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Published: September 6th 2007
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Today we venture through Rome - the historic capital of the Roman Empire. The day started with a trip from Rome to the principality of the Vatican City. Sounds a bit weird to do an excursion to another country, when we only just got here! The Vatican City is the smallest country in the world and is actually surrounded by the city of Rome.
The guided tour was lead by Chincia again, who introduced us to Rome yesterday. We were all handed personal radios as we waited in the queue. Chelle struggled with her ear-piece. She doesn’t do earphones, and only uses the old school headphones, so it took a while to convince her to just stick it in her ear. On to more important things - apparently about 14,000 people visit the Vatican City, EVERYDAY! Luckily for us, we arrived in the pre-booked section half an hour early and only had to wait for 5 minutes after the gates opened. John wasn’t joking when he said that every minute that the Bus waits for stragglers after brekkie, is 50 more people in the queue.
The Vatican City is quite impressive - with the majority of the country covered
in religious buildings and Museums. Our destination was the Sistine chapel where Michelangelo had painted the ceiling and the last judgement on the far wall. In order to get there, we had to walk through several galleries where different artwork and sculptures are stored. The variety and quality was excellent, as each Pope had contributed with their own personal collections over the Centuries. One of the Pope’s had a real fondness for bumblebees, which adorn a lot of the art works.
One particular chamber contained ornate carvings, the next huge maps of parts of Italy painted hundreds of years ago, and another was full from ceiling to wall with tapestries woven with gold and dyed wool. These tapestries used to hang in the Chapel itself, and thankfully, we were able to take photos of all of these galleries.
After winding through these galleries, we reached the Sistine chapel. It was a bit of a surprise that the entrance was a tiny, cramped, stairway that looked like the emergency exit of a shopping centre. The doors opened to a large room with, you guessed it, a painted ceiling and walls. The awe of the paintings were a little tarnished
by the sights we saw on our way through the galleries, but was impressive none the less. I guess it comes into perspective when you remember that one man spent over three years painting the ceiling alone and then come back in his eighties and painted the last judgement wall. Photography of any kind is forbidden in the chapel, but we did manage to sneak of couple in. Actually, I tried to sneak them, while Chelle just blatantly aimed the camera at this and that, a few minutes before we were due to leave anyway. As we were sitting right up the back, no one seemed to mind.
The last judgement is made up of an amazing blue hue - that stands out from the rest of the paintings. It has over 400 people in it, and contains the ONLY self-portrait of Michelangelo himself. This is seen in the hanging skin of a martyred monk. The painting was changed shortly after his death, to conceal the nakedness of the subjects, but some of these coverings have been removed so you can see it as it was meant to be.
After our visit to the Vatican City, we met
Self Portrait
You can see the skin hanging down, where Michael Angelo's face is painted. up with the other tour members who didn’t take the optional extra (poor buggers) and headed to the Catacombs. On our way, we passed many of the historical buildings in Rome; decorated columns, obilisques, an Egyptian pyramid constructed to honour one of the Emperor’s. Anyone would think we were is Egypt ;-)
The Catacombs were huge - the ones we visited contained over eighteen kilometres of tunnels and burial chambers. We visited an underground chapel and two levels of graves - not the full 18 kms! It was pleasantly cool underground, a break from the 40 degrees temperatures outside. The smell would have been horrendous back in the day, with hundreds of decomposing bodies, and the overwhelming smell of incense attempting to mask the odours. The tour guide informed us that the Christians did not ‘hide out’ in the catacombs, contrary to popular belief, as they were not suitable for extended periods of human life and were well known by the Romans (who were also buried there).
Our next visit was to the Colosseum, but our camera decided to run out of battery just before we arrived. Thankfully, we are coming back. This area of Rome is HUGE,
and looks to be the most interesting. We will definitely need a full day to explore. We didn’t go into the Colosseum, as we would be back, but it is an enormous structure, built in just 8 years (by 40,000 slaves).
The stadium could seat 50,000 people, and was used for gladiator battles. In 100 days, 5000 beasts were slaughtered, including crocodiles from Egypt (a symbolic killing, as Rome had conquered that country). The Colosseum could even be flooded for mock maritime battles - that’s amazing!
The bus picked us up near this landmark, and we only had enough time for a quick change back at the hotel, before our dinner. This was at another Italian restaurant, known as the Mangrove - I’m not sure why. The waiter here is renowned for pinching bums and being quite cheeky.
He lived up to his reputation, and we had a blast!! There was dancing, singing, kissing, pinching - you name it, the Italians do it. Our whole group was in hysterics, and Connie and Giuseppe, the Italian couple from Sydney, really made the night. We left with roses in our teeth, still clapping and singing all the way home.
The road takes us away from Rome tomorrow, and almost out of Italy.
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Alex
non-member comment
Hi Guys, don't the guards look hilarious! I don't know how they can take their jobs seriously - I'd feel like I was working for Disney land! You guys are looking great - i love the photo of you by the fountain. Take care