Rome: Day 2
Yes, I slept until noon, don’t judge me! Haha I was tired and I rarely get the chance to sleep in. Liz and I quickly for ready and ran downstairs and found a pizza place nearby to grab something quick to eat. We had to meet up with the group soon to start a tour, so we were booking it.
Our tour took us to the Vatican Museums and St. Peter’s. The museum was massive and seemed to go on forever. It housed hundreds of sculptures, paintings, tapestries, and marble funerary pieces. There were several large granite tubs that I think were used for bathing, and when I say large it was probably about eight feet long by four feet wide. All I could think was ‘dang, I’d love to have a bathtub like that!’
The tour of the Vatican museums ends in one the most famous rooms on Vatican soil. I’ll give you a hint: think Michelangelo. If you thought Sistine Chapel- ding ding ding, you are correct!
Walking in was one of those “Am I really here,” “Am I really standing in one of the most famous chapels in the world?” moments. In my head there was just utter silence and absolute awe. Michelangelo’s painting of the last judgment behind the altar was enormous. It showed Jesus at the top directing the division of the masses. There are two books being held by men. The smaller of the two is the book of names of people who were to ascent to heaven; the larger of the two books is filled with names of those to be drug down to hell. In hell there is the man who is in charge of the collection of souls- I forget his name; however, what I thought was funny was that Michelangelo painted him as one of his enemies who had ridiculed his work. He was painted with the ears of a donkey and a snake wrapped around his body biting his genitals. The painter’s was of getting back at his critic, a piece of artwork forever on the apse of a chapel for thousands to see every day.
And when standing in the middle of the chapel- looking up- there it is. One of the most famous paintings in the world. Michelangelo’s Creation of Man. God and Adam reaching towards each other with outstretched fingers. Try not to be jealous folks, I was there! I would have taken a million photos had we been allowed to, but to preserve the integrity of the paint and vibrant colors they removed even the possibility of a flash going off by banning photography all together. We spent about 20 minutes in the chapel and about 18 of those I spent with my head tilted back looking at the ceiling.
From the Sistine Chapel we exited and walked down a set of stairs that lead us to the right side of St. Peter’s Basilica. We entered though massive doors. When I walked into the basilica all I saw was massive expanse. It claims to be the largest church in the world and standing there realizing how small I was inside left me with little doubt they were lying. Once you enter, on the right is Michelangelo’s Pieta- a sculpture that he did when he was my age. It made me feel really accomplished, HAH! The content of the sculpture is far from rare, but the way he did it, the small change was what made it famous. Michelangelo carved into white marble Mary holding the body of Jesus after his removal from the cross. Instead however, of showing Mary in the elderly state she would have been in while having a son being 33 years old, Michelangelo depicts Mary as quite young. The tour guide told us that he carved it showing Mary seeing her son’s impending and unavoidable future. The sculpture is behind bulletproof glass because several years ago a man ran up to it with a hammer and started destroying Mary’s face (which has been restored with no visible difference).
Everywhere in the massive basilica are carvings, paintings, sculpture and ornate design. There is no way to describe everything! Instead of staying for the last 20 minutes of the tour which would have taken us out onto St. Peter’s square, Jillian, Erica, Carina and I stayed for mass in St. Peter’s. I know I’m not catholic, but once again I couldn’t miss the opportunity. Go big or go home, and mass in St. Peter’s is about as big as it gets. I just mirrored everything that Jillian did and sat quietly while all of the Catholics took communion.
A humorous thing happened while I was at mass- when everyone stood up and started shaking hands with those around them I was thinking “okay, we do this in Methodist church, I’ve got this.” It wasn’t until the end when I overheard Jillian that I realized I had been saying the wrong thing. Everyone else was shaking hands and saying “Peace be with you,” and I was saying “Nice to meet you.” The other girls thought it was really funny when I told them after mass was over. Overall it was a pretty cool experience- my first time going to mass and it happens to be at the Vatican and in Latin.
The rest of the night was pretty uneventful. We did some walking around and window shopping before heading back after dinner. Jillian, Liz, and I had Dixie cups of wine while watching American TV dubbed over in Italian. Undoubtedly the best part was Liz’s English narration of what was going on and being said.
Rome Day 3:
The third day in Rome was kind of a blur. We had the same tour guide from the first day and we went to some more secondary sites- the Church of San Clemente (built upon 1st century ruins of pagan temples), the Church of the Four Martyrs, and the Church of Saint John in Lateran. The last church is where the heads of Saints Peter and Paul are preserved as relics.
After eating lunch- we had Burger King- we went to the MAXXI museum. It’s modern art museum and has only been open for 3-4 months. I’m just going to say that it was not my cup of tea. It was one of those museums that is huge, four stories tall with all white walls- and the entire thing holds about 20 pieces of artwork. And on top of that the artwork was just weird. I a fan of museums with dinosaur bones it seems.
After the museum Jillian and I went off and did some shopping on our own. She bought a pair of sneakers and I bought some tights- things I haven’t work since elementary school. We had dinner just the two of us and enjoyed being away from a large group. I went to bed early that night in hopes that my feet could recover from all the walking.
The rest of the trip (Friday and Saturday) we spent down on the Amalfi coast. We saw some amazing scenery, gorgeous beaches and I put my toes in the Mediterranean. We stayed in Sorento, a little beach town with a lot of tourist activity. It was a pretty low-key weekend. Lots of walking around and window-shopping and on Saturday we went on a bus tour around the coast to see all the pretty sites. We stopped in Alamfi and Positano- two gorgeous beach cities. I bought some purple river pearl earrings and a pair of coral rose earrings. They were really cheap and they’re real! I was excited about my purchase.
On Sunday on the way back to Castiglion we stopped in Naples. One of the more interesting experiences of the trip. The city is run by the Camorra- their version of the mafia. They run every aspect of the town and it’s gotten pretty run down over the years. There were peddlers everywhere and I was on constant guard of my bad. The entire point of going there though was to show us that everything isn’t as picture perfect as it is in Castiglion. We also went because we are reading about the Camorra in our history class. It was pretty interesting overall, but I was ready to get out of there and be home by the time we got on the train. It was one of the most exhausting weeks of my life, but so much fun!
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