I would always be in the company of the clavigero and of another member of the staff, by turns Matteo Alessandrini, the head of the press office, and a colleague, Megan Eckley, both of whom I knew well. A few months ago, I got my wish: The Vatican Museums agreed to let me spend most of a night inside and to go wherever I wanted. But I had long wanted to experience the museums in a different way: to wander the four and a half miles of hallways after the doors close and to be there in the early hours before the doors open to explore the collection-the 20,000 sculptures and paintings and other works on display-as night settles over Rome and the galleries adjust to a quieter state of being.
Over the years I had written about some of the museums’ activities, and on several occasions had met with the director, the art historian Barbara Jatta. I HAD COME OFTEN to the Vatican Museums ever since a first visit when I was in grade school. The key in the vault was the key to the Sistine Chapel. If Lewis Carroll had invented a nuclear-launch protocol for the Holy See, this might have been it. I opened the vault and found another key. He handed the key to me, gesturing to a tiny, unmarked vault in the wall of the bunker. He had picked up the key that morning from a command post at the Porta Sant’Anna, one of the Vatican gateways, and would return it shortly before midnight. The flap, now torn, bore his signature and had been stamped with the papal coat of arms. He kept a larger set of keys for himself, so that he and I could make our way anywhere.īefore leaving the bunker, Crea had taken a key from an envelope. On this night, when the last of the visitors had gone, Crea piled a tangle of keys on the counter of the security station, then handed out key rings to his staff. The screen gives the enclosure a quiet glow.Įach sector of the museum has its own large key ring, the kind carried by a jailer. Behind the glass, alongside a crucifix and a photograph of Pope Francis, a flatscreen presents live images from security cameras. At the glassed-in security station in the Atrium of the Four Gates, departing guards punch time cards. Behind them, here and there, lights begin to dim. Over the next two hours, until the exit doors are also closed, the last visitors proceed through the hallways. The heavy bronze doors at the museums’ main entrance are pulled shut every afternoon at 4 p.m. Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read. If you are asked to describe a photo or a picture in the exam, here is some language you can use: What is in the picture? Take a deep breath, look at the picture and start again. Get distracted and start talking about something else.You don’t need to know all the words for everything in the picture if you know what to say when you don't know an exact word. Panic if you don’t know the words for all the things in the picture.Practise the useful language below so you can explain which part of the picture you are talking about.If you have one minute to do the task, use every second. Look at your picture carefully and take a few moments to think before you start talking.Here are our top tips for describing a photo or a picture in an exam. They have gone to Thailand to celebrate this festival. I think they could be celebrating some kind of festival because you know in Thailand they celebrate their New Year by splashing water on each other, so I think the two men in the photo are tourists. And they are laughing and I think they’re very excited about this. They’re holding water guns and shooting at each other. Kelvin: So, in my picture there are three men. And there is a policewoman or policeman and he’s trying to tell his partner to come, I think. And people are trying to save his life and in the bottom-right of the picture there’s a reporter holding a camera.
I believe there is a car accident and that guy is almost dying. Melissa: In the picture there is a man lying in the middle of the road and there is a car and a motorbike there.
Describe all that you can see in the picture and explain what you think is happening. You’ve got one minute to look at your picture.
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