gladiators

Rome was pretty much awesome. Hands down, one of the coolest cities I have visited. I think it is probably because I have learned about it for so long, starting in 6th grade Latin class when we learned about the Forum, etc., and on through all my history classes. The city is just so rich in history. The city IS history.
On the train to Rome around 9 am, Amanda called to tell us that it was SNOWING back in Florence. I was a little disappointed about that, but oh well, I was on my way to Roma. Thanksgiving dinner the night before was amazing. We went to I Latini and had a bajillion course dinner. It was great. Afterwards, we went to a few bars, which was fun, and Diana tried to climb on one of the cows that are peppered around the city. Hilarious...
Anyway, we got to Rome, and they bussed us straight from the train station to the Vatican. The line was enormous, it snaked basically all the way around the complex. And it was Freezing outside. Luckily, the line moved very quickly, and I soon found myself inside, where Ashley, Tina, and I jumped onto the Sculpture tour to be with Rocky, and not the boring Neil. Good call, us. We went out into the Piazza, where the giant pinecone supposedly from the oculous of the Pantheon. From there, we could just make out the dome of Saint Peter's. We walk in through a room filled with sculptures, tons of old busts that I guess are just funerary busts for normal people who died. How cool, amazing sculptures just for your monument. I wish they still did that. Anyway, we continued on to an open area where we saw a Perseus and the Laocoon, the man with the serpent and his too sons. It is a really amazing statue.
From there, we wandered through the laberinthine rooms of the Vatican, past old Christian paintings, etc., and ended up in the Raphael room, which is incredible. The paintings covering the ceiling and walls are awesome, my favorite being the "School of Athens." It is such a cool painting, with all of the old Classical masters thrown in there... Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Euclid, Diogenes. I think Raphael painted Leonardo da Vinci's face as Plato. And I guess he had snuck a peek into the Sistine Chapel and decided that Michelangelo was worthy to be put on there, so there sits Michelangelo, in the front, as an afterthought. He even stuck himself in there... Humble, isn't he? ;)
From there, we made our way through the throngs past the hall of Maps, which was pretty dang cool, full of paintings of old old maps, and somehow found our way into the Sistine Chapel. I know everyone says this, but it is pretty breathtaking. It shows the story of Creation, God creating the heavens and the earth, vegetation (complete with the buttocks, as Prof. Duni likes to say, of God), the Expulsion of Adam and Eve, etc. My personal favorite, however, wasn't part of the Creation scenes but was Jonas and the fish. So amazing.
We left by way of a side door and took a special staircase that the Pope walks down that I guess they only opened to the public 3 weeks ago. It was cool, and there were Swiss Guards milling about everywhere in their crazy costumes, whose colors seemed to be imitating the colors of Michelangelo and Raphael. From that staircase we exited into the huge Saint Peter's piazza, where they were already starting to erect a house-sized nativity scene. Walking up the steps to Saint Peter's was really kind of humbling for me, entering the place where millions upon millions of people have made their pilgrimages.
The only word that I could use to describe Saint Peter's Basilica is massive. It was absolutely, incredibly Huge. You don't really think about how big it is, until you realize that the little cherubs that adorn the Holy Water fount are really bigger than you. And then you think about how huge the statues at the top of the Church, which look as big as the statues below them, must be. Incredible. One of the highlights of my trip was seeing Michelangelo's "Pieta" in St. Peter's. That statue is so moving. All that was playing through my mind when I was in front of it was "Ave Maria" and "Pie Jesu." Just beautiful. I wanted to go up and touch it, stroke the marble of Mary's drapery, Jesus' foot. It looked so real. We also saw a tomb for one of the pope's that Michelangelo had designed... Alexander VIII? Maybe. I don't remember. But it was really cool. It had tons of crazy-colored marble that looked like it was in huge drapes and folds on top of the tomb, as well as 4 allegorical figures, charity, prudence, truth, and another that I don't remember. Also a creepy skeleton that is bolted in under the "fabric" of the marble. Weird.
After that, we went to lunch, and Kristin threw up in the middle of St. Peter's square... well, actually kind of the side, but same thing. Poor thing had a terrible migraine and hadn't eaten anything all day. (Sorry Kristin, I had to tell about it :) You know I love you) Then we again went with the sculpture class to see St. Peter of the Chains, a smallish, titular church for Pope Julius II, who was Michelangelo's patron. There, we saw the chains that supposedly bound Saint Peter, which was pretty powerful, and the tomb that Michelangelo designed for Julius II, which included his Moses. I liked that statue a lot as well.
After that church, we checked into the hotel, met up with Amy!!! Went to dinner, then came back and, exhausted, watched "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," which I really enjoyed. That night, it thundered and lightning a lot, and Tina was scared. It was fun.
We woke up the next morning bright and early, ate breakfast at the hotel, stored our bags there, and walked to the Colosseum. This probably made my life complete. I have been learning about the Colosseum for so long. It is crazy, I can imagine it how it looked two thousand years ago, covered in marble and gold fixings, with the floor still intact, sailors manning the awning above, gladiators fighting to the death, animals appearing from trapdoors behind scenery, the whole place being flooded with water for naval battles, thousands of screaming fans. It gave me goosebumps. It was neat to see all the passageways and rooms underneath, where they held the animals and gladiators, and from which they worked the mechanisms for the trapdoors. Awesome. Walked from there along the Via Sacra, stopping at the Arch of Constantine and the Basilica of Constantine, which was huge. It really did give me the chills, walking on old basalt and marble stones that have been there for two thousand years, that Caesar Augustus, and thousands of sandaled feet, have walked on. The Via Sacra took us to the Roman Forum, which was pretty much a jumble of old stones and columns. Which is better than it was; I guess it used to be covered by dirt and cattle in the Middle Ages. We saw the Temple of the Vestal Virgins, where the flame of Rome was kept alive by six virgins. Saw the altar where Julius Caesar was burned, and the platform where Marc Antony made his speeches and thousands of others began using rhetoric to manipulate thoughts.
Walked up Capitoline hill, past the Vittorio Emmanuel monument, and into the Piazza that Michelangelo designed. It was pretty cool, with a Marcus Aurelius statue in the middle and buildings set at crazy angles. Ashley and I were watching this cute little boy, and this random man started taking pictures of him, and then of our group. Creepy.
From there, we walked to the Pantheon, which was really cool. It is so unbelievable that something that massive has been there since the times of the Romans. The dome was huge, with the big oculous in the middle; I wanted to be there when it was raining, so we could see the water rushing in and spreading across the floor. It is also where Raphael and the first two kings of Italy are buried.
We went to the Borghese Gallery, which was really really cool as well. We saw Canova's "Pauline Bonaparte as Venus," which was sweet because it had a crazy mechanism (from the time it was made) that allowed the statue to rotate. They were so clever... Arguably one of the best parts of my trip, however, were the Bernini statues. That man was amazing, he is my new favorite sculptor. Although the Pieta was pretty dang good, Bernini's works are incredible. The way he works the marble, it is like the rock is clay, he molds it in impossible ways. My favorite statue of his was the "Apollo and Daphne." In parts, he cut the marble so thin that it was translucent. We also saw his David, and it's amazing facial expressions and muscle contractions, his Rape of Persephone, and his Aeneas and Aniches. The way he carves skin, and veins, and fat rolls and wrinkles, even the little mole on the back of Pluto in the Rape of Persephone... it's amazing. I am in awe of him. We also saw a few paintings that I loved, I think they were by Rubens but I'm not sure. My favorite was the one with Saint Anne, Mary, and Jesus, where it is Mary who is stepping on the snake that represents the Devil. Of course I like Rubens, what a feminist... :)
On the trainride back to Florence, it was thundering and lightning... Cool end to an amazing trip