Roaming in Rome (Connor)

Just because they’re naked doesn’t mean they’re not cool!

In the past week, I have seen so many cool things including the Sistine Chapel, St. Peters Basilica, the Coliseum, and the Roman Forum. As you probably guessed, we just departed Rome. We managed to see most of the big things, but we didn’t make it up on Palatine Hill. Palatine Hill is where it all started. Yep. It is the very place where Rome was founded.

My favorite part of what we did see was the Sistine Chapel. Perfectly preserved from 16th century, and painted by possibly the best artist ever, Michelangelo, just being in there makes you want to gaze up in awe at all of the amazing paintings. (You also get to see God’s naked behind, which is kind of funny too!) It also kind of makes you want to laugh. Still, even with so many exposed parts, it is one of the best things I have seen on this trip. The right side of the chapel is the Old Testament. (Pre Jesus) The left is the New Testament. (Post Jesus) On the front wall, there is a painting called “The Last Judgment” which is when Jesus looked on as good people ascended to Heaven, and the bad people were consigned to Hell. That part of the Chapel is pretty inappropriate, mostly because in the Hell part, one of the demons is getting bit in the nuts by a snake. Ouch. Remember, this is in a holy place. Double ouch. And this is also the chapel where the Pope goes to pray. Triple ouch. But the pope in that time, Pope Julius II, let it slide anyway.

Here is the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

Even though the Sistine Chapel surpassed all others on the wow factor, St. Peters basilica was pretty awesome too. St. Peters is the church where services happen inside the Vatican. That means all of the big names in the Catholic Church go there to hear sermons. That means you have the Cardinals, the Swiss Guard, and even sometimes the Pope, all in one place. One fact about St. Peters: It is big. St. Peters is actually the largest church in the world. It is kind of crazy to think that the whole thing was built in just 6 years. That is a minuscule amount of time to build the bulkiest and most beautiful church on earth. There were also some paintings of uncovered babies and whatnot in the building, but it wasn’t overwhelming.

There is usually a three-hour line to even get tickets to St. Peters! Not to mention the security check before you are allowed to go in. That is just how awesome it is.

What I loved most about it was that it was huge, but still really nice. There is a palace just outside of the Vatican, that the locals call the “Ugly Palace” because it is too big compared to all of the other buildings in the area. But St. Peters fits right in!

There are some really amazing statues and paintings in St. Peters, including one of mom’s favorites, the Pieta. The Pieta depicts Mary holding Jesus at his death, but also with her legs spread like she is giving birth. So the Pieta is pretty much Mary giving birth, as well as holding Jesus in his death. This statue was another masterpiece by Michelangelo, so just taking it all in is hard.

After gazing at the Pieta, we went to the very top of St. Peters’s dome, right under the cross and the golden sphere. You can get a view of all of the Vatican, and all of Rome from there. Really cool.

This is St. Peters Basilica

Here is the Pieta.

Dating back to 70 AD, the Coliseum was a little less impressive insofar as there are almost no remains of any statues, paintings, or swords. You name it. All that is left is the building, and the rear-end of a horse. Not very impressive. A lot of people think the Coliseum is one of the coolest things they have ever seen, but it actually isn’t that wowing. Also, 400,000 gladiators and 1,000,000 animals died in the course of the Coliseum’s career, including scores of elephants, lions, tigers, and leopards. So, yeah. It wasn’t as awesome as I expected.  Mom thought it was gross.

Here is the Coliseum in all of its “glory.” If you think about it, glory sounds a lot like gory. Coincidence?

Unlike the Coliseum, the Roman Forum featured cool ruins everywhere you step. You can literally sit down on a 2,000 year-old piece of marble and think: “I want a cheeseburger.” Really cool. In the Forum, I saw 5 temples, including one to Saturn. Apparently, “Saturn day,” which occurred on December 17, was the ancient version of opposite day. That means masters serve slaves, prisoners stop getting tortured, and women got to call the shots. (Mom would have liked that one.)  There were also tombs and market buildings. One of the tombs that I saw belonged to Julius Caesar, which is pretty cool. But sadly, since I had a stomachache, and since it was approximately 300 degrees, we only saw the important things. I would have liked to see more of the Forum, but I am still excited for what is to come. Our amazing time in Rome is done, and we’re moving on to our bike trip in Tuscany.

Here is what the Forum used to look like

Here is what it looks like today.  Arrivederci for now!