St. Peter's Basilica
Yesterday we spent eight hours traveling through the Vatican. Can't even describe it. Highlights were the medieval art and the Raphael rooms. The greatest was the Sistine Chapel. I felt tears come to my eyes. I couldn't tear my eyes away from it: Adam and God reaching out to each other; Adam and Eve's temptation and expulsion of Eden, the whole side wall showing the Final Judgment. (No photos were allowed in the Sistine Chapel so unfortunately I don't have any to show.)
Medieval Art in the Vatican
Ancient Roman remains from Sepulcres
Derek helps keep my blog "g" rated
View of the City out of a Vatican window
The Discovery of this ancient statue sparked and inspired the techniques of the high Renaissance sculptors
Then there was St. Peter's Basilica.
If I lived in
Rome, I believe I could go to St. Peter's every single day and stare at Michelangelo's Pieta for an hour. The place was crowded but looking at Mary with the dead Jesus on her lap, all I could hear was an intense silence.
Michelangelo's Pieta
Beneath the main floor of the Basilica is a whole underground chapel with the remains of different popes and saints and purportedly the remains of St. Peter. Maybe it's him. Who knows?
In the middle of the day my friend, Lisa, became so tired she sat down on the floor. A guard came up staring at her. Finally he said, "Signora!"
Lisa just stared at him.
He stared at her.
Finally he said, "Get up!" and walked off.
He stared at her.
Finally he said, "Get up!" and walked off.
This was followed by the not so funny excursion when we found out we had to walk from St. Peter's all the way around Vatican City back to where we entered just to collect our back packs. That took forty-five minutes alone.
When we got there the guard gave Lisa her back pack and said, "What's this?" pounding the backpack with his finger.
When we got there the guard gave Lisa her back pack and said, "What's this?" pounding the backpack with his finger.
Just then the back pack started crowing. It was her phone alarm.
The man looked at her and said, "All day!"
For some reason she hadn't turned it off correctly so the guards got to hear her backpack crowing for eight hours.
Finished the day at a very nice café and watched the people go by. Returned home very, very, tired.
Today we're going to the Colosseum. Tomorrow we leave for Florence via a train ride through Siena.
Tiny car. These are common in Italy
6 comments:
Wow! I must say that I am envious! I really must visit Rome soon.
I find it neat and amazing (though we are well into the digital age things seems to have progressed so fast!) that you are seeing such wonders and posting blogs about your experiences as they happen.
Wow, looks like a great time, enjoy the city and waiting to hear about the food.
What kind of phone's battery lasts for 8 hours?
http://www.ManOfLaBook.com
Thanks, Zohar. That's a good question. I know my friend charged her phone everyday. We used an international adapter.
Thanks, Bryan. And if I had an iphone, I could have probably taken even more.
Great photos. Very jealous. So much for the G rating, though.
Ryan: Yeah I thought about that after I posted. For me, I just didn't see it because I saw the body as a whole. I was focused more on the statue's bulging muscles. My friend, Lisa, who went with me to Europe, however said that she had seen enough naked men to last a life time.
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