30th October Rome

Today we woke up to the most glorious day in Rome. The sun was shining and the sky was blue. We were all very excited to spend the day futher exploring this ancient city with all its treasures. One of the advantages I have enjoyed from being on the Trafalgar tour is that entry into many of the sights is booked and on more than one occasion we are the very first to visit a site in the morning ahead of many other groups and individual tourists. There are wall to wall tourists here and it has been great to avoid the crush of the crowds. Today I was extremely grateful for this advantage because I really wanted to be able to enjoy the Vatican and Sistine Chapel without wall to wall people. We were walked through the magnificent corridors of the Vatican Museums which are home to some of the most incredible examples of Renaissance works of art. Cynthia took us outside to a couple of boards which had pictures of the Sistine Chapel. She pointed ot what we were going to see before we got in there because explaining it while we were inside it too difficult...then in we went! Wow! Wow! Wow! What an amazing and mammoth piece of work by Michelangelo. The Sistine Chapel was commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV in 1475 and was designed to be the pope's chapel and the site of papal elections. It is still uses for papal elections today. Michelangelo was working on sculptures for the pope's own tomb when he was asked paint the chapel. He was not happy about this because he insisted that he was a sculptor not a painter and didn't want to paint frescoes. However, as a result of his love of the human body and his skills in sculpting, the depictions of the human bodies in the Sistine chapel are spectacular...even though the females have muscles like the men! My favourite part was definetley the creation of man. How he stood and painted that ceiling is incredible, the strain must have been torture! All I really wanted to do was lay down on the floor and look up! The 'Last Judgement' is a large frescoe on the altar wall and Michelangelo did this work when he was in his 60's. He painted many of the figures in the Sistine Chapel nude, but these were later covered up by another artist at the request of the pope. Restoration work in the Sistine Chapel has now uncovered some of these 'cover ups' so people can see what Michelangelo had intended. Next we walked into St Peter's Basilica. What an awesome moment, to actually be in St Peter's, the home of Pope's throughout the centuries. St Peter's Basilica stands on the traditional site where St Peter was crucified and buried. His tomb is under the main altar and many other pope's are buried in the basilica as well. We were first taken to see Michelangelo's sculpture 'Pieta', it was so beautiful, his love of sculpting is very evident in the beauty of his work. This sculpture depicts the body of Jesus on the lap of is mother Mary after the crucifixion. The interesting thing about the sculture is that the face of Mary is of a young woman, not the face of a woman who is the mother of a 33 year old man. Michelangelo's mother died when he was a young boy, and the face of Mary in this sculpture is said to have been the image of his own mother. We then spent some time walking around and absorbing the atmosphere inside the Basilica. We then walked out into St Peter's square. I could only imagine what it would have been like crowded full of people on the day Mary MacKillop was pronounced a Saint...it gave me goosebumps! The surrounding columns in the square give the impression of welcoming, open arms. All of us, religious or not, felt the specialness of this place. 

Next we stopped for a quick bite for lunch before heading to the Colosseum. Firtst we stopped at the Arch of Constantine to take our group photo. The Arch of Constantine is a large triumphal arch next to the Colosseum. It is religiously significant because it commemorates the battle that led the Emperor Constantine to convert to Christianity. Then we enered the spectacular Colosseum. It was built in the 1st century AD and this great arena could seat 45 000 spectators. It hosted gladiatorial combats, spectacles with wild beasts and probably the execution of early Christians. During the Middle Ages it was believed to have been the place of martyrdom and therefore was considred a sacred place. The enormity of this structure blows your mind. How they constructed these place is unbelievable! I bought a book at a stand outside that shows pictures of what it looks like now and then has an overlay of what it looked liked then...it would have been amazing. 

Tonight we went off to an optional dinner in Rome. It was a great night of entertainment and fun. We drank wine, ate pasta, I chose the fish for a main and had gelato and fruit for dessert. During dinner we were entertained by a singing guitar player and flautist. The real entertainment however was the amorous Italian waiter! Some members of our group received their pasta dish on a special silver plate (I had a normal plate despite my groups efforts at trying to steal my plate), and if you were one of the 'lucky' ones you got a 'kiss' from the waiter...it was much more than just a kiss though...some didn't come up for air for a very long time!!! I still got a kiss from the waiter ;) Then it was time for some singing. Patrick began by singing a Welsh rugby song, then some of the others got up and said jokes, poems, and sang some songs. It was lots of fun! At the end of the night we received a rose each...I got a few more than most ;)...and a few kisses from the waiter...on the cheek of course. One of the other waiters did offer to come home with me though ;)