Day 5 (Part 1) - Vatican City: Kaylin and More Tomorrow!

 

Day 5 (Part 1) - Vatican City: Kaylin and More Tomorrow!

Entering St. Peter's Square

Mr. Christensen: For our last full day in Rome, we toured the world's smallest country: Vatican City! Our Paideia Institute-led adventures into the historic center of the Roman Catholic Church were divided into two distinct sessions: 1) a morning tour of St. Peter's Square with its iconic domed Basilica, and 2) an afternoon session in the Vatican Museums, which included, among so many other splendid things, the famed works of Raphael and Michelangelo's breathtaking Sistine Chapel. Following some time to shop, explore, eat lunch, and read Latin interspersed in between these two sessions, we capped the day off with a delectable dinner of classic Roman specialties, like Cacio e Pepe. In short, it was an especially exciting, enlightening and exhausting day. Since we are off to Valdobbiadene tomorrow morning and have an early train to catch, we will be sure to follow up as soon as we can with more, but first...

Viewing St. Peter's Dome by Michelangelo

Kaylin: Today was my first day visiting Vatican City, and I was very excited because it is the last surviving country to have Latin as its official language. My first impression of the Saint Peter's Basilica was slight amounts of intimidation because of how large and open the square was. Besides the massive fountains and giant obelisk, the first thing we saw when entering were rows of statues staring down at us. These statues were of all the Catholic saints. Saint Peter himself is one of the more well known saints. He was crucified on an upside down cross which became his sign (unlike the upside down cross’s Satanic representation in some places). He is also shown holding keys as it is said he received the keys to the city of Rome from Jesus himself. 

Climbing the Interior of St. Peter's Dome

My favorite part of the day (as unlikely as it seems) was walking up the 538 stairs to the very top of the dome. The reason this was the best experience of the day is because the view from the top of the dome was amazing. Not only could you see all of Vatican City, but also parts of Rome as well. After the long walk up, it was relaxing to sit down and look out over the country from the tallest dome in all of the Vatican City and Rome. In the afternoon, we visited the Vatican Museums. 

Laocoön and His Sons

While the view from the dome was my favorite, the entirety of the Vatican Museums was a very close second. Some of my favorite parts were the statue of Laocoön and his sons getting eaten by snakes, the hall of animals, and the famous Sistine Chapel ceiling. Laocoön and the snakes was an interesting statues for me because I read Virgil's Aeneid during AP Latin last year, so I could connect the statue to the book and know the context behind it. The hall of animals was unique for me because of all of the beautiful statues of different real and mythological animals. On the floor, there was a large, gorgeous mosaic of a sea with serpents swimming in its stony waters. 

As for the Sistine Chapel ceiling, it was magnificent. I’ve seen many parts of it before in different art books or presentations, but they do not do the original justice. Adam touching the finger of God during his creation is probably the scene I was the most familiar with, but I did not realize before this that God was gifting him intellect as shown by the shape of a human brain in the background.  All in all, today was an absolutely stunning once-in-a-lifetime experience that I will never forget.

The Gallery of Maps: Not the Sistine Chapel (no photos allowed), but still very cool!

Mr. Christensen: Stay tuned for more info tomorrow!