So I have been staring at the blog page for the past 8hrs, and yet nothing has miraculously appeared on the page! Huh. Go figure. I don't know why I am having so much trouble, I think it is because there is just so much to tell! Rome was quite an adventure. I have traveled by myself before, but always to go and meet someone on the other end. This was the first time, that I was completely on my own for that amount of time, in a foreign country where I do not speak the language, and knew absolutely no one.
Getting there:
I had a 7hr wait in Barcelona between when my parents left and when my flight for Rome left, so I hung out with some friends from Oviedo, and just relaxed for a bit. I really was not interested in leaving Barcelona, especially since my parents and I had had so much fun. However, the flight was uneventful (except for my newfound fear of flying, which is unfortunately timed, but manageable).
Hostel "adventures"
The real excitement started when I got to my "hostel." Turns out, it was a camping ground facility, with about 100 tent units, 100 bungalows, and tons of RVs in three different sections. There was a dance bar, a supermarket, a pool, and it was basically just a huge camping compound. Which WOULD have been fantastic, except that I was by myself, and did not like being accosted by drunk foreigners at midnight when I got there. My "room" was actually a tent, with three beds, and only one blanket for me, in a very cold climate. I was freezing all night (woke up and couldn't feel my feet), and the drunk partiers kept me up until all hours of the night. But that is enough complaining, I am just trying to set the scene for you, so later parts make more sense.
Vatican Museums
Vatican Museums
I got up super early on Saturday, because I had booked a tour and had to find my way to the meeting spot. Booking that tour turned out to be one of the best decisions I made. I got to skip a lot of the line, and it was a great experience. They set us up with head sets, and our tour-guide had a microphone, so that this way we could hear her even if we got separated (and it was naturally really crowded and loud everywhere we went inside). We got to see all the inside of the Vatican Museums, including the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica, and St. Peter's Square.
A small fraction of the line I got to skip. Yay for organized tours!
Courtyard inside the Vatican Museums
Typical fountain. The baby in the pink was named Annabelle and was on our tour as well! So cute. Half english and half swedish.
The pinecone is the pagan symbol of fertility. That related somehow to this building...but I don't remember how. Did you know that the Vatican has the largest collection of Pagan artifacts in the world? Just so interesting!
Our lovely tour-guide (with the pink umbrella). She was a British Art-History major who was studying the Vatican, and kind of forgot to go home...
Even the museum itself was beautiful. Some of it was created just for the museum, but much of it was created for the Pope himself.
Beautiful statues etc all over the place. It would take years to learn all about them all!
Laocoön statue: the statue depicts Laocoon, who warned his fellow Trojans against accepting the Greek's horse, but they obviously didn't listen. One of the gods, I think Athena (but don't quote me), punished him by sending serpents to eat him and his two sons. We learned about this one in art history!
Original Roman tile floor. It has been stepped upon by millions of visitors every year, but it is still holding up!
The Map Hall: visitors of the Pope (kings etc) had to walk down this long hallway, with maps on all sides depicting all of the territories that the Pope's-of-old either controlled, or thought they should control. It was meant to intimidate his visitors before they got to him. I think it would work!
I have no pictures of the Sistine Chapel because we were not allowed to take any, but I added some here from online so that you would get a sense of what it looked like. This is where Michaelangelo painted both the ceiling and one whole wall of the room where the Pope's are elected. The history and the art in this room were both stunning.
The ceiling of the Chapel
We learned a lot of information, but I just have two anecdotes about the Sistine Chapel. The first was that the original painting on the wall, The Last Judgement, was full of nude "extras" that were generally in the background, not important, and approved of by the Pope who commissioned the work. Later though, there was much outrage at these nude figures, that Daniele da Volterra was commissioned to paint drapery/loincloths on Michaelangelo's original work. Volterra later became known as "Il Braghettone" which loosely translates to "the painter of underwear."
Last Judgement
Loincloth addition. Added by the "underwear painter."
Along with this campaign to cover up the nudity in the Vatican, Biagio da Cesena, who worked for the Pope, continued to complain about the nudity. He was so outspoken about it, that Michaelangelo went back to the painting and changed the face of one of the people depicted in hell to Cesena's, and added huge donkey ears (a symbol of stupidity). When Cesena asked the Pope to change it, he said something to the effect that his jurisdiction did not extend to hell, and the painting remained like that, and visitors can see it to this day.
That is Biagio da Cesena in the front.
I just love all of this historical/art stuff! Sorry if it is too much. I just learned so much on the great tour, I am so happy that I had it. This is only a small portion too. The tour was over 4hrs long.
Coming up: St. Peter's Basilica and Square
Picture credits:
