Tuesday, 17 February 2009
Sunday, 15 February 2009
Rome
A couple weekends ago now I went to Rome with my Early Renaissance Class. We left at 6:20 on Friday morning and took a train to Roma! Our teacher began the tour as we arrived giving us facts about the train station ( it was too early to start in the train station, ha ha). We then checked into our hotel by nine and didn't stop the on site lectures until 7:30 pm! This woman is an energizer bunny! But, I will give her credit, we managed to see EVERYTHING in just three days! The first day we saw the Pantheon, Michelangelo's Moses, the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and a couple Caravaggio's paintings. The Pantheon's overwhelming dome seemed like an optical illusion from our position on the floor, too immense to have been built in such early times. The Colosseum and the Forum were beautifully lit by the setting sun by the time we arrived in the center of Rome. It was quite and experience seeing all these sites I had learned about throughout Latin class in high school.
My intentions to enjoy Rome's night life were never realized as I was completely exhausted from our day of touring. I would fail again the following night, giving in to the comfort of my bed! On Saturday we continued this fast paced journey. If this trip were the Oregon trail our pace would be grueling! ha Anyway, went to several churches, the Vatican (where we saw the Laocoon statue and the Sistine Chapel!), various other things, and finally Bernini's Ecstasy of St. Theresa. The Vatican was not what I expected. It is was bizarre that it felt more like an airline or massive museum-like amusement park with all of it's security and crowds of tourists than a religious center. It was beautiful there, and Old St. Peter's lived up to it's name. The Sistine Chapel was also amazing. When we finally reached the end of our day people were tired and grumpy, I'll admit that I could have like to kick someone, but the final site was definitely worth the wait. The small church that contains St. Theresa opened it's doors especially for us, so we were able to have a very intimate observation of Bernini's theatrical installation. Here, I lit a candle for Grandma, in front of St. Theresa. After a delicious dinner of pasta and clam sauce we hit the sheets.
On Sunday, we made our final stop in Rome at the Bourghese Villa, which contains a couple Caravaggio's paintings and two of Bernini's most famous statues (Pluto and Persephone and Daphne and Apollo). I think the Bernini's were one of the most memorable sites of the trip; the sensitivity with which he carved the flesh of these mythological characters is remarkable, you can see the pressure of fingers as they press against the bodies. After this, we left Rome and headed for Tivoli to the Villa D'Este. This remarkable villa contains over 400 fountains in it's garden including one large fountain that plays the organ with it's hydraulics (i think?). Pictures will do more justice for this place than any words so I will attach them.
We finished the trip by seeing Emperor Hadrian's Villa, an enormous complex of Ancient Roman ruins in superb condition. We wandered here until sunset and then headed back to Florence.
To my surprise and absolute delight my roommates had dinner waiting for me when I returned! :)
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