Disclaimer: we have no idea how this contraband picture of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel might have been taken.hello again friends and family. i'm continuing and finishing our post on Rome and will try to spare you some of the artsy comments. our second day in rome was full. we went to the Vatican and had a full day of St. Peter's basilica as well as the Vatican museum.
St. Peter's basilica was amazing. but before you go in, you have to pass the "modesty police" - they make sure that your shoulders and knees are covered. after waiting in line for so long, some people were turned away for having shorts or tank tops. there were posters everywhere so you think they would have known....anyway, we passed our modesty test and then went through what was like airport security. thankfully, we got there so early in the morning our wait was about 10 minutes total and then we were in!
St. Peter's is one of the most impressive churches on earth. it is also one of the largest - there are markers in the middle of the nave that show you where the next-largest churches would fit inside. the highlights of this for me were Michelangelo's Pieta and Bernini's starburst dove window at the alter. Unfortunately, the Pieta was behind bulletproof glass after some crazy tried to shoot at it, but i was able to get pretty close and get some pictures without glare.
the Vatican Museum was like running a marathon. the highlight here was Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel as well as Raphael's School of Athens. the museum also has an impressive collection of Egyptian and Mesopotamian art (complete with a real mummy preserved amazingly in her coffin - creepy but cool). of course, most people come for the Sistine Chapel so the museum kind of makes you walk through all the other stuff as a sort of crowd control. after about 2 hours we finally reached the School of Athens (jonathan has a great pic of me which he'll try to post). after that, it was about another hour to the Sistine Chapel, but it was worth it. it's been amazingly restored and there is nothing like seeing it in real life. in case you didn't know, these paintings are frescoes. a fresco is technically not a painting as the color is mixed into the plaster when it is wet basically fusing the paint with the plaster and making it a part of the wall. to make it more difficult, michelangelo had to complete these works on the ceiling. imagine lying on scaffolding with paint dripping on you for 4 years as you complete one little patch of the ceiling at a time. it was amazing. although photos are allowed in other parts of the museum, the company that restored the Sistine Chapel made a deal with the Vatican that forbids any pictures, videos etc. of the Sistine Chapel.....er, however if you turn the flash off of your camera and hold it on your guidebook at waist level, you can still capture this amazing work of art....
our last day in Rome was an ancient Rome day. this is what i had really been looking foward to. i took several classes on ancient Rome - one class was called the Roman Forum and all we did was study architectural plans of Italian forums and compared them to the Forum at Rome. poor jonathan. he was a trooper and willingly listened to me as we walked through the Colesseum and the Roman forum. i won't bore you with the details as you too may be experiencing an "art hangover" but we were able to walk on basalt stones that were the same stones that Cesar himself walked (june, you will be glad to know that i still remembered my piece from English class where we had to memorize that bit from Shakespeare's play...of course jonathan looked at me like i was mad when i started reciting it). other highlights included the grave of julius cesar, the temple of the Vestal Virgins and the House of the Vestal Virgins, columns leftover from the Temple of Saturn. if you want more detail, let me know as we have lots of pictures and notes on what we saw....i know, i'm a dork.
after a long day of walking around and rediscovering the past, we were pooped. our last evening in Rome culminated in an amazing dinner at a place recommended in our guidebook. we really have come to appreciate the way italians treat their meals as experiences....something to enjoy over hours at a time. well, we spent about 3 hours enjoying our last dinner in Rome. it was a great way to wrap up such a whirlwind time. Rome is a crazy city with too much to do and little down-time, but if you're an art/history nut like me, it's a must. you can do what we did and savor some more downtime for Tuscany....our next stop.
St. Peter's basilica was amazing. but before you go in, you have to pass the "modesty police" - they make sure that your shoulders and knees are covered. after waiting in line for so long, some people were turned away for having shorts or tank tops. there were posters everywhere so you think they would have known....anyway, we passed our modesty test and then went through what was like airport security. thankfully, we got there so early in the morning our wait was about 10 minutes total and then we were in!
St. Peter's is one of the most impressive churches on earth. it is also one of the largest - there are markers in the middle of the nave that show you where the next-largest churches would fit inside. the highlights of this for me were Michelangelo's Pieta and Bernini's starburst dove window at the alter. Unfortunately, the Pieta was behind bulletproof glass after some crazy tried to shoot at it, but i was able to get pretty close and get some pictures without glare.
the Vatican Museum was like running a marathon. the highlight here was Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel as well as Raphael's School of Athens. the museum also has an impressive collection of Egyptian and Mesopotamian art (complete with a real mummy preserved amazingly in her coffin - creepy but cool). of course, most people come for the Sistine Chapel so the museum kind of makes you walk through all the other stuff as a sort of crowd control. after about 2 hours we finally reached the School of Athens (jonathan has a great pic of me which he'll try to post). after that, it was about another hour to the Sistine Chapel, but it was worth it. it's been amazingly restored and there is nothing like seeing it in real life. in case you didn't know, these paintings are frescoes. a fresco is technically not a painting as the color is mixed into the plaster when it is wet basically fusing the paint with the plaster and making it a part of the wall. to make it more difficult, michelangelo had to complete these works on the ceiling. imagine lying on scaffolding with paint dripping on you for 4 years as you complete one little patch of the ceiling at a time. it was amazing. although photos are allowed in other parts of the museum, the company that restored the Sistine Chapel made a deal with the Vatican that forbids any pictures, videos etc. of the Sistine Chapel.....er, however if you turn the flash off of your camera and hold it on your guidebook at waist level, you can still capture this amazing work of art....
our last day in Rome was an ancient Rome day. this is what i had really been looking foward to. i took several classes on ancient Rome - one class was called the Roman Forum and all we did was study architectural plans of Italian forums and compared them to the Forum at Rome. poor jonathan. he was a trooper and willingly listened to me as we walked through the Colesseum and the Roman forum. i won't bore you with the details as you too may be experiencing an "art hangover" but we were able to walk on basalt stones that were the same stones that Cesar himself walked (june, you will be glad to know that i still remembered my piece from English class where we had to memorize that bit from Shakespeare's play...of course jonathan looked at me like i was mad when i started reciting it). other highlights included the grave of julius cesar, the temple of the Vestal Virgins and the House of the Vestal Virgins, columns leftover from the Temple of Saturn. if you want more detail, let me know as we have lots of pictures and notes on what we saw....i know, i'm a dork.
after a long day of walking around and rediscovering the past, we were pooped. our last evening in Rome culminated in an amazing dinner at a place recommended in our guidebook. we really have come to appreciate the way italians treat their meals as experiences....something to enjoy over hours at a time. well, we spent about 3 hours enjoying our last dinner in Rome. it was a great way to wrap up such a whirlwind time. Rome is a crazy city with too much to do and little down-time, but if you're an art/history nut like me, it's a must. you can do what we did and savor some more downtime for Tuscany....our next stop.
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