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Published: June 11th 2008
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The columns around the piazza
All of the saints line the tops. Friday, June 6- Vatican City
It was up and at it bring and early this morning! We were at Vatican City by 9:45 after a bus and Metro ride. Our first stop was the Vatican Museum. The first part of the museum took us through the Vatican’s Egyptian collections. We saw many sarcophaguses, mummies, cuneiform tablets and other Egyptian sculptures. After the Egyptian collections, we moved on to the halls of busts and statutes. There were many Greek gods and goddesses along with emperors and cupids. It really makes you think about how much time and effort goes into the sculptures when you see one after another with so much detail. Each room was completely decorated in itself, along with the many sculptures. The walls and ceiling were covered in marble and gold with frescoes everywhere. You could walk through these rooms many times and find something new. There were grand hallways that seemed to go on forever filled with sculpture, tapestries, and maps. You can only walk through thinking about how old everything in the collection is. We walked through the Raphael Rooms in amazement as four rooms were painted from the floor to the ceiling on every wall.
It is wonderful to have the chance to see such artwork. We also walked through the papal apartments and saw the one Leonardo di Vinci piece the Vatican owns. It was much smaller than expected. From here we walked into the Sistine Chapel. We both expected the space to be much like one of the grand hallways- extremely long. Although the space was very large we were shocked that the Sistine Chapel wasn’t as long as we thought it would be. The artwork was absolutely amazing and you could truly sit there for hours taking it all in. The crowds were very large in this area and staring at the ceiling too long will make you dizzy!
After walking through the Vatican Museum, we were ready for some lunch! We found a little pizzeria that was wonderful! We sat on the front steps in the street and watched as people in the neighborhood were out and about. It was a great little break from all the crowds around the Vatican.
After lunch, we went back toward the Vatican. The piazza alone is just amazing. There is just an enormous amount of space that is covered. There are giant
columns and all of the saints line the top part of the piazza. The basilica is in the middle of the piazza and words can’t even describe how big the church is! We made our way into St. Peter’s Basilica. It takes a minute to even adjust to the size of it all. As soon as you walk in on the right is Michelangelo’s Pieta. Seeing Mary with Jesus’ body draped across her is very moving. We took our time wondering through the church and went into the different chapels. The whole place is just so over the top that there is so much to see. We question how they get gigantic marble or granite statues halfway up the walls. You truly could just get lost in all the paintings and adornments everywhere. Our last stop was St. Peter’s throne where millions have kissed his feet so many times that they are wasting away.
After leaving Vatican City, we walked along the Tiber River. This is definitely not the prettiest of areas in Rome but at least there were no crowds. While Nicole was trying to figure out something to do, Ryan took a very short nap. We got
up after a while and headed to Piazza Navona again to figure out where we were going to eat dinner. Nicole took over most of the bench while lying in Ryan’s lap, people watching and falling in and out of sleep. Ryan looked for somewhere to eat in all of our books and made friends with a dog that belonged to a man selling artwork in the piazza.
We ended up eating at Cul de Sac. The place was really cute with an ENORMOUS wine list. We both got lasagna and split meatballs with mashed potatoes (Ryan really ate it all- Nicole just tried.) The food was great and Ryan even said it was his favorite meal so far! That’s a lot to live up to in this town!
It’s an early night back to the hotel to rest the feet and take it easy after waking up early this morning!
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