¡Rome! Day I
Today was one heck of a day.
So, i was supposed to meet helen and the other h girl and scott, at eight thirty at the Vatican, but i woke up at 1130 instead. By the time i left the place, it was nearing one. I was pretty upset at myself, because i do this all the time, and the one place where it should not happen is in a place like Rome, especially if I am only here for three days.
I get to the Vatican Ciy no later than 230, I am extremely lost at first, because it is so hard to find anything. People may think that England and London are bad with their street signs, but Rome is much worse. They only put their street signs up at the corner of buildings on the street, at their own discretion. After walking out of the tube, and not seeing any signs at all, I looked for the most promising direction and followed it. After about a five minutes walk, I found it. At first glance, its all walls, because the vatican is very much its own thing. I saw what appeared to be a square opening, with columns behind it, so I went in.
Much to my surprise, I discovered the plaza of St. Pauls Bastille. The white sunlight bathed the surroundings with its pure energy. hundreds of columns supported two huge walkways that made up the majority of the circular plaza. On the roof, stood hundreds of statues staring down on the plaza. in the middle, amidst the stone pebbles, stood two fountains on either side of this huge obsilisk, with a cross on top. This was all leading to St. Pauls itself, a huge monolithic structure patiently waiting for all lost souls to enter and have a peek.
I walk in and notice that everybody is dying to take a picture of a beautiful statue of Mary holding Christ in her arms. I continue on, marveled at all of the intricate golden ornate designs that make up the ceiling as well as all of the paintings that adorned the walls, and the statues that were situated from the ground to the ceiling and everywhere in between. Halfway through, there was a parlour that was exclusive to prayer, I walked in and saw a huge set up of religious figures in the center, it is hard to describe what the place looked like, but it was definitely a sight to behold.
As in St. Pauls but a few days ago, I once again started bawling upon sitting down. I thought about my mother and myself, about how lucky i have been in my life and about how bad others have it.
Walking out, i felt alot better, I continued looking around until i hear a person speaking in an American accent, talking about this huge thing which consisted of death, the earth, angels, and god, of course.
He was describing wonderful unbelievable things, such as how any educated man knew that the world was round, as did the Romans at the time that this statue was being built and how on the globe that this angel is standing on there is a thorn, and that thorn represents england, and it is put there because King Henry started the church of england in order to divorce himself from his wife who was not producing heirs, and that the queen still is practicing this, but the blasphemous idea of creating something in gods name in order to divorce someone, the catholic church did not like that too well.
He told us about Raphael, about his last artwork, his personality, the fact that every painting in the church is not really a painting but rather a mosaic made with super small pieces of material, that one can not tell the difference if they tried. He explained what that statue was (michealangelos masterpiece,) and he showed us the most significant article in the entire church, this inconspicuous red piece of marble that has seen the birth of many emperors and popes in the past couple millennia. He told us the story of the obsilisk, and finally after all of that, the free tour ended.
I thanked the guy, asked him his name (paul) and told him how invaluable his information was. I would have never known any of this stuff, which is truly rediculous, since i am here and i probably wont be here for a very long time. Its cool to see these places, but what does it amount to if one doesnt know the history behind it, the stories, the past, and how that led to what it is now? I felt ashamed of myself for not knowing anything, It was as though I had a bad case of near-sightedness and never knew what it was like to see until I heard these stories.
I walked to the castle and took in the history and the enormous sights of all of rome. they had nothing for free, which was very upsetting, I then walked around the city, by this point i had no money at all, so i spent the majority of the time trying to figure out where i could get batteries for my camera as well as access to the internet to check my bank statements. I stumbled upon a popular shopping district, and it wasnt until i came to the end of it at the plaze that I realized that i just needed to leave and to the train station where they have everything.
I got there, went online, took the remainder of all of my money out of the ATM, and went back to the hostel. The woman from new york alluded that she would probably call with more information on her friend, the celloists location. I got to the hostel and the person told me that there were no messages. that she just got to work not to long ago and didnt know anything. bummed out, i called my mom and talked to the family, before going to the room and taking care of other things. I started writing postcards and met an interesting girl from CA who is going to school in Ohio, and then fell asleep. Which leads me to now.
I plan on planning out a huge day tomorrow, because i need to make rome worth it.
buona notte
So, i was supposed to meet helen and the other h girl and scott, at eight thirty at the Vatican, but i woke up at 1130 instead. By the time i left the place, it was nearing one. I was pretty upset at myself, because i do this all the time, and the one place where it should not happen is in a place like Rome, especially if I am only here for three days.
I get to the Vatican Ciy no later than 230, I am extremely lost at first, because it is so hard to find anything. People may think that England and London are bad with their street signs, but Rome is much worse. They only put their street signs up at the corner of buildings on the street, at their own discretion. After walking out of the tube, and not seeing any signs at all, I looked for the most promising direction and followed it. After about a five minutes walk, I found it. At first glance, its all walls, because the vatican is very much its own thing. I saw what appeared to be a square opening, with columns behind it, so I went in.
Much to my surprise, I discovered the plaza of St. Pauls Bastille. The white sunlight bathed the surroundings with its pure energy. hundreds of columns supported two huge walkways that made up the majority of the circular plaza. On the roof, stood hundreds of statues staring down on the plaza. in the middle, amidst the stone pebbles, stood two fountains on either side of this huge obsilisk, with a cross on top. This was all leading to St. Pauls itself, a huge monolithic structure patiently waiting for all lost souls to enter and have a peek.
I walk in and notice that everybody is dying to take a picture of a beautiful statue of Mary holding Christ in her arms. I continue on, marveled at all of the intricate golden ornate designs that make up the ceiling as well as all of the paintings that adorned the walls, and the statues that were situated from the ground to the ceiling and everywhere in between. Halfway through, there was a parlour that was exclusive to prayer, I walked in and saw a huge set up of religious figures in the center, it is hard to describe what the place looked like, but it was definitely a sight to behold.
As in St. Pauls but a few days ago, I once again started bawling upon sitting down. I thought about my mother and myself, about how lucky i have been in my life and about how bad others have it.
Walking out, i felt alot better, I continued looking around until i hear a person speaking in an American accent, talking about this huge thing which consisted of death, the earth, angels, and god, of course.
He was describing wonderful unbelievable things, such as how any educated man knew that the world was round, as did the Romans at the time that this statue was being built and how on the globe that this angel is standing on there is a thorn, and that thorn represents england, and it is put there because King Henry started the church of england in order to divorce himself from his wife who was not producing heirs, and that the queen still is practicing this, but the blasphemous idea of creating something in gods name in order to divorce someone, the catholic church did not like that too well.
He told us about Raphael, about his last artwork, his personality, the fact that every painting in the church is not really a painting but rather a mosaic made with super small pieces of material, that one can not tell the difference if they tried. He explained what that statue was (michealangelos masterpiece,) and he showed us the most significant article in the entire church, this inconspicuous red piece of marble that has seen the birth of many emperors and popes in the past couple millennia. He told us the story of the obsilisk, and finally after all of that, the free tour ended.
I thanked the guy, asked him his name (paul) and told him how invaluable his information was. I would have never known any of this stuff, which is truly rediculous, since i am here and i probably wont be here for a very long time. Its cool to see these places, but what does it amount to if one doesnt know the history behind it, the stories, the past, and how that led to what it is now? I felt ashamed of myself for not knowing anything, It was as though I had a bad case of near-sightedness and never knew what it was like to see until I heard these stories.
I walked to the castle and took in the history and the enormous sights of all of rome. they had nothing for free, which was very upsetting, I then walked around the city, by this point i had no money at all, so i spent the majority of the time trying to figure out where i could get batteries for my camera as well as access to the internet to check my bank statements. I stumbled upon a popular shopping district, and it wasnt until i came to the end of it at the plaze that I realized that i just needed to leave and to the train station where they have everything.
I got there, went online, took the remainder of all of my money out of the ATM, and went back to the hostel. The woman from new york alluded that she would probably call with more information on her friend, the celloists location. I got to the hostel and the person told me that there were no messages. that she just got to work not to long ago and didnt know anything. bummed out, i called my mom and talked to the family, before going to the room and taking care of other things. I started writing postcards and met an interesting girl from CA who is going to school in Ohio, and then fell asleep. Which leads me to now.
I plan on planning out a huge day tomorrow, because i need to make rome worth it.
buona notte