After a three hour bus ride, we arrived at our hotel in Rome. The shops and the city lights were beautiful, and the hustle-and-bustle of the city was a stark contrast to the quiet, small-town feel of Arezzo, Cortana, Castiglion Fiorentino, and Assisi. After going out to eat at classic roadside pizza and sandwich shops, we started our tour of the Vatican Museum. The richness of art, pure craftsmanship and history inside was truly astonishing! There were so many pieces of art from antiquity, including ancient roman and egyptian sculptures. The sculptures and ancient roman style rooms were like a time machine to the true magnitude of power, wealth, and culture of the roman empire, and the beautiful paintings on the walls and ceilings were full of intricate details and stories. One of the sections of ceiling was so masterfully done that the painted on art looked like carvings due to the shading work. The tapestries were amazing as well: the intricacy and pure skill required to make those pieces, along with the moving presentations were truly an experience. The Sistine Chapel was perhaps the pinnacle of the experience. The whole ceiling, having been done exclusively by Michelangelo, was a continuous, expansive artwork that told several stories through carefully thought out juxtaposition. And the Last Judgment fresco could only be described as a perfectly crafted masterpiece of a painting expanded to cover an entire church wall. Finally, we made a trip to St. Peter’s Basilica. There, we got to see Giovanni’s words at their truest extent: this catholic church truly transported the visitor to heaven. The frescos on the walls were vivid and beautifully done, and the magnitude of the marble and gold inlay on the ceiling was a spectacle. The sculptures were breathtaking and the whole area itself was a catholic reflection of the idea of paradise.
At the end of the day, we had a fun, warm dinner filled with laughter with our fellow Italy fish. We shared the highlights of our day, and shared jokes and memes after our food. The pasta was great and the tiramisu was an enjoyable finisher, but the curry was an antithesis of the vibrant opulence we experienced today in the Vatican City.
