Overload.

Monday=FULL day.  We began in Vatican City at the museum, home to a wide array of historic art, including sculptures, frescoes, tapestries, and modern Christian art. Works in the museum include: compositions by Caravaggio, Da Vinci, Fra Angelico, and Raphael, and of course the famous Sistine Chapel. Our wonderful tour guide, Roberta, guided us throughout the museum and explained the significance of much of the artifacts. One of my favorite sightings of the tour was seeing Laocoon and His Sons. If you are not familiar with this magnificently constructed sculpture, PLEASE look it up. It’s incredible. The tapestries inside one of the halls were massive and several hundred feet long. My second favorite sighting from the VC museum was Raphael’s well-known painting entitled “School of Athens.” Seeing the Sistine Chapel in person was unreal. I strained my neck just gazing up at the ceiling. I was so impressed by Michelangelo’s depiction of “The Last Judgment.” Thinking that I stood in the same room he stood in order to paint the Sistine Chapel almost brought tears to my eyes. Yes, the majority of his paintings have been recently restored to more vivid color, yet it’s still spectacular to see in 2009, nearly 400 years later. After exiting the VC museum, we arrived inside St. Peter’s Square, located directly in front of St. Peter’s Basilica. This area is typically where the Pope makes speeches/announcements (often weekly).

Next, we were guided inside the famous St. Peter’s Basilica, located still within Vatican City. This church has the largest interior of any other Christian church in the world, holding 60,000 people! This Roman basilica is immaculate and overpowering. Michelangelo’s depiction of Pieta is housed to the right of the foyer, which was wonderful to finally see in person! We split off for lunch break; some of us got ripped off for a not-so delicious cheese pizza, so we drowned our sorrows away by buying a few scoops of gelato (naturally). We shopped around for a little bit before meeting back up inside St. Peter’s Square. Our next stop of the day: the Roman Catacombs, underground burial places where Roman Christians used to meet in for church worship, as well as bury their dead. Although eerie and (quite frankly) terrifying, the tour of the catacombs was still highly interesting. I’m not sure how far underground we were, but thinking about being hidden there is not a pleasant thought. Up to 500 ancient Roman Christians were once buried in these historic catacombs. The rest of the day was ours to enjoy inside the city of Rome! We stopped for dinner at a local Italian restaurant. I ordered my first authentic dish of lasagna, which was not nearly as delicious as my mother’s (if I’m being honest)! We ventured back over to the Pantheon for a little bit before trying to find the metro bus line that would take us back to our hotel. We were unsuccessful in our endeavors for over an hour because we were given misleading directions. Although frustrating at the time, I can not complain about getting lost in Rome.

Tuesday, we arrived well rested at the Galleria Borghese, a famous art museum in Rome, housing a large compilation of Caravaggio’s works. The exhibit currently in the gallery is a collaborative collection of Caravaggio and Francis Bacon. Both incredible artists with polar opposite styles. I love this quote from Bacon: “A person’s appearance is intimately connected with his interior identity.” Bernini’s “David” is also housed inside this museum. What a striking structure. Although this museum was packed full of famous artists/artworks, my favorite to see in person was “Judith Beheading Holofrenes.” Can you tell I’m on art overload?! After nearly two (short) hours at the Galleria, we walked to Rome and arrived at San Pietro, a basilica in Rome, most well known for housing Michelangelo’s magnificent statue of Moses, as well as the chains of St. Peter during his imprisonment. I’m not completely sure if I believe the chains to be authentic or not, but seeing them was still interesting. I had lunch at “Michelangelo’s Pizza” with Kat, Ricki, Erin, and Matt. We then walked to the famous Trajan Market. We contemplated paying for a guided tour but decided against it. . I ventured out with 6 others to see more historic sights in Roma (instead of opting to shop), most notably the Pope’s Castle, where the view of the city was indescribably beautiful. We made the wise decision to stay up on the lookout roof while the sun went down, as Andy read Psalm 48. Read it and pretend you are on top of the castle, looking directly at St. Peter’s Basilica (as we were); it was so powerful! After this memorable experience, we had a delicious (late) dinner inside the city, in which Sarah and I split a pizza and a dish of cannelloni with crabmeat. Although not my favorite meal, I do enjoy trying new dishes so I did not care if it wasn’t my favorite meal of the trip. CIAO for now.