Friday, May 1, 2015

Vatican & May Day

Well it has been a busy & overheated couple of days here in Rome. They are definitely fast moving into summer. I think the jet lag has been getting to me -funny sleep patterns and waking up in the middle of the night feeling overheated. I have to keep pinching myself and looking outside, because it doesn't seem real that I'm here.

The funny thing is that Rome is such a huge part of history -to be honest, a history I never paid that much attention to except for being an avid reader of Asterix when I was young - and a lot of things have only just clicked in the last few days. Like going past the Palatine hill where the Caesars all ruled, or the place where Romulus & Remus of roman legend where supposed to have been fed by wolves. Just such old archaeology and ruins and buildings so so much older than anything in NZ.

Today we were standing outside the Pantheon and the name Agrippa was written on it. I said to Aroha that name sounds familiar and she said yeah his name is in the Bible. I just can't get over how ancient things are here. They have only 2 underground metro lines here, apparently they started working on a 3rd, but they got nowhere with it because their digging kept unearthing archaeological artifacts so they had to keep stopping.

We went to the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel & St Peters Basilica yesterday, it was so incredible. I was really glad we had prebooked our tickets, because the lines were massive. On our way there, people kept trying to stop us to invite us to join a tour group, because they said only with a guide can you go through the back entrance to St Paul's. But it sounded expensive, so we declined. I'm glad too, coz the guides seemed to be rushing their groups through with not much time for photos or even just enjoying themselves. I felt sorry for some people who tried to jump the queue with their Rome pass -not realizing that the Vatican is not Rome, it is its own country (44ha, the smallest in the world) -the guard sent them away to join the back of the queue. Plus we didn't realize that today would be a public holiday & it would all be closed, so it was extra busy.

After security we went through lots and lots of rooms on our way to the Sistine chapel - full of amazing things, maps, paintings, sculptures, modern art, tapestries, egyptian mummies & artifacts, it went on and on - lovely, but hard on the legs. Finally we got to the Sistine chapel and wow!! we weren't allowed to take photos in there, and you had to just sit & be quiet, but it was a lovely quiet contemplative atmosphere, just enjoying and taking in the colours and images & imagining how much hard work it wouldve been for Michaelangelo to have created all that. Bible scenes, creation, the flood, prophets, ancestors of Christ and the Final Judgement scene which was massive. We listened to an audio talk about it while we were sitting there which was very helpful too. At the end we went down the walkway that lead into St Peters and skipped all those queues too, which was brilliant. St Peters was amazing, huge, elaborate and slightly imposing, full of people and organ music, sculptures. It would be easy to get lost in there, I think its supposed to be one of the largest churches in the world.

When we came out we saw the Swiss guard all dressed up in their highly colourful uniforms, which I believe Michelangelo is supposed to have created originally, then went and got a postcard & souvenirs, walking past all the people still waiting in a huge queue to get inside.

Today was brilliant, even though I got off to a bit of a late, sleepy start. It was a public holiday, so limited public transport and lots of walking. We got a bus to Pont St Angelo which is a pedestrian bridge covered in angel sculptures, walked around there next to the river looking at different churches & buildings, the Courthouse nicknamed The Ugly Palace, then back to the Piazza Navona, which was huge with fountains & an egyptian looking pillar with hieroglyphics all over it. We went to the Pantheon, then had lunch, (the best lasagne I've ever tasted!), walked to Trevi fountain (covered with people), up to the Spanish steps (overrun with people) and got the metro home, squashed in against lots of people (very outside my comfort zone).

So tomorrow is our last day in Rome & I'm quite sad about that, its been marvelous. Not sure what we're doing but hopefully the Colosseum will be in there.

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