the Vatican

Banana, orange juice and an apple for breakfast and off to the Vatican church first thing in the morning. The line was already starting to wrap around the circle, but it was moving quickly, filing the tourists like sheep into the church. Its Sunday so mass was going on and the priests were singing, their voices reverberating off the 360 foot ceilings made of gold and the marble inlay floors soaked in 1600 years of religious and political history. Frescos and mosaics decorate every wall and beautiful sculptures of a saint or a former pope sit comfortably looming over you. Everything inside was on such a large scale that it made me and everyone else in there feel very small. I proceeded to the underground tombs of dead popes and the religious royalty from neighboring countries. It smelled cold and there was definitely an aura of death all throughout the room of tombs. There were 2 guards standing by Pope John Paul II and shushed people as they walked by, “silenzio.” We all met outside around 1pm and decided to split up, eat, then meet at the Capitoline (huge museum with a ton of famous pieces by Caravaggio, Tintiorelli and more) sometime later. The smaller palace had mostly Greek and Roman sculptures, we didn’t spend too much time on this side of the museum. The other part of the museum, Palazzo dei Conservatori, was covered with colorful frescos and had masterpieces of huge sculpture of Constantine, Bernini's Medusa and incredible paintings by Veronese, Tintoretto, Caravaggio and Van Dyck. There were so many paintings and sculptures in this museum that I had studied in several art history classes over the years and it was very cool to be so close as to breath on them. I could see the textures and really visualize the process of making the pieces. What a great experience. We walked along the tiberina river, all the way back to our hotel Emmaus. OFF my soar feet and screaming legs for about an hour before we decided to go back to the same restaurant for dinner since last night was so great. We were greeted with 3 free pizzas and 2 liters of free wine, just as a starter. The meal continued like this, surprises of free things and the waiter was getting friendlier with us as each liter disappeared. The night developed into a rowdy one of partying in the grassy knoll in the middle of the street outside the hotel. FUN night. Maybe more tomorrow…

-Lyndsey