Rome: Day 1 & 2

We took our tour of the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, and the the Spanish Steps on the first day.  Our tour guide Pietro (Peter) is incredible,  I feel I learned more from him in the short hours we were together than in the whole time we've been in Italy.  The tour has really given us a break from having to plan everything out, but leaves very little time on our own.  Hope this will explain why blogging took a plunge.  We are still alive and well and it's been so much fun. 

One free time opportunity took us to see Leonardo Da Vinci's Moses at a very small, rather inconspicuous church.  We caught a bus near the Pantheon and then after a little map check found it.  It was stunning!  Honestly,  we don't know  too much about it besides what is in our guide book, but it was worth it.  After we got back to the hotel we cleaned up and had a "pizza party" with entertainment; which consisted of a pianist and operatic type singer, who was actually very entertaining.

Then our very awesome kiwi tour manager, Laura, offered to take us to her friend's bar and lounge for $20 open bar.  What I thought was going to be trendy and dull turned out to be SOOO much fun.  The group of people that decided to go first crammed into bus, I mean really crammed (I felt bad for the locals who were already on it).  Then we got there and it was very nice, small and we the had the whole place to ourselves.  After lounging and enjoying the first round, the party really got started when the DJ showed up and started playing what sounded like our 5 star ipod playlist of dance music.  We decided to call it quits early because we had the Vatican very early in the morning as well as checking out of our Rome hotel.  We waved down a taxi and were in bed by 1:00AM. 

The visit to the Vatican today way beyond all my expectations.  To start we were shown a poster of the Sistine Chapel, because tour guides are not allowed to linger to explain the Michaelangelo's work of art once inside.  We were absorbed by the amount of time and the struggles involved in its creation.  But then to actually see it with my own eyes, I don't really have the words to explain the awe that I was in.  The size of it was staggering larger than I had anticipated, and also the actual quality of the work.  He isn't called the master of the renaissance and a master for nothing.  We've seen several churches on our own and nothing can tickle the precision in his work.  For example, Michaelangelo created a "false structure" it looks like supports are holding the roof up.  We've seen this in almost all churches usually along the center but the perspective isn't as believable as in the Sistine.  He planned and calculated for every angle, and it shows.  Can you tell I was impressed yet?

Anyways, moving on to the next AMAZING thing.  St. Peter's Basilica (period).  Wow, talk about big, imposing, balance, beauty, wealth and power.  This is the largest Catholic Church in the world, by a lot. It is so overwhelming when you walk in, there is so much to look at in there, but it's not crowded feeling because it is so vast.  To the right is Michaelangelo's famous sculpture of Mary and Jesus.  Directly in the front is a glass window which is the focal point of Bernini's beautiful work of art.  There is so much more of course, but it's so hard for it to all sink in and then you walk out in front and see this magnificent facade among the hundreds of Bernini's columns and the giant Roman obelisk and the thing is still so HUGE!  I'm thinking,"how far back do we have to get before it looks normal!?"  Needless to say we had a blast taking tons of pictures at the Vatican. And our story will continue in Florence.

Ciao!