So first we went through a bunch of museums with fragmented sculputres, stone heads and limbs, etc. Shawn's observation: "God there is a lot of shit in here." No better way to put it. Then we weaved between the overflowing tour groups through the tapestry room, under elaborate and exquisite ceilings, walking on mosaic floors and past many images of Jesus and shops selling rosaries and other souveneirs. Here is a beautiful mosaic floor and an example of just one intricate ceiling.
The Vatican museums then tooks us through the Raphael room which was pretty much a dream come true. Two of my traveling companions and I had just studied "The School of Athens" in our Leonardo da Vinci Art History class so we looked for all the different mathematicians and philosphers that we had discussed. Then Patrick and I took a picture in front of it to prove our presence.
You can see just how gigantic the "School of Athens" really is here. All of the Raphael rooms were pretty extroadinary but the constant new testament images/scenes were really starting to overwhelm me. We did get to see "St. Jerome" by Leonardo da Vinci as well though, which is apparently rarely on display, and we had just studied this unfinished painting in class. Soon after we stumbled into the Modern Art wing of the Vatican. I had no idea the Vatican even had a Modern art collection!!! This was super exciting. I saw Braque, Rivera, Fontana (of course), Klee, Chagall, among others. I even got to see a piece by an artist that was friends with my mom when we lived in Houston. I had no idea that the Vatican had a piece by her! That was a pretty cool painting to stumble upon. Little claim to fame. After this we weaved into the Sistine Chapel. In here we were not allowed to take pictures. My head almost snapped of my neck from leaning up for so long. The figures on the ceiling really looked like they were about to jump out at us. It was so incredible. And of course we saw the heaven/hell wall, "Creation of man," and all the rest. We actually went through it twice due to its awesomeness. Then we went to St. Peters and climbed the Basiclica which likes 800 steps or something and cost 5 euros. Halfway up we were inside the dome, walking around the inside to see the mosaics and the paintings and architecure, and then the next part of climbing almost gave me an claustrophobia-induced panic attack. The stairs were SO narrow and then they curved so walls curved so it felt like building was curving in on you. Definately started hyper-ventilating a little bit and I wasn't sure how I was going to make it. But we finally made to the top of the Cupola and stepped outside. Here is us (minus Kathleen) at the very top with an exquisite view of the Vatican and Rome.
After that we climbed back down, successfully with no full on anxiety attacks, and went into the bascilica itself. That was pretty incredible. It was so packed full of tourists from everywhere, so many different languages, so many tour guides. The paintings and architecture were mind blowing. I can't even describe it. We also got to see Michaelangelo's "Pieta."
After we went to the Vatican we found lunch nearby and walked around a bit through this confusing labrynth of castle-area and across the river. We decided to make our next ultra-touristy destination the Colosseum. No one successfully stole any rocks, unforuntately.
The Colosseum was really awesome and it was beautiful weather so we took lots of awesome pictures, sat on various shaped rocks to rest our sleepy feet, and imagined all sorts of bloody gladiators roaring through the theater. After this we went through a forum which was basically mounds of old rocks and ruins and lots of beautiful trees. Here I am climbing around the ancient bricks and being pensive aka resting amongst the beauty.
After strolling leisurely through the forum, we took the metro back to Sunshine Hostel to shower and rest. It had been a long day of walking, sightseeing, and being expert tourists. We went out to dinner after this and followed up with a bottle of wine at the Trevi Fountain and at the Spanish Steps, jam packing our day with tourist activities.
On Saturday we slept in until about 10:30 and got up to to go to the Pantheon. This was pretty awesome as well, feeling all centered by classical architecture and all. More and more and more Christian imagry and celebration. Because of this, after lunch, I begged my fellow travelers to accompany me to the Jewish Ghetto. They obliged but we barely got to see anything besides the outside of the buildings because it was Saturday, Shabbat, and EVERYTHING was closed. Bad timing. After this, Gloria went back to the hostel because she wasn't feeling so well. Shawn and Patrick and I continuted to tour some beautiful churches, saw the "Ecstasy of Theresa" and huge, monumental buildings. I don't even know the name of everything we saw. I found some more gifts. Exhausted, we finally headed back to the hostel for a nap before dinner. We took the train to a new neighborhood we hadn't explored yet near the Espana metro stop and found a pizzeria for dinner. After his we split a bottle of wine by the traditional entrance to the city of Rome. We had an early night because we had to get up at 3:30 am to catch a shuttle to airport to get on a plane at 6:50 am. Weekends are no longer a time to catch up on sleep.
Rome was incredibly touristy but really great. The entire time I tried to decide if Rome would have been a better place to study abroad than Milan. Although I am not in love with Milan, I don't think the overwhelming touristy-ness of Rome would have really been my thing, either. It was an incredible weekend jam-packed with all sorts of art I'd been studying for years and never thought I'd get to see in person. Even if it was all, of course, suffocatingly about the New Testament. I returned to my apartment in Milan around 9:15 in the morning and slept from then until 3:30 in the afternoon.
No comments:
Post a Comment