Rome is a fantastic city. Walking through the city feels
like I am going through an open-air museum. Everywhere you look is a monument
of a wall that is 2,000 years old. On Friday one of Samantha’s friends who is
coordinating a study abroad program in Rome showed us around the city and gave
us tours of the papal churches. My favorite has to be St. Peter’s basilica. It is
a monstrous church and everything inside is so incredibly ornate that it is a
little overwhelming. It was really impressive and even with the thousands of
tourists inside it still felt pretty holy inside. One thing I found interesting
about the church was that Michelangelo was the chief architect in the design of
the church. I thought he was only an artist; I had no idea that he was an architect
too. The other papal churches were very pretty. I really liked St. Paul outside
the walls. It was kind of in the middle of nowhere and then you walk up and
there is a big church with a beautiful garden in front. I loved the nave inside
the St. Paul’s; it was really long and filled with lots of columns it made the
church feel much longer than it was. Then we went to a nice restaurant and had
a fantastic dinner. After sharing some delicious antipasti with everyone, I had
ravioli for my primi course and it was some of the best ravioli that I’ve ever
had. My goal was to finish the whole five-course dinner but halfway through my
secondi, which was just a plate of assorted meats, I had to tap out. It was
just too much food.
Then
on Saturday we went to the cupola on top of St. Peters first thing in the
morning. After around 400 steps we made it to the top and had great views of
the city of Rome. I could see the pantheon and the roman forums and plenty of
other landmarks from the cupola. It was a really pretty view and it made for some
very good pictures. Then we spent most of the afternoon in the Vatican museums
and it was so cool. Of course, the paintings by Raphael and the Sistine Chapel
were just incredible. The Sistine chapel is truly extraordinary; I think I
could just stay in there and look at the ceiling and The Last Judgment all day
long without getting bored. I thought it was funny how after Biagio de Cesena
ridiculed Michelangelo because of the nudity in The Last Judgment, Michelangelo
painted Cesena in hell with donkey ears and a snake biting his genitals to
cover up the nudity. Of all the art that I have seen while here in Europe, Michelangelo
is probably my favorite artist; his art is mesmerizing and I could just look at
it for hours.
Since
everyone was seeing the Coliseum, Pantheon, and the Roman Forums on Sunday and
I had already seen them when I went to Rome a few years ago, I went to Naples
for the day. I should have just stayed and seen those things again as Naples
was really not that impressive. The entire city reeked and garbage was
everywhere but it was easy to navigate in Naples. There are maps all over the
city and they point out the major landmarks and churches, which was really
nice. I saw a couple of old castles and churches and the Piazza del Plebiscito,
which was pretty neat, but it is covered in graffiti. I walked around the coast
for a good bit of the afternoon and I decided that Naples must have the largest
amount of tan old men in the world. I never saw any young people or old ladies
out; just really tan, really old men soaking up the sun. I was really looking
forward to eating a pizza because Naples is known for their pizza and is where
the dish originated, but since I went to Naples on Sunday, almost every
restaurant in town was closed. I ended up just having a pizza at one of the few
open restaurants off the main shopping street. It was pretty good but I have
had better pizza in College Station. Italy was awesome, and I loved all the
history in Rome, but I am excited to get back to Germany!
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