Pictures
Today we wanted to go to the Vatican City bright and early to avoid the lines. A few girls told us it was only 30 minutes from where we were staying. Well, we didn’t get out of here quite as early as we thought we would. We did get to eat breakfast, which was good. I think it took us an hour and fifteen minutes or more to walk over to the Vatican. Again, the random, confusing Roman roads don’t help. I guess it is one of the oldest major cities around, so I’ll forgive them.
We made it through security at St. Peter’s Basilica rather quickly, actually. Holy carp, that place is enormous! It is completely done out with enormous statues, gilded everything, stained glass, more statues, carvings, engravings, chiselings, paintings, really really high ceilings and domes. From the outside, it doesn’t really look that large. I mean, the hundreds of columnades and statues of saints and fountains in the front are impressive, but the size and grandeur of the inside is almost overwhelming! They had an entire list of all the deceased Popes and what looked like several alters. There was even a mass going on in one of the side areas. The ceilings are hundreds of feet in the air and the amount of free space is staggering! The entire time I was there, I couldn’t help but wish my mom were with me. She would really appreciate the history and the meaning behind all the building.
From there we walked (for what seemed forever) to get to the Vatican Museums. We saw several old Italian ladies completely sprawled on the ground with a little money cup in front of them. It was interesting because the homeless in Columbus usually always ask you for money instead of trying to look as pathetic as possible.
Sidenote: I can’t believe how many people chew with their mouths open. It is the most annoying thing in the world. I’ve noticed it especially with Asians. The guy behind me is eating an apple and is incredibly annoying! Also, an amazing number of people here in Europe smoke. Never have I seen this many people lighting cigarettes all the time. It’s disgusting. And they don’t seem to have the smoking bans that America has.
We got a discount for the museums with our ISIC (International Student Identity Card) card, which is the first time it’s been of any use whatsoever. We really wanted to see the Sistine Chapel. And they lead you on a maze through paintings, sculptures, tapestries, passageways and bunches of other stuff before you get there. Some of the stuff was neat, but, again, we didn’t do a tour or have an audio guide, so a lot of the significance was lost upon me. I would recommend doing a tour, at least, so you can see what all the history is.
We did get to the Chapel eventually though! And it was impressive! It was painted all over. They painted on the crown molding and shadows of things to make it look 3D. And there in the middle of the ceiling was the famous Michelangelo painting: God reaching for Adam. It’s actually one panel in a series depicting the Genesis story (from what I could see). I wonder what makes that one panel so popular? There were signs all over asking for silence and no photos or video, but there were lots of loud people taking pictures with flashes. A few times a guide would ask for silence, but it didn’t last long. The Sistine Chapel was a very cool sight indeed!
We then went to the Pantheon, which was on the way to our hostel. It was also enormous! There was a hole in the domed ceiling where the sunlight poured in. It made for a cool effect! There were of course many huge statues and paintings. Very impressive and, in case you didn’t know, there were signs telling you how scared the area was. After the Pantheon we walked to the Trinita dei Monti or the Spanish Steps. There was a fountain in front of them and quite a few people sitting on them. We walked to the top where another obelisk stood. If you couldn’t tell, Romans love fountains and obelisks and statues and crazy roads and scooters!
Yes, it’s true, there are tons of scooters. And during a red light, they all drive to the front of traffic so they are the first ones off the line. I think you’d be killed by aggressive drivers if you tried that in America! That’s not to say the driving is any better of here… there is still a lot of honking. Not to mention there are barely any traffic lines! And how the heck do people know street names? They are found on the sides of buildings, if at all, and they are very very inconviently located to begin with! Anyways!
From there we walked back to the hostel and took a little nappie nap for about 3 hours. Then we woke up, went to the grocery to get some food. We ended up making some pasta, which was way better than the stuff we had last night. Even put some chili peppers in with the tomato sauce which were a nice flavor.
After that we walked out to get some gellato. We’d read in our Europe books that San Crispino was a good place to go, so we went. And I will tell you that it was amazing! We paid 3 Euro for a smallish cup of 2 scoops, but damn was it good! I had a scoop of banana and a scoop of honey. San Crispino was the real deal because they had metal containers for their ice cream and the banana was actually grey colored, which means they use real bananas (who woulda thunkit?). Both the honey and banana tasted like you were eating the real thing and the banana even had bits of banana in it! Delicious stuff, and I’m not even that bit a fan of sweets!
Well, while we were eating we headed over to the Trevi fountain. Again, another fountain, but this one was awesome! It was nearly the size of the whole piazza. I got some pictures, which I will hopefully upload soon. There was a statue of Neptune in the middle with two guys on the side wrestling horses with wings and dragon-like tails. Not sure what that was about, but the water cascading all around was fantastic! I think it is my favorite fountain/statue here. There were quite a few people there. And of course there were street vendors peddling their wares. We haven’t seen any Gypsies here that I can recall. We’ve steered clear of the people trying to give us anything though.
And how we’re sitting in the hostel room again. I’ve been typing up 4 days worth of blogs, because I fell behind. We’re limited to 30 minutes of wifi per person per day, but we saved up yesterdays so we will hopefully have a bit of time to use tomorrow. I am going to take a shower now and then head to bed. Not sure what we’re going to do tomorrow. We’ve got a night train to Innsbruck, Austria at 7:10pm, but I have no idea what we’ll do until that time.