This morning I went to the Vatican library with Marilyn to acquire my reader card. "Byzantine" is the way everyone had described the process, and they weren't far off. I realized, first of all, that I've never really been "inside" Vatican City. I've been inside the museum, which is technically inside the city, but I've never just walked around the streets of the city proper. To do that, you pass through the gates and their Swiss guards, and hand over your passport or carta d'identita' at the checkpoint. You've literally entered another sovereign nation at this point. They will hold onto your document until you exit.
The modern-day library is a three-story wing that bisects the huge Belvedere courtyard, designed by Bramante to connect the papal palace with the Belvedere palace. Looking up at our surroundings was the first time I really had the sensation of "holy crap, I'm doing this..." We go and present our badges (mine is still a visitor's badge) to be scanned by the guard. Then we knock at the Secretariat, so that I can be interviewed and my documents reviewed, before I'm permitted to fill out an application and get a card. I brought some truly awful photo-booth photos with me, which the guy openly laughed at (I look like a confused raccoon); they took their own digital photo, which he pronounced as much better. Since I'm a doctoral student, they gave me twenty entrances to start with, which I can renew if needed.
Next stop: drop off all your belongings. Swipe the tessera (card) in the locker room, and a locker pops open for you automatically. Then back out to the lobby: swipe to go up the stairs. Reach the main reading room, where you scan your card again, and sign your name next to your locker number. Once you've found your desk, you go back and write your desk number next to your name. And that's just to get in. You repeat the whole process in reverse when you want to leave--and if you haven't been scanned-out upstairs, the automatic gate downstairs won't let you leave. This is some Fort-Knox-level shit right here. This explains why people who are using the Vatican apparently often work right through lunch--it's a pain even to go out and use the little cafe in the courtyard.
I also enjoy this gem, from the Rules for Readers:
Readers must wear attire appropriate to the dignity of an ancient institution of culture and study
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