This city is amazing and at the same time overwhelming. Each site seems to be bigger than the last. Although it took us an entire day to get here, Rome was worth the wait.
Today, we went to Vatican city. I am so glad we got up early and opted for a tour today to help us focus on the highlights of Vatican city because you could not see everything, even if you spend several days. We met up with the same tour guide, Lorenzo, as we had for the forum since he was so good. We got in line around 8 am and soon the line was as far as the eye could see.
Once you entered the city walls there was an instant change in atmosphere. Even with all the other tourists, around 25,000 a day, the chaos of the city was gone and replaced with a sense of serenity. We wish we could see more of the gardens because they were beautiful from the balcony, but most of them our private.
Each room you enter could be a museum in itself, from the statue collections to the tapestry room. On top of that there is the intricacy everything from the ceiling to the floor, every layer is art in itself. Once again I loved the mosiacs the most and we actually were able to walk on many of these gaint works of art. The Sistene Chapel was breathtaking, the colors so vibrant and alive. There is so much moment in each individual fresca above you. And finally, St. Peter was enormous.Bigger than many other churches combined. The writing on the top of the walls stoof 3 meters alone. The cherubs were taller than me.
Although, Rome is beautiful with it’s tremendous of amount of churches, fountains and stunning architecture…it is not without it’s imperfections. Despite being warned I was still suprised by the sheer volumn of trash and grafitti. It is very sad and suprising to me because of the pride that Roman’s have for their city. Italians identify themselves usually by the city and region they are from, not as italians. So we would call ourselves Chicoans or Californians before Americans.
Well, we are off to Siena. I loved the sites in Rome, but I look forward to a smaller venue.
Ciao,
Lenette
Sorry about the pictures, it’s hard to put them up if we don’t have a good DSL connection.
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