Rome: July 4

Saturday July 4, 2009

In the morning, our tour guide, Antonela, takes us to the Vatican. We walk through the museum, full of random statues and tapestries, ornate ceilings, and beautiful stone floors. It is a straight hallway that leads from one room to another. At the end of the mile long hallway that seems like a fast journey through Italy’s history, we come to the Sistine Chapel. Although we are not supposed to talk, the room is filled with noise. The chapel is not as grand as I had thought it would be, just a rectangular room with simple architecture, but the paintings are unbelievable. I sit on a bench bordering the room and stare up in awe. I love the creation of man painting, and am surprised to see that this famous and grand painting is not the center of the ceiling, like I had always imagined it, but rather the creation of woman is. Fascinating.

After, we walk out to St. Peters Square and enter the church. St. Peter’s is the largest Catholic church in the world, and it is the grandest thing I have ever seen in my life. The ceilings are so tall, and everything is ornately carved stone or covered in gold. The church is enormous and very successful in making you feel small and insignificant. After awing over the beauty of the architecture, I pay 7 euro to take an elevator halfway up the church, followed by 300 stairs in tight spirals and leaning hallways to the top of the dome of St. Peters. Once there, I overlook the entire city of Rome. It’s blistering hot and packed with people, yet still worth every cent and every stair.

Allie, Erica, Jeanette, Becky, Josie and I stop to sketch the fountain in St. Peters square. People come up behind us to stop and watch us sketch. They are so impressed with our drawings. I fell like an artist. We start making our way to the Pantheon, getting distracted again and again by the plethora of souvenir shops. But as we round a corner, there it is, this gigantic, ancient building right in the middle this modern day world. It is beautiful. We walk into the huge open room with a beautiful ceiling that has such simple clean design, and I just love it. We sit down and start sketching when they announce that mass is starting in 5 minutes. We decide to stay. It is a very strange experience. I wish I had a catholic by me to explain the reasoning behind all the chanting and incense waving. And it doesn’t help that it is all in Italian.