Today’s the day. Our last day in Northern Italy. We wanted to make the most of it, so we woke up pretty early. 6:30! Woop. We headed down to the train station and waited around in Civ till 7:30 when the train got there. We ended up in Rome at about 9am. We hit the ground running. We went straight to the metro again and stopped off at the exit to the Vatican. We had heard the other day that the line to get in was three hours long! So we wanted to beat as much as the crowd as we could. We ran off the metro and headed straight to what we thought was the Vatican Museum. The line was long, but not terribly so. It took us about twenty minutes to get to St. Peter’s Basilica. We saw the Swiss Guard on the way, which was exciting. We learned later that the Swiss Guard are young men who serve as the guard to the Pope and the Vatican for a period of five years. They have to be single, and they have to be dedicated. They’re outfits are pretty nuts. You should google them. They look a little like clowns, but at the same time, they all stand to stoically and they have these crazy hook things that they carry around. All quite interesting. As well, we learned that the whole reason for the Vatican’s location is that it is location that many believe is the burial place of the Apostle Peter, himself. It’s called St. Peter’s because it’s supposed to be where he’s buried, somewhere underground.
St. Peter’s Basilica is intense. Going inside is like walking into a gilded cathedral full of marble and windows that shine the lights throughout and the marble busts are insane. There are wax bodies of old popes, and there is a huge chapel that you can see and walk up to. There was a room we went into that is just for praying and the busts are absolutely beautiful. There are huge marble sculptures and the ceilings are insane. I haven’t seen anything like it. I would have to say that it’s the craziest thing I’ve seen yet. The dress code there is really strict too. Really, it is for Europe in general. If you have a sleeveless shirt or your shorts aren’t long enough, then they won’t let you in. It’s pretty intense, but it’s really a respect thing. I didn’t want to take any risks, so I wore some long pants and a shirt that was a little thicker that had longer sleeves. It was hot, but I wasn’t getting turned away.
After awhile, we realized that we weren’t anywhere near where we thought we were. We needed to get to the Vatican Museum, not just St. Peter’s. We asked a nice chubby little priest where we should go, and he gave us some good directions only at this point it was already ten thirty, and any line that we had originally tried to beat was in full force. We saw it, and we realized it was a good two hour wait. So! We cheated. We bought a guided tour throughout the Vatican Museum. They told us we’d only wait twenty minutes or so, but with all things in Italy, you have to double the time they say. Well, triple more like it. We were able to stop and sit down for a bit though. We had some croissants (which I’m totally a fan of now), and waited for our tour guide to come. She ended up being a British red headed woman who was a little spicy to say the least. She made quite a few sexual jokes, but eh. When in Rome and all that. They’re all like that.
We finally made it in. When you get a guide, you get to skip the whole line and walk right in. It’s pretty nice, and I’d say that it’s totally worth it. Once we got into the museum, the guide took us aside and explained in detail the Sistine Chapel. Everyone’s heard of the Sistine Chapel, everyone’s seen the Adam creation painting. It’s in Michelangelo’s in Tucson on the ceiling. I’ve read about Michelangelo in school and I’ve even seen a few of his sculptures in books. I really didn’t understand though. This man was a genius. Pure and simple. Here’s an example. When you look at a painting from someone like Raphael, or anyone else from that time period, the bodies of the people in the painting look like “painting” people. This is hard to understand. For instance, people’s knees. They look like smooth joints, smooth knees. When you look at a Michelangelo’s paintings, the knees look like knees. There are lines where the cap is. There are joints. When there is a painting of someone’s chest, there are muscle groups. We learned from our tour guide that Michelangelo knew about muscle groups that physicians didn’t know about for a full two hundred years. The man was brilliant, and he showed off his brilliance through his works. The man was also crazy. He learned all the stuff from dissecting people. Ya. Gross. Still, you can’t deny his genius.
We went throughout the Vatican museum for about 3 hours before we made it to the Sistine Chapel. Once we were inside, it was so intense. More so than I thought. It’s almost overwhelming. The painting on the side of the wall of the chapel was almost just as intense. There’s a picture of Jesus right in the center, which was the first time that someone had done that in a famous painting of significance. One of his hand is lifting up, the other is pushing down. On the one side he is rising the good up into heaven. On the other he is banishing the others to hell. It’s an intense painting, well wall really. The whole of the museum was intense. There are like miles of hallways and different places. Artifacts upon artifacts upon artifacts. But it’s hot. Like, no ac in the middle of the summer in Rome hot. HOT.
Afterwards, we headed over to the OldBridge Gelato place. SOO good! Gelato is awesome because it really doesn’t get to my stomach! It’s not necessarily icecream, and I haven’t had any problems with it! Which is super nice. My nose found it too. We were passing it (though we didn’t know it at the time), when I said out of the blue: “Man, we forgot to go to that Gelato place the interport student told us about”. I turned my head and there it was! Bang! Super exciting. James’ nose has been guiding us this whole trip, so my nose had it’s own experience too.
After the Vatican and OldBridge, which took five hours, we headed over to the Pantheon. Unfortunately, it was under construction, so it looked a little interesting, and the inside is now a church….but it’s still cool to say we’ve been there, I guess? I was a little surprised to say the least. But I’m glad that we went. I was expecting something more like the Acropolis, but we’re going there too, so it’ll be ok. Afterwards, we walked to the city’s supposedly best square of bars and restaurants: Campo di Fiori. We didn’t eat there, though we did look at the score of the world cup game that was playing.
As we were walking to find a place to eat, I had an experience. I’ve lived in the desert my whole life. I know what heat stroke is, and I know how it feels. Well. This time, I was a little unprepared. Usually you get a head ache, or a little achey in general. I went from a little warm, to dizzy as heck to muddled thoughts. It was horrible. James’ was talking to me, but I wasn’t sure what he was saying, and it wasn’t until he turned back to look at me that he realized that I was in trouble. James’ really saved the day. He took control right away, and took care of me. We walked me to a store where he bought me a water and sat me down. We started for the train station so we could get home, and he made me stop every once in awhile and rest. He took pretty good care of me to say the least. It would have been horrible if I’d passed out in the middle of Rome….We made it to the train station. Got on one going home, and made it a ok. We got some snacks so we weren’t dying and waited till we got home to go to a little pizza joint to eat. What a day.
All in all, I loved Rome. It was amazing. The sights, the people. My favorite part was that there are trees there. Huge Cyprus trees, and these other ones that are super tall with leaves only at the top. It’s green. It’s SO green. I know it prolly sounds weird, but it really struck me. I loved it. Rome was incredible. Prolly my favorite place so far. One could spend days there and not see it all. The sights and the history make Rome a pretty rich place. I feel lucky to have been there.
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