Final Chapter

Day four of our trip, I think we all agree, was the best and longest day of our trip. It started early on Sunday. It was free Sunday at the Vatican (that last Sunday of ever month you can get in free) and we wanted to be there when the museum opened. Little did we know, so did everyone in Rome. At 8 0'clock in the morning there was a line a mile long to get in. Since they closed the doors at 12:20, we were worried we'd even get in. There were guys walking up and down the line advertising an English speaking tour for 25 Euros a pop. We dind't really want to spend the money, especially if it was some sort of scam, like if it was a terrible guide or if they just took the money and ran. After some group deliberation, we decided to go for it. The best part, we found out, was that the guide didn't make us pay until after the tour was over. So we only ended up waiting about 20 minutes to get in with our group.

Mike, our guide, was an American smart-alec that had been doing this for a long time and you could tell he's probably secretly sick of it. He was, however, really funny and really knowledgable about the art and the history. We all got our cool little radios and headphones so we could hear him even from far away. I'm really glad we sprung for the tour. Not only did we get in faster, but I learned a lot of random things I wouldn't have without our guide. He was an art history major (if I remember correctly) and he showed us things that he said most guides skip over. Like in the hall of tapestries, he pointed out these really cool optical illusions/perspective effects on some of the tapestries. And he pointed out a statue that looked just like Bill Clinton. We got to see some Raphael paintings, something I wasn't expecting. The most exciting of which was School of Athens. It's always fun to see something you recognize from art books. The best part of the tour was the end when you walk into the Sistine Chapel. Before we went in, Mike pointed out some things to look out for. Most people focus on the ceiling and front wall, but there's really interesting stuff going on on all the other walls, like scenes from the lives of Moses and Jesus. I may or may not have taken a video of the ceiling (you're not supposed to take any photos or videos)... heh heh. I told myself not to, but... I mean come on, can you really blame me?

Anyway, so our tour guide took us out a special way after the tour so that we can go right into St. Peter's Basilica without waiting in another line. Then he says, oh I think you guys will get to see the Pope! And I'm like what?? We pay him and I run off out into the square to go see the Pope. There were THOUSANDS of people there waiting to see him. There was even a stage with a Christian band playing and getting the crowd pumped (which I thought was kind of funny). So right at noon he popped out of hi window and said a bunch of stuff in Italian. It wasn't a while Mass, but he said the Ave Maria and there was some call and response. My favorite part was after all that (since I had no idea what he was saying) when he gave a nice little message in Italian, English, German, French, Polish, and Spanish. His English wasn't too good, but we could make out that he wished us blessing of peace and joy. What a sweetie. Even though I'm not Catholic, I think he's a good role model for people. Like Ghandi or Mother Teresa. Or Pooh Bear.

So because of my over-eagerness to see his Holiness, we had to wait in a long line to see St. Peter's Basilica (I was upset for a little bit because I thought it closed at 12:20 like the Vatican Museum and I had messed up our chances to see it, but we found out that wasn't the case). We saw the tombs of the Popes first, which was actually really interesting. Pope John Paul's grave was there and it was sweet because there was a roped off area where people were kneeling and praying for him. He was a cool dude. And there was an area where St. Peter was (part of him anyway). Peter. Like friends-with-Jesus Peter. Walked-on-water Peter. PE-TER. I was almost more star struck by that than seeing the Pope. Then we went into The Basilica which. was. huge. I've been inside impressive old churches before, but this one beats them all. And Michealanglo designed it when he was 80 and blind. Genius. The Pieta was there, which brought me to tears. It wasn't just from being in awe of the beauty or the craftsmanship. It was the message conveyed by the sculpture. Mary was Jesus's mother. Not just BABY Jesus's mother. She raised him and loved him like all good mothers do. The Pieta shows her cradling her dead son, and the look on her face is what touched me. Love, grief, hope, etc. Yeah, cool stuff.

After we left the Vatican, we took a short walk to check out a castle nearby. It's in the movie Roman Holiday and on top is a statue that was important in "Angles and Demons" (which I want to read/see after this trip). We also accidently found the most confusing labrynth park encircling the castle. We were afraid we'd run into a minotaur or something. Our next plan was to head back to the forum, since our colosseum tickets were good for two days and included the forum and palatine hill. Unfortunately, when we got there it was already closed, but I wasn't too disappointed. We'd already seen a lot of amazing things and our feet were starting to be angry with us.

The last thing on our big list of things to do was to see the Pantheon! We found it pretty easily (we were experts of the city by then!) but I had to pee sooooooo bad. I hopped into a nearby cafe to use the loo. They seemed a little annoyed that people kept using the bagno, so I bought some gelato. Any excuse, right? :) Pistachio this time. There was an amazing opera singer performing right outside the Pantheon, so we sat and shared the gelato while listening to the music. He was great, but I'm scared that he's going to blow out his poor voice. It was cold and he was singing non-stop in full voice. Anyway, the Pantheon was cool because it was originally used as a temple for the gods, but was later turned into a Catholic church. The middle of the domed ceiling was a cut-out circle! And it had rained earlier that day, so the floor was wet, but there were little drains for the water to go down. Raphael was buried there, so we stopped by to tell him how much we enjoyed his work earlier :). I'm not sure why he was buried in a church though, apparently he died from being "over amorous". Woohoo.

Our last stop on our long journey was not on our list of things to do originally, but was suggested by our tour guide. It was, what we lovingly call "The Bone Church". For one Euro each, you can see 6 rooms of human bones arranged decoratively. Yeah. They were bones of Capuchin Monks and other parishoners of the church. The nice thought they left you with was "What you are now, we once were. Wht we are now, you will be." Happy thought. Despite being creepy, I thought it was kind of cool. I think I was the only one in the group, though. With that happy thought on our minds, we made our way back to the hotel for the last time.


Although we weren't really that hungry (we stopped for McDonalds before going to the forum, mmmm), we decided to eat one last Italian meal while we still could. The hotel had a restaurant, so Nathan and I went to try it out. It was pretty good! Not as good as the restaurant before and a bit pricier, but good. I had spaghetti ala carbonara (aka with white sauce and BACON) and Nathan had fettucini alfredo. I couldn't finish mine, since I wasn't that hungry to begin with, but I got to take it back to the room wiht me. BUT, duh, I forgot a fork. The saddest thing I ever did was leave the left overs behind the next morning... wah.

And thus ended our Roman Holiday. Everything went perfectly on our way back to Bristol. Nothing exciting.

I should mention, though, that I am very up-to-date with the goings-on in Egypt. The bruhaha started when we were in Italia and the only English channel in our hotel was CNN. I 'm glad of that, actually. I need to be more aware of world news. Mubarek needs to retire and go far far away.

THE END