I wasn't even that thrilled to see Rome--mostly because it felt like a giant touristy cliche. After spending two days in this beautiful city, however, I will admit that I too found myself unable to resist it's charm. Like so many visitors before me, I fell in love with this city. The city is simply full of art, culture, and life. Spread through the city are ancient ruins, statues, cathedrals, lovely, shaded parks, and buildings of grand architecture, reminders that this city once ruled most of the known world.
On our first morning in Rome, we took the metro to Vatican City to visit St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. We found it quite interesting that we were required to go through security (including metal detectors) to enter the expansive courtyard in front of St. Peter's, which we found nearly packed by 10:00 am. We then noticed that an older man was reading a long speech in a foreign language (Italian? Latin?) from a chair on the cathedral's steps, flanked by some other men, also in chairs. We watched for awhile, debating jokingly whether or not this man was the Pope. On our way out, Jenny stopped to ask one of the guards if he knew who the guy talking was. Turns out it actually was the Pope (and we almost didn't even realize it).
We moved on to the Vatican Museums, which are actually a single long maze of chambers lined with old tapestries and paintings and packed with tourists pushing toward one of the final rooms, the Sistine Chapel. It took us about 45 minutes simply to walk to through all the rooms and get to the chapel, but it was worth it. Funny note though--after staring at the Final Judgement and the other paintings decorating the walls of the Sistine Chapel for about 20 minutes, Janie turned to me and said, 'Okay, now can we finally go see the Sistine Chapel?'
I thought she was joking, but after a couple moments I realized she was serious.
'Janie, this is the Sistine Chapel.'
'What? Where are the hands?' and she motioned her two index fingers toward each other as she asked this.
She was referring to the famous painting of Adam and God reaching toward each other from opposite clouds. I pointed to the small section in the center of the ceiling above us.
'Oh, woops.'
I find it amusing that we not only almost received a sermon from the Pope without realizing it, but Janie also almost visited the Sistine Chapel without knowing. We are such horrible tourists. =)
After the Vatican, we got back on the metro to visit the Colosseum and sections of old Rome. This area is simply littered with crumbling ruins and was fun to walk around in. We spent the rest of the day going from site to site, taking pictures (which will be posted eventually, I promise) and eating gelati (I am in love with banana gelato).
That night we decided to visit an Anglican church for a free concert we had been given a flyer on the street for. It ended up being one of the highlights of my entire trip. The church had a choir that consisted of three parts-- a girls choir, a boys choir, and a men's choir, which sung in different combinations, but were easily one of the most beautiful things I'd ever heard. There were also some Bach organ pieces played between the choir songs. It was so incredible, I had chills the entire time.
We ended this lovely evening (and wonderful day) with a trip to Trevi Fountain at night, a must for anyone visiting Rome (until I upload my pictures, here's one from the internet so you get the full effect):
I have more to tell about Rome and about the last day or so, but I need to go to bed. I'll write more tomorrow when I need a break from writing. =)
No comments:
Post a Comment