This morning I woke at 8:30 and was in a cab to the Vatican
before 10. I was in a cab with Katia, Sarah, and Chelsea; we got there before
everyone else and almost as soon as we crossed the street to the front
entrance, the heavens opened up to greet us at the Catholic center of the world
with buckets of rain. We all had rain jackets or umbrellas but we were out in
the open and it poured for at least 10 minutes. We eventually took some cover
under the awning of a snack cart but it we got pretty wet. But then it stopped
when Dr. Zaho arrived because she’s the ray of sunshine in our lives on this
trip. We all funneled in to the entrance (after skipping a huge line) and went
through security then stood around while Dr. Zaho got our tickets.
After that our adventure in the Vatican began. It was pretty
crowded, warm, and very confusing. It might have been worse than the Uffizi.
First place we went was the Christian sarcophagi section to look at, well,
ancient Roman sarcophagi. That was pretty cool and not very packed. After that
we moved on to look at paintings. They were all obviously religious subjects,
but the majority of them were awesome and not boring at all. We saw a lot of
great stuff and a few things by some big name artists, including Raphael, da
Vinci, and Caravaggio. There was way too much for me to remember any other
names at the moment. After that we walked through some other rooms/hallways and
ended up in an Egyptian exhibit. I was in a pretty bad mood at this point, but
the stuff we saw was incredible.
After seeing the Egyptian stuff we were on our way to the
Sistine Chapel. And by “on our way” I mean we had to go through dozens of more
rooms and a modern art exhibit to get there. One room was just a very long
hallway with frescoes of maps covering the entirety of the walls. What I could
see of it was awesome; there were just so many people that a lot of it was
obscured. After that we ended up in the series of four rooms designed by
Raphael. One of these rooms, Stanza della Segnatura (Room of the Signature) is
the home to a very famous fresco that I’m sure you know, School of Athens. This
is the one with Plato and Aristotle in the middle. I love it. It was stunning
to see in person, especially because I got to experience the space it’s in
because there are three other large frescoes and they all play off each other
in different ways.
We exited these rooms, walked up a staircase, and entered
the Sistine Chapel. I just remember taking a right off the staircase, taking
one final step up, and grinning stupidly as soon as I glimpsed the ceiling. It
was just a “I finally made it” kind of moment. I finally made it there after
walking through dozens of rooms and I finally made it after years of learning
and fantasizing about it. The frescoes did not disappoint at all; not
Michelangelo’s or anyone else’s. I don’t know how to explain the sensation I
felt as I was looking up at this ceiling that I’ve seen pictured my entire
life. It was glorious. Well, the art was. The experience on the floor was
something else. I won’t go into detail to avoid sounding like a negative Nancy,
but the guards we hypocritical jerks who wouldn’t let Dr. Zaho say a word to us
for the sake of education, but we watched them (well, really this one guy who
was picking on us) flirt with girls our age. It was disgusting. We all gave
them so many dirty looks. But the art was amazing!!
Next we went into St. Peter’s Basilica. We went straight to
the Pieta and admired it for a good 10 minutes. Ugh, it’s so beautiful. I took
a ton of pictures of it. After that we were walking around, taking our time
when bells tolled to signify that mass was about to begin. A few seconds later
we saw a line of cardinals filing out to the altar, and Dr. Zaho looked around
frantically and said, “If I see the Popo, I will lose my mind.” Just then we
saw a man walk out with an extravagant robe, cap, and staff. She looked at me
and said “GO TO THE RIGHT” so I just led our group, pushing through the crowd
to get around the barricades to the entrance to the altar. We got past the
barricades and ran. We went around the giant baldacchino to finally sit on
benches to watch mass led by the pope. A few minutes into it, though, Zaho
turned around and mouthed “it’s not the pope”. Bummer. But it was still cool to
see the cardinals and everything. I guess the guy leading it was a cardinal. I
don’t know. We were there for at least an hour before getting up and walking
toward the front again for Sarah to do her project on the baldacchino.
Pretty much right after Sarah got done, the church was
closing. So we left and hopped on a bus to take us back to our area and food.
We ended up at the pizza place we had the first night here, Rossopomodoro. It
was not nearly as good this time as it was before. I don’t know, maybe it was
just me. We were all in weird and bad moods so I kind of just paid attention to
my phone because I had wifi again and then left to catch a bus back to the
hotel with Sarah and Rosie. After we got off the bus we stopped to get cash and
for me to break a bill. The guy that I bought a water bottle from called me
beautiful, and instead of being creeped out I was flattered. Probably because
there was glass and a counter between us, and also because I was in the
weirdest and most bizarrely numb mood.
I came back to the hotel and took a quick shower before Ana
Maria got in. When she did I told her I was feeling weird so she went
downstairs and got ice cream for me, so I ate it while listening to comforting
music and typing this post and now I feel better! Now I’m going to hang out
with people.
Good night!
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