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| Sigil of Pope Leo XIII |
Our Vatican tour was today, and to say the least it's an exciting thing to look forward to. If i were to describe the Vatican as a museum, I would simply describe it as a complete sensory overload (my suggestion to people is the same as with any large amazing museum- you'll need a lifetime to see all the exhibits, so go more than once). There was so much amazing art with so much history that it was impossible to really digest it all.
To say the very least, the crown jewel of the Vatican is the Sistine Chapel, named after Pope Sixtus IV. Originally it was just a hall with tapestries and wall paintings with a ceiling painted like the night sky. The tapestries exist in the hall before the Chapel, and the paintings were painted by a couple of Raphael's mentors (I however cannot remember their names to save my life). The ceiling now holds the famous frescos by Raphael. The wall sides depict on one side the Old Testament depicting Moses, and the other wall the New Testament depicting the life of Jesus. The walls themselves are impressive to begin with, but still compare to the frescos depicting Genesis and the backwall depicting the Apocolypse. Sadly, you are not permitted to take photos from inside the Chapel because of copyright issues (I honestly don't think Eastern tourists understand what that means). Words however, can do no justice in describing the awesome power that that room holds. Raphael was no slacker or dummy, everything he did he did with full intention and knowledge of what he was saying and doing. From God bestowing unto man intelligence, to clockface description of how Judgement will work at the end of days-it was all done with such exacting detail and amazing precision that even if you're not religious, it is without equal. At the turn of this millineum the Vatican decided to embark on a restoration project to remove all the centuries of smoke and grime that had built up on the frescos- they left a few spots to show the "before and after" effects. I understand why all the textbooks had to be re-written on the subject, because parts were pitch black-completely throwing off many of the ideas that historians had on Renaissance art. [my advice to you followers-just go see this before you die.]
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| St. Peter's as seen from the Piazza |
After the Sistine Chapel came St. Peter's Basilica. You want to see a large percentage of the world's total monetary wealth in one place? Go to St. Peter's Basilica. It is a visually noisy room, cramped with thousands of sightseers it is also just plain noisy. Still, for as much as there is, it is an awesome spectacle to behold. The main altar is what struck the most-deceptively small looking, it is actually a behemoth at the back of a football field of museum and church. I guess it's just amazing what goodies you can cram into one church when you 1) have thousands of years worth of history and 2) control most of the Western world for that time...
I should at this point mention the fantastic tour guide that stuck with us for all of Rome, her name was Daniella and her "assistant" was a plush snake named Popino. She was energetic, smart, and funny, and best friends with our main tour guide.
Afterwards we moved on to the typical walk around the downtown are and meet up at 5:45pm thing. So I head with a group of friends, and headed around for shopping. We started with lunch at a sitdown pizzeria in an alley right next to the Pantheon called Pantherei, a place I highly recommend. We spent our time heading from shopping malls and districts (most of which just felt like malls in the States), but also heading in the direction we think that "big glass elevator that gives you the best 360deg. view of Rome from" was at (Daniella had told us about it, so we sought it out).
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| Tomb of the Unknown Soldier |
We find the place eventually. It is actually a monument for the tomb of the unknown soldier (it also houses a military history museum). It's a great building, but to get to the top floor you have to pay 7 euro to get on it. So we stayed on the second floor and got by with only 180degrees of magnificent view of Rome. We take a sit here because at this point we had been walking for hours on end, but one of use kept wandering to take some pictures. We eventually notice about 30 minutes have passed and we might have accidently lost our companion, and as a double whammy, a scarf one of us had bought (the bag anyways) was lost. Well, we head back to where we last saw our lost groupy and bag, and first we find the bag (being defended by an Italian grandma who didn't believe it was mine) then our groupy. All was good! As for what you can see from this place on just the 2nd floor- you can make out the Trevi Piazza, the Pantheon Piazza, clearly see St. Peter's, the Colluseum, the Piazza de Opera, as well as most of Rome's city scape. Definetly worth the walk!
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| Such good water |
Well, of course it's getting close to meeting time. So we cross the street to find a running water-fountain (specifically made for drinking) and fill up our water bottles. Then we meander back to the Pantheon Piazza. As we cluster there our tour guide finds us, and we all get to talking about music. Apparently, he is really into American pop and jazz, so he's alright by me. He also teaches us the Italian equivelant of "shit happens" which is "porque miseria" (sp?). Our group finally assembles and we head back to the bus to grab our performance attire, and then right back to the Pantheon area. Only after being gone for 20minutes a protest had assembled and was out picketing. It took us all night to get our tour guide to describe what the in hell was going on. As it turns out the mafia had killed a couple judges for doing their jobs, and then blew up an elementary school for good measure. So I understand why our tour guide was careful about having us avoid that rally as much as possible. The dinner though was another pizza margherita, complete with tiramisu for dessert, mmm.
Our first concert was at a church right next to the Pantheon called Chiesa di Sant' Eustachio. The church itself still had a bastion of historical stuff to it, but not nearly as much as its surroundings did. The nuns and priest were not exactly warm, or friendly, or helpful. But our maestro did get to use a 200 year old music stand since the one brought by the tour company failed. The concert itself went about as well as can be expected from a group that was still suffering pretty badly from jetlag at 9pm. The audience was very positive and responsive, as well as more casual than I am used to. As soon as the concert was done though, the nuns were shooing us out as fast as possible. In the rushed state a few men had music mix-ups which tossed a lot of tension into the group and ended the night with pointless bickering. Not the best way to end the day.
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