I’ve refined my strategy. I gallop in, turn right into the Pinacoteca\u00a0and head straight to the last room, the Raphael room. After 30 minutes alone with la Fornarina’s man,\u00a0I ambled around the\u00a0Egyptian\u00a0rooms. Thinking about the contrast of the beautiful marble effigy of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2862","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rome","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/up-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7OBxc-Ka","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2862"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2938,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2862\/revisions\/2938"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}