I am so behind on my writing. I will try to do better- I promise. I’ve actually started keeping a journal. It’s the first I’ve kept one in my five years of travel- better late than never I guess. But I will continue to refer back to it as I strive to catch up on all of the tales I haven’t told you. I’ve added an extra project into my life as I’ve started making a documentary about a musical we have on board. I spent three days of last cruise on the ship filming and interviewing the director, the cast, and the technical staff. It is a massive and staggering project, but it will be awesome when I finish it- which I project to be a couple weeks from now.
Anyway, let’s talk about a trip to Rome I took on June 13th:
As overwhelming as a trip to Rome is, it is still undeniably amazing. I’ll fight the traffic, the crowds, the heat, and the walking all over the city to see things I’ve only read about and learn more than I ever thought I would know.
A few weeks ago I took one of our tours called “Christian Rome.” This tour, obviously, focused on the Catholic church and the Vatican. However in the morning we visited Saint John in Lateran Basilica. This church is the main church of Rome. You might be surprised to hear that St. Peter’s is not the recognized Roman church. That’s because St. Peter’s is technically not in Rome- it is in Vatican City. The Vatican is the smallest state in the world (smaller even than Monaco from my last post) yet it is its own autonomous state and not an official part of Rome. However I did find it interesting that the Bishop of Rome is the Pope. When he wants to address the Romans he speaks to them from St John in Lateran instead of from inside the Vatican.
The church is very beautiful with lots of paintings, mosaics, sculptures, and art of all kinds. The tour was as much about art and architecture as it was Christianity. These churches are amazing and were built so long ago. The concepts of mosaics astound me. How would you begin to put that together? I really like doing puzzles, but I still find it difficult even when I have a box with the finished picture on it to consult. In the case of a mosaic I guess you just have to see it in your mind and keep looking for the right pieces to fulfill your vision.
We also saw a painting of rosettes on the ceiling that looked just like sculptures. It was a flat painting that appeared 3D! Why is it taking us so long to fully develop 3D entertainment when they were painting with that effect a hundred years ago?
After an Italian lunch complete with champagne, house wine, pasta, and lots, lots more it was time to head to the Vatican. I visited Vatican city on my last tour and even went inside St. Peter’s but this tour had much more time there and was actually a guided tour inside so I was about to learn a lot.
Instead of heading straight to St. Peter’s like last time, we went to the Vatican Museums. Here I saw more mosaics, paintings, sculptures, and tapestries. I wish I could remember more about it (and it was only a couple weeks ago!). I’m looking at my pictures now and I can’t remember what a lot of it is. I know I keep using the adjective “overwhelming” in my posts, but that really is the best word for these places and tours.
After a crowded walk through several halls in the Vatican Museums it was time to enter the most popular Museum- the Sistine Chapel. I really can’t think of any words to describe it. But here are some feeble attempts: Fascinating. Breathtaking. Surprising. I was surprised by the chapel itself. The ceiling is very high but the room itself is smaller than I had expected. For those of you that go to or have been in my home church I would estimate that it is maybe the size of our sanctuary. Maybe. Actually, it’s probably smaller. But I think the ceiling height is about the same- maybe the one in the Sistine Chapel is slightly higher. Also, I didn’t realize that more than the ceiling is painted (no one ever talks about anything else). But there are scenes painted on the two long walls and the “Last Judgement” is on one of the end walls.
You also don’t hear about how much of a rebel Michelangelo was. He intentionally painted some things he knew the Holy See would not approve of- including painting the Pope that commissioned him to paint the “Last Judgement” as the devil in that work. Whoa.
After the museums, it was time to go to St. Peter’s. On my previous visit, the guide told us what to look for inside as we waited in a cue for 45 minutes outside. By the time I got in, I had about 10 or 15 minutes to fight the crowds and try to see everything. This time the guide took us inside (no waiting!) and told us about everything we were seeing. Much better!
I hope to go inside the Colosseum this cruise so I will have many more stories to come!
