Italy Beyond the Obvious

Vatican free Sundays: stay far, far away

 

Most of the time, my clients take my advice. And one of my standing pieces of advice is to never visit the Vatican on free Sundays. But on one recent occasion, I was designing an itinerary for a family with only one specific day to see the Vatican, which just happened to fall on the last Sunday of the month. Because they had no other option, I tried very (!) hard to make it work for them, and in the process realized there was no way I could in good conscience send them to the Vatican on a free Sunday. So I gave advice I have never previously given: I told them to skip the Vatican and save it for their next trip to Italy. Here's why:

• Expect to wait in line at least an hour and realistically, two or longer. And remember, entry is only between 9 am and 12.30 pm, so it's risky to get in line after about 10 am.

• Once inside, expect shoulder-to-shoulder crowds. These are not your holiday shopping crowds. People have said they have not actually been able to see the art properly because of the crowds.  

• It's noisy inside. Yes it's the Vatican, home of the Pope and pious art all around. But it's not a peaceful, contemplative atmosphere, even in the Sistine chapel. As you'd expect with crowds in any other space, it's loud.

• Listen to the experts: Rome tour guides will not touch free Sundays with a 10-foot pole. Nobody can get a reservation on free Sundays, so there's no way to avoid the gigantic line, and the reputable tour companies won't actually take your money. (And I had never, ever heard this in Italy before. This is actually what convinced me that it was better not to go at all.)

• Once you're in, you can't get out. You'll be shuffling along with the crowd, so forget about needing to be somewhere. Don't assume you'll make it back to St. Peter's square for the noon hour Pope's blessing. You can make it if you're out by 11.15 or 11.30 at the absolute latest.

Still think you can make it work? Read this tripadvisor post, in which people who have visited the Vatican museums on free Sundays explain why they'd never do it again. And if, after reading all of this, you're thinking "well I'll just get in line at 6 am and bring my Bose noise-canceling headphones", then good luck, have fun, and at least you know what you're in for. 

Photo of Sistine Chapel detail by Michelangelo taken by freeparking 

 

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Art in Italy: Prioritize In Situ

What do the Sistine Chapel, the mosaics in Piazza Armerina or Ravenna, Coreggio's masterpiece in Parma, and Milan's Last Supper have in common? The art is all in situ (think on site), meaning it was created for a specific place. And lucky for us, it is still there.

Art inside Museums vs. Art In Situ

Museums can be great, and Italy has a lot of fabulous ones: a temperature-controlled, properly-lit museum space preserves the art and allows the visitor to see a lot of different pieces in a limited space. All good things. 

The problem is that when art is moved from its original spot, the context of the work is lost. So when you're trying to decide which art to spend your time on, consider prioritizing art in situ. I highly recommend going on a guided tour or at least bringing along a detailed guidebook, but start with the five considerations below to maximize your experience. Kids are fantastic at this by the way. When I worked in an art gallery as a tour guide, I often started with a discussion about the culture, circumstances, and original scene around the work - but when the art is still in its original spot, it's much easier to understand the bigger picture.

Five Things to Consider to Better Appreciate Art In Situ

1) Start paying attention during the approach. This was the artist's workplace. These are the streets he walked down to get to work. He may have tied his horse to the iron ring on the wall you just walked past. He and his team came to work here every day for years: it's where they took their lunch breaks, and probably pretty close to where they had their studio and where they lived. 

2) Locate the light source(s). The art was created pre-electricity for this precise spot, and was designed to be lit by sunlight. So notice where the windows are, where the door is, whether the work is lit from below, above, the sides, or all three. Is the light direct, reflected, or diffused through a stained-glass window? For example, Correggio's Assumption of the Virgin, below, gets its light through round windows on all sides of the dome, and throughout the entire day, because the dome rises into the sky. 

3) Look around at the space. Is the work high up, low down, or in the middle of the space?What other works of art, if any, were chosen to be close by, and how is the entire space "framed" by all the works? Think about the working conditions during the creation of the art. Michelangelo is known to have complained brutally about painting the Sistine Chapel while lying on his back, and when you visit it - and hear that it took 4 years - you can see why. Somebody was also probably pretty uncomfortable sticking all those tiny pieces of glass high up on the walls of the church of Sant Apollinaire in Classe in Ravenna through both the heat of the summer and the chill of the winter.

4) Consider the materials used. Why did the artist choose to use fresco, or oil, or mosaic, or marble, or terracotta (were the materials mined or created nearby?), and how has it held up over the years? Does the work look the same as it did when it was first made or has it faded or disintegrated or been restored, or been covered up on purpose over the years? For example the mosaics in Ravenna have not faded much in 2000 years because pigment trapped between sheets of glass lasts a long time. You can easily brainstorm ideas for this one, but a guide book or a tour guide will help with definitive answers.

5) What's the Big Deal? Think about what could have made this piece of art famous (or ask your guide or consult your book). It has lots of competition in Italy, after all. Was it done by a famous artist and that was enough to go platinum? Or was it because of its location? Was it commissioned by an influential famous benefactor? Maybe it used a new or cutting-edge technique of the era (like Canova used in his gipsoteca), or showed something radical, like The Last Supper. Or maybe it didn't become a big deal until much, much later.

I hope the guidelines above will help maximize your Italian in situ art experience, and feel free to add other suggestions for a great on-site visit.

Photo of Sistine Chapel detail by ideacreamanuelaPps; Da Vinci's Last Supper and Correggio's Assumption of the Virgin images from Wikimedia Commons

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Google City Tours: 3 Reasons to Stay Away (For Now)

When I heard that Google had launched a City Tours feature, I thought it would be a great tool. Google explains that the application "helps you identify points of interest and plan multi-day trips to most major cities. You just specify the location of your hotel and the length of your trip and City Tours will map out an itinerary for you."

I was excited. That is, until I actually tried it. I started with Milan, a city I know well. Surprised at what the tour included, and more importantly, omitted, I tried Rome, and then finally Chicago, where I live: even worse. I then plugged in Vancouver, New York, and Stockholm (all places I've lived for at least a couple of years and know very well) with the same results: not useful.

The proposed itineraries scream stress! exhaustion! or: huh? rather than ahhh.... balance.... or excitement. And the content is useless; actually it's worse than useless for 3 big and several smaller reasons.

1. Right off the bat, you'll notice that the itinerary is a list of museums, and little else. I don't know anyone who wants to spend an entire vacation museum-hopping. (Of the six cities I looked at, the only exception to the museum-hopping itinerary was New York, which included St Patrick's Cathedral, Times Square, Grand Central Station, and the New York Public Library in addition to museums). Google has provided a button to "add/remove sights" from the itinerary, which is a good thing. But that means I have to research all the museums, decide whether I want to see them, and then keep them or remove them. Too much work.

  

2. The second big issue is that the itinerary presented is not a realistic pace for a human being. I added up the hours of walking and the hours spent in museums of the cities I looked at, and put them into the table below. Even in Rome, where the tourist only walks for 2 hours total, Day 1 includes 2 hours of walking and 9 hours inside museums. That's an 11 hour exhausting day, without factoring in time for breakfast, lunch or dinner, a rest, or additional sights in Rome (and not to mention the fact that musems in Rome are not open for 11 hours a day). Sure I can remove sights from my itinerary, but it would be nice to have a realistic suggested itinerary in the first place.

Hours of Walking & Hours in Museums in One Day

City	Hours of Walking	Hours in Museums
Rome	2	9
Milan	3	9
Chicago	3	6
Vancouver	3	6
Stockholm	2.5	7

3. When I delved a little deeper into which museums were suggested, I realized I couldn't trust the museum recommendations. For example, a one-day itinerary for Rome lists 8 museums. Two are great. The others are fine, sure, if I were staying in Rome for several months. But most significant is what is not on the list: there is no mention of the Vatican museums, St. Peter's, Capitoline Hill, the Colosseum, or the Forum (not to mention other sights in Rome). Interestingly, if I expand my itinerary to 3 days, the Vatican museums are listed halfway through Day 3.

 

So I did another comparison of a one-day itinerary across my five cities and found the same thing: the suggested museums are not the most famous or the most popular. Of the seven museums recommended for a one-day itinerary in Stockholm, I would keep three of seven (if I wanted to see three museums in one day, which I don't. But that's just me). Milan was two for nine; Chicago was three for six but again way too much for one day; Vancouver, zero for six. Honestly I don't know how they were chosen. (I know, it's code, but with what logic?).

  

Smaller issues: 

• The maps are drawn as the crow flies, so actual walking times are probably going to be longer. 

• Clicking on the museum's name in the left-hand column opens the standard little box on the map, which you can see in the screen shot above. The box has a link to the item's website, opening and closing times, and a suggested length of visit, but much of the information in the pop-up box is incorrect. I clicked on the link for the Museo del Risorgimento, which happens to be the #2 most-visited museum in Rome, and was taken to the website of a museum in Caprera, a small island off Sardinia. (I didn't have the patience then to go and check the other links, it was too annoying.) The information can all be updated and submitted to Google, but it's misleading to have it there in the first place, and the user has to spend time checking it. The opening and closing times seem to be set by default as Monday - Friday, 9 am - 5 pm, which again is misleading.

• Another minor annoyance is that in several cities, a couple B&Bs were included as stops on the itinerary. Are these paid advertisements?

Personally I think it would be much more efficient and less frustrating to buy a guidebook, read its Top 10, plug the list into Google Maps, and go from there.

But: in all fairness Wikipedia is arguably a smash hit, and when it was first being populated with information (not by me, obviously) it wasn't very useful either. Over time, if helpful users populate the data and add sightseeing suggestions so that this tool can create a more balanced and realistic itinerary, it may end up being useful. Until then, stay away. 

Photo of Vatican Museums staircase by Bill in STL

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A Guide to Deciding Which Museums to Visit in Italy

Italy has 3,800 museums, many of them world-class. With limited time in Italy and so many other things to see, how does a traveler decide which museums to include in an itinerary? 

One option is to just visit Italy's most popular museums: start by looking at the list of most-visited museums in Italy. It's a safe bet that those museums contain some great stuff, otherwise they presumably wouldn't top the "most visited" lists.

Since the museums on those lists are definitely winners, the problem becomes that most travelers to Italy need to narrow down the options within the best of the best: unless you're going to be spending months in Italy, it's simply not possible to see them all. Even having lived in Italy for 5 years - and working in the tourism industry - I still haven't seen all the top museums. 

3 Steps to Deciding Which Museums to See and How Much Time to Allocate

1. Think about your interests. Are oil paintings and marble sculptures your priority, or would an archaeological site, church museum, science museum, botanic garden or  zoo, aquarium, or history of cinema museum be more up your alley?

2. Consider your museum attention span, taking into account: (1) the rest of the day's itinerary, (2) jet-lag if applicable, and (3) how long you usually enjoy being in museums. 

If the Colosseum and Forum are on your morning Rome itinerary, you may only have an hour of museum energy left in you that day, so the Vatican museums may not be ideal to schedule for the afternoon. Instead, balance the day with an afternoon of shopping or exploring Rome's piazzas, fountains, and gelaterias. 

Also, the day you land in Italy after a trans-Atlantic flight is likely not ideal for a museum visit: adjusting to the time change is best done with natural light, fresh air, and physical movement. Similarly, it may be difficult to focus if you're tired, so it's probably not ideal to plan a museum visit bright and early on your first morning in Italy, when your body thinks it's (for example) 1 o'clock in the morning. 

Lastly, keep in mind how long you personally can concentrate in a museum even on your best day; last time you went to a big museum how long did it take before you got tired? Personally after about 2-3 hours inside a museum I can no longer absorb new information. I need to either go have lunch or have a coffee break before continuing, or save the rest of the museum for another day.

3. Decide on an itinerary within the museum. You've decided which museum(s) to visit, and you've allocated the right amount of time in your itinerary to see them. Don't feel like you must see and appreciate every work of art inside the Uffizi just because you waited in line for 2 hours. Doing a little research to prioritize what to see inside a specific museum will make your museum visit more enjoyable. 

If you're traveling with kids, I'd say planning this is absolutely necessary. Or, if you've just taken Art History 101, researching specific items ahead of time will ensure you don't miss pieces of art you've studied. I've definitely missed seeing works of art I really wanted to see because I hit my 3-hour limit and just could not absorb any more information.

If you don't have time to research and plan your path through the museum, do a guided tour instead, either with a group, a private guide, or by renting an audiotour (pretty widely available, usually in several languages).

Happy museum-ing!

Photo of the Birth of Venus by Botticelli, in the Uffizi (Florence) from www.virtualuffizi.com

Photo of the Marriage of the Virgin by Raphael, in the Pinacoteca di Brera (Milan) from www.wikipedia.com

The Best Museums in Italy

The Touring Club Italiano recently released its list of the 30 most visited museums in Italy of 2008. The top 30 museums saw a total of 23 million visitors in 2008, and the top 3 accounted for more than a third (8.2m) of those. 

Below is a summary of the 3 most visited museums in: all of Italy, Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan, and finally, the 3 museums in Italy with the largest increase of visitors compared to 2007. All information is taken directly from the Touring Club document, but I included links to each museum.

The 3 Most Visited Museums in Italy

1. Vatican Museums (4.4m visitors)

2. Archaeological Site of Pompeii (2.3m visitors)

3. Uffizi Gallery/Vasari Corridor in Florence (1.6m visitors)

The 3 Most Visited Museums in Rome / Vatican City

1. Vatican Museums (4.4m visitors)

2. Museo Centrale del Risorgimento (810k visitors)

3. Bioparco (780k visitors)

The 3 Most Visited Museums in Florence

1.. Uffizi Gallery/Vasari Corridor (1.6m visitors)

2. Galleria dell'Accademia (1.2m visitors)

3. Opera di Santa Croce (837k visitors)

The 3 Most Visted Museums in Venice

1. Palazzo Ducale/Doge's Palace (1.4m visitors)

2. St. Mark's museum (510k visitors)

3. Galleria dell'Accademia (356k visitors)

The 3 Most Visited Museums in Milan

1. Museo Civico di Storia Naturale / Natural History Museum (350k visitors)

2. The Last Supper / Cenacolo Vinciano (335k visitors)

3. Da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology (329k visitors)

The 3 Museums in Italy with the Largest Increase in Visitors

1. Citta' della Scienza / City of Science (link in Italian) in Naples

2. Citta' dei Bambini e Ragazzi / City of Kids (link in Italian) in Genova

3. Museo Civico di Scienze Naturali / Natural Science Museum (link in Italian) in Bergamo

Photo of the Laocoon Group, in the Vatican Museums, by Joao Maximo

Gipsoteca Canoviana, Possagno

 

The sculpture of Antonio Canova (1757 - 1822) is so smooth and so white and so large, so full of energy and emotion that I just want to run my fingers over them. I'm not allowed, of course.

You may recognize his sculptures since they are spread far and wide across the world. Click on the links below for a small sample of some of his most famous works worldwide.

• Dedalus and Icarus and Orpheus and Eurydice in the Correr museum in Venice;  
•  Theseus slaying the Minotaur in Vienna;
• Pauline Bonaparte in the Galleria Borghese in Rome;  
• Napoleon in London;  
• the Three Graces in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg;
• Cupid and Psyche (see photo), in The Louvre in Paris.

To see copies of his most famous works as well as hundreds of his original sculptures all in one place, visit the Gipsoteca Canoviana in Canova's hometown of Possagno, north of Venice. Canova worked primarily in Rome, with frequent trips to Paris and London, but he returned to Possagno often.

His sun-filled home, studio and gigantic Gipsoteca with courtyard are a great way to spend several hours, and gain a good understanding of the style and technique of the artist who was one of the founders of the neo-classical style. 

In addition to rooms and rooms of sculpture, the visitor also gets a unique behind-the-scenes look: Canova's tools and sketches are on display, as is a detailed description of the innovative process he created in order to mass produce his designs, which involved making a plaster cast of a smaller scale clay or wax model, and then piercing it with small nails in order to accurately transfer the proportions when creating the larger marble piece. 

Photo of Canova's Cupid & Psyche, original on display at The Louvre, Paris