No Cameras Allowed
What do you do when you're sitting in the Sistine Chapel on Thanksgiving and you cannot take a picture with your phone?
I’m the friend who takes pictures of your food at a restaurant right before you’re about to eat it.
I know, it’s annoying.
I write this blog, TrixiesList.com, which lists and reviews restaurants and events, so, theoretically, every meal and every outing of my life is “research” (and a potential tax deduction).
Even though there’s SO MUCH media, there’s still not enough. It’s a never-ending Sisyphean task of documenting everyday life. Today, every business, if they want to be successful, has to have a social media presence and an influencer on hand.
Influencers are today’s low-cost Madison Avenue advertising executives.
There was once only four(ish) major TV stations, but now, the internet and social media has democratized words, images, and videos. When Duncan Hines wanted you to buy a cake mix, all they had to do was run a commercial with a fork poking a piece of moist cake.
Moist! Moist! Moist! NO ONE would dare recreate this cringe 90s commercial today!
People take pictures and make videos of everything. Some precariously dangle from a cliff. People die for a good instagram post.
But, you cannot use your phone’s camera everywhere! Cameras are not allowed inside the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican. If a guard sees you with your phone out, they will yell at you and tell you to put it away.
In a world where we document the minutiae of life’s moments, we are not allowed to take a selfie with one of the world’s greatest works of art.
You know what? Good.
The last time I visited the Sistine Chapel, it was on Thanksgiving Day. The holiday, Thanksgiving, is meaningless in Italy. Very few Italians eat turkey - I don’t blame them.
Italians do not understand why you would even want to visit Italy in late November. It’s so cold! Molto freddo! A waiter at an outdoor café showed me the five layers of clothing he was wearing. I was chided multiple times to wear a scarf, or suffer corpo d’aria, a hit of air, which could cause any range of illnesses.
It was fifty-five degrees in Rome in late November. I wore a light jacket. I was fine.
I sat in the Sistine Chapel, on Thanksgiving Day, in my light jacket, in a crowded room surrounded by incredible art and unable to use my phone.
Michelangelo spent years, on his back, on a scaffolding, putting dye into wet plaster to create this massive, beautiful fresco, to tell the story of Western religious culture. The Sistine Chapel is beyond any description I can write. You have to see it and experience it yourself. Hundreds of years later, fortunately, we still can.
I cannot open images from my floppy disks from fifteen-twenty years ago, and yet, the Sistine Capel survives centuries, and puts social media in perspective.
What are we doing?
Why are we posting?
Are we posting to inform? Entertain? Do we really need to watch a video about someone buying an iced mocha in a coffee shop?
Are we posting so some oligarch can make even more money? At least the Medici Family were art-supporting oligarchs.
Or is it ego?
Are we posting to try to impress someone or ourselves? Are we trying to give our existence some greater meaning beyond the boring and mundane?
Sitting in the Sistine Chapel, with no camera to document the experience, I was forced to be there - and be present - knowing the experience will go nowhere other than into the memory bytes of the floppy drive of my head.
Since it was Thanksgiving, I decided to sit there quietly and give thanks to Michelangelo, and the other artists for creating art that survives and still inspires us to move beyond the mundane.
The reason for this substack post? If it gets one person to see the Sistine Chapel in real life, then it’s worth it.
Here’s my travel tips, from experience:
Buy your Vatican Museum ticket a day or two in advance because they sell out, do not expect just to walk in. Get there early because they make you walk through every other room of the Vatican Museum before you can see the Sistine Chapel (which closes earlier than the rest of the museum). ITA Airways has the cheapest non-stop flights from New York to Rome, (under $700 roundtrip. Get on their mailing list because they frequently offer 20% discounts) and since it’s an Italian airline, the food on the flight is actually good. Hotel rates for Rome during Thanksgiving week are super cheap - I paid $44/night, and it included breakfast. Yes, $44, two blocks from the Vatican. It was a Spartan room, but convenient and the breakfast was amazing (all the food in Italy is amazing - the pasta at the gas station is made fresh. They squeeze oranges right in front of you at the airline terminal.)
Once you’re in Rome, take TrenItalia to go to Florence - and anywhere else. Florence is an hour and a half by train. Go to the Uffizi Gallery and don’t forget the Academia to see Michelangelo’s David. If you plan to travel around Italy by train (Rome is a perfect central location), then book a hotel closer to the main Roman train station. Be advised, closer to the train station in Rome, the area is not as ‘nice’, so be careful. Pickpocketing is real, and your best bet is to invest in pants/shorts/joggers that have zipper pockets for your wallet.
If you have the time and money to visit, then go.
I know, I couldn’t help myself. I had to make a plug.
Would you mind holding this light so I can get a better shot of the quesadilla?
