Venice and Vatican Museum's

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Hello all!

Life seems to get more busy every week and this semester seems to be flying by. Some of the highlights of the past week or two have been fa trip to the Vatican Museums with my Theo class and my trip last weekend to Venice. I have my Italian FINAL on thursday which means after friday I will have 15 more hours a week of free time! It will be nice to have a more relaxed November to see more of Rome.

Next week I leave for my Fall break. I am training through italy up to the capitol of Bern, Switzerland and will stay there a night before I go to nearby Interlakin (literally between the lakes) and spend a day there before I head into the mountains to a small town called Gimmellwald. I willbe staying here in Gimmellwald: www.mountainhostel.com . So hopefully itl be a nice week of relaxing and retreating to the Alps. After Gimmellwald I return to interlakin for a day before I head back to Bern to catch a train that taks me to Milan where i will get off and see some stuff (hopefully the Duomo (Cathedral-4th biggest in Europe...and MAYBE the Last Supper, though the tickets seem to be sold out at this point. Still haven't figured out what else i want to see here...) and then head to the airport for a quick flight back to Rome for class the next day! La vita patza (the crazy life!)

Hope you like the pictures. I will post again when i get back from Switzerland! Missing the states and looking forward to the rest of my time here as well as getting back to the USA! God bless~

Jonathan

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Photos

Musei Vaticani: The Transfiguration
One of the later works of Rafael. We learned that this is a good example of his movement into more Renaissance painting with greater use of light and perspective. I like it a lot.

Musei Vaticani: Nero's Porphrey
A giant bowl that was used by Nero...probably to kill people. But it's a pretty giant piece of porphrey, a purple marble that was historically used to represent kingship and majesty.

Musei Vaticani: Ceiling Philosophy
This image on the ceiling of one of the walkways to the Sistine Chapel shows Aristotle writing and unknowingly giving his writings to Aquinas. Very cool that this is just one of many ceiling pieces.

Musei Vaticani: Maps
Another walkway to the Sistine Chapel that had a beautiful ceiling as well as renaissance maps on the walls that show Italy as if you were walking south down the middle of it.

Musei Vaticani: Raefael Fresco room
This room, once used by the Holy See's tribunal located very near to the Sistine Chapel has 4 paintings on its' walls all by Raefael: School of Athens representing philosophy! as well as a wall on the Eucharist in Adoration, the 4 cardinal virtues, and poetry/arts. Neat symbolism as to what should guide law, people, and the Church.

Musei Vaticani: Fat Bishop
The Musei also has some modern Christian art which is interesting. I forget the artists' name, but he is a Mexican artist that specializes in little chubby people, i thought this was a funny painting!

Venice
Typical Venice canal with quaint houses and the cars of Venice-boats.

Venice: St. Mark's Square
Where St. Mark's Basilica. A really big and flooded square full of pigeons, also the heart of activity in Venice.

Venice: Pigeons
People sell bird food so you can be entertained by them. These kids had thier hands full playing/being attacked by a ton of pigeons. I snapped this picture as one was on this girl's head. The kids were really cute playing with the pigeons...until they got attacked and scared.

Venice: me
Me and the flooded Square with the beautiful church behind me.

Venice: sidewalks
Venician sidewalks. When it floods (always?) they have these to walk on. The water had already filled the narthex of St. Marks.

Venice: Gold mosaics
Blurry picture, but it shows how amazing the Greek-styled gold mosaics are. The whole place is FILLED with them. I have no idea about the history, but im pretty sure this place as a gateway to the East and being so close to Ravenna played a significant role in the Greek influence in the West. (Proof that i am learning something in Theo class: Using gold in mosaics was an idea brought from the East around the 6th century when there was a great flux of Easterner's coming to Rome)

Venice: at a distance
On the boat heading to the island Murano, famous for it's glass making...a view back at a part of Venice. People say that the island is small, but it feels bigger because you have to walk out of your way or wind around different places just to get to a bridge or where you want to go. We spent a lot of our time walking around...without a map most of the time.

Venice: Glass factory
FREE glass show!

Venice: Glass factory
Literally, blowing glass...

Venice: Glass factory
He made this in about 2 minutes! Pretty impressice I think.

Venice: Shopping
What nearly EVERY store on Murano and many in Venice look like!

Venice: Grand Canal
One of the 3 bridges over the Grand Canal from the boat we took to Murano.

Venice: Gondala
My CUA friend Mellisa and I on a gondala, with our gondalier (sp?) Georgio! He was great, and once he learned that we have been studying Italian, he spoke to us and explained things as we passed them in Italian...so I didnt learn much!

Venice: Water rising
Along with the fact that Venice is sinking, the water also rises and falls 6 ft. a day...except during the Winter when it can rise and fall 9 ft. a day. (and yes it is ironic that i am using feet as a measurement in Venice!) Basically people dont really live on the first floor of their homes.

Venice: Ambulence!
When in Venice i guess!

Comments

[Jay Breeden]

i believe the expression is "when in rome" ... i see also that you still wear that esto vir sweatshirt every where. be a man mr. lewis, be a man. i am still working on a Team USA shirt for you, i'll let you know.

[Nila]

Oh how I miss it!
Jonathan- your pictures are wonderful, thank you so much for posting them!! I have lots of little comments, so I think I'll just e-mail you instead of posting a gigantic comment on here. However, I know that I always liked seeing I had a new comment, so that's why I am leaving one on here too. God bless!

[Mary Clare Cotter]

Assisi
Dear Jonathan (Jo-nathan), Thank you for always posting pictures from Italy. My mom and dad let me get on the internet to look at them. Pictures are helpful because I can't read, but I can still write of course, that is how I am writing this email...anyways...good job on going to the Santa Clara church in Assisi. When my dad was there, he saw Jim Caviezel and prayed with him at the grave of St. Clara (who is the patron saint of media). Was Jim Caviezel there when you were there? Well...I am going to chew on my toy rosary and visualize Mass in my head like Saint Clare. Good luck on your Italian final. My parents already taught me how to speak Italian, so if you need any advice send an email and my parents will read it to me. Pace and Amore, Mary Clare

[Maria Nelson]

floods!
Jonathan - Great pictures of the water levels!! I studied in Venice in the spring and we never actually saw it flood - so that's cool to see! It's a great city. I'm sure you are having a blast. Be safe!