Weekend In Rome

7-1-07

Day two included the Vatican and St. Peter’s. This was Sistine Chapel and Pietà day and I was so excited because we have talked about these works since the first day of class. They are beautiful in books, but I could only image their impact in person. We found the Vatican line at 8:30 in the morning and started placing bets as to how long the line would take. My guess was 2 hours and 15 minutes. I was way off. We stood for 3 hours and 9 minutes. I was a tad bit irritable and kept saying that it had better be worth it. The Vatican beyond impressed me. My favorite room leading to the Sistine Chapel was the map room. It is this extremely long room filled with maps of Italy. The ceiling was painted beautifully and the windows opened up to scenic views of Vatican City. Other rooms included picture galleries, state rooms, and collections of ancient art. Finally, we wind our way into the Sistine Chapel and immediately it takes my breath away. It is not just a series of paintings painted by some artist. It is more than a masterpiece, more than artistic skill, more than Biblical knowledge. The Sistine Chapel is overwhelmingly out of this world, literally. It seems not humanly possible to create something so extraordinary. It is almost like some divine being was present to help Michelangelo. There is no other way to describe it. We spent about a half an hour tilting backwards and staring at scenes from the flood, the creation of Adam and Eve, the creation of heaven, and the creation of the world. The prophets and sibyls were amazing too. I have never been so emotional looking at artwork and I was unsuccessful with keeping the goose bumps down, but I managed to keep away the tears.
We finally pulled ourselves away from the ceiling and walked to St. Peter’s Basilica. At first, I was not enamored with the actual church so much as the Pietà. She is beautiful. She sits on more of an angle than pictures show and she is much smaller than I imaged. Christ is unbelievably lifelike sitting on her lap. His ribs, muscles, and veins look defined by skin rather than carved marble. Mary looks very young and serene for having just lost a child. Her proportions are somewhat off, also. She is much larger on the bottom than the top, but Michelangelo had to compensate for Christ’s size somehow. She made me get emotional too and I had the hardest time leaving. When I finally did leave the Pietà, I walked around St. Peter’s and marveled at the detail of the place. Italian artists were extremely patient. I dipped my hand in the holy water and did a little Father, Son, and Holy Ghost prayer, even though I am not Catholic, because I felt it was fitting. Dad would have really loved St. Peter’s. We walked outside onto the square and located the Pope’s window where he pokes his head out every now and then. We also stood directly in the center of the square and watched the columns magically line up. Very cool. We left Rome around 4:30 and when we arrived back in Florence, I really felt like I was home. Rome was an amazing place to visit and I was happy to experience such great history, but I am glad I chose not to study there. I love Florence and am starting to get extremely attached.

Tonight, our Italian roommate Nika is cooking an Italian dinner for us. We are having two courses. The first being some kind of pasta and the second being scallops. She is leaving next weekend to go home for the rest of the summer, so she wanted to do something nice for us. She said she is a “cucina brava.” I am pumped! We also found out today we are getting yet another roommate. They are never ending! Jessie and I were hoping for an American roommate so we could actually communicate with her, so we waited by the door this morning wondering when she would come. We heard our outside doorbell ring so we unlocked the door and ran to the stairs to spy on her. Turns out it was someone that lived on the first floor. They must have forgotten their key and pressed a random button. Roommate #2 finally showed up and we don’t think she is American. She was with our landlord and another lady that were speaking Italian, so we can’t tell right now. She has not been back to the apartment since the first encounter. We are crossing our fingers.