Rome Part 2
- Rourke edited by Andrea
- Jan 23, 2018
- 4 min read
Hello and thank you for reading Rome Part I. It was really amazing to see how many people around the world read it! So today I am going to talk about the second day I was in Rome. Rome Part II
Wednesday 1:00 AM November 22th I don't know why; I was so tired but somehow I just couldn't go to sleep. I just laid there, trying and trying, until my mom came in. She said she wasn't tired either, so we watched a movie and read until we fell asleep at 3:00 AM. Seems to be our nightly routine on this trip! LOL
I woke up with a yawn and looked at the time, I couldn't believe it! It was 2:00 PM! We all had slept right though the alarms and through most of the day! That day we literally did nothing.....
THURSDAY 6:00 AM NOVEMBER 23TH We all woke up with grunts and sighs but we still woke up (this time), we were all super tired but we couldn't wait for the day ahead of us. We were going somewhere really special. We got our breakfast, flagged a taxi and we were off! We arrived pretty quickly and found our guide who pushed us through a chaotic maze of lines and people, but soon enough we were in and on our way! You are probably wondering where we are so I will give you a hint, the head of the Catholic Church lives here……The Vatican! Now time for a fun fact! Did you know the Vatican is its own country right in the middle of Rome, Italy? Technically you are in a different country when you are there and the whole "country" is only 110 acres!
Oops, now back to the tour we were just starting. The first few things were about how the Vatican was made and the stuff that they make there. They actually make a lot of different things at the Vatican. Just to name a few, printing, productions of coins, medals, postage stamps, a small amount of mosaics and staff uniforms. What's really cool is they also have their own bank called the IOR or simply The Vatican Bank.
So as we walked around I noticed there was a lot of Egyptian stuff, which our guide explained that during the Roman Empire, they brought many artifacts from Egypt and they are now on display at the Vatican.
There are so many super cool things to see at the Vatican but I think my favorite thing was The Sistine Chapel, which was painted by the famous artist Michelangelo. It was super cool! So if you haven't seen the photos, see below. See how big it is and it is covered in paintings which are called frescos, there are over 300 different figures painted on the ceiling alone. However, what I really liked were the wall of frescos Michelangelo painted 30 years after finishing the ceiling. The frescos on the wall are called “The Last Judgment”; now here's a little hidden picture within the painting, the painting of St. Bartholomew who was skinned alive is shown holding his own skin, but apparently the face on the skin is a self portrait of Michelangelo himself! Try to see if you can find it! If you want to dive in deeper into the frescos on the wall you will see on the bottom left earth, here you see people being brought up to Heaven or Hell. On the bottom right we see hell also known as the underworld or the Hades, bringing the bad souls to the underworld. Now time for another fun fact! Did you know that the word, "Hades" comes from the Greek word meaning invisible (Remember I am part Greek!) Now at the top of the fresco is, can you guess what would be at the top, if hell was at the bottom? It is heaven, a peaceful place with good people, the fresco shows a bunch of saints with God right in the middle.
The Sistine Chapel is probably most famous for its ceiling, which took Michelangelo four years to complete. It shows different stories of the Old Testament, the most well known is the Creation of Adam, the one that shows the hand of God reaching out to man, giving him life. So I really just loved the Sistine Chapel, and another good tip: no photography! The guards really yell at people if you try!
After we left the Sistine Chapel we headed over to St. Peter’s Basilica, which is the world’s largest church and out to St. Peter’s Square, where people come to hear the Pope speak. At this point we were all so overwhelmed with facts we were all getting pretty tired. I learned so much on our tour but I don't want to share it all with you guys/gals, some stuff you just need to see with your own eyes!
We did do a lot of walking! So my advice, make sure to eat a great breakfast, pack some water and wear comfortable shoes.
After we left the Vatican I was starving and on a quest to find food! Well you see I haven't eaten anything since breakfast and now it was 4 pm! So I was complaining to my parents until finally I annoyed them so much they found a place to eat. Luckily in Rome it is not too hard to find good food! After we finished our late lunch we slowly walked back to our apartment and chilled for a while, cleaned off put on comfy clothes and rested, my parents took a nap while I watched a movie.
THURSDAY 6:00 PM November 23th MY parents are awake now and just watching some news and I was playing on my iPad. My dad then came in and asked, "Want to get something to eat?" So then I said sure! We walked around and I'm telling you that Rome is might be amazing in the Day but at Night it's AWESOME! It just comes to life with action and full of people! I played a little bit on the Spanish steps and then went to get something to eat.
Thursday 10:00 pm November 23th Knock, Knock, Knock! My dad walked in. He said to try to go to sleep but again at 10:00 PM it seems like 5:00 pm back home. So I tried to go to sleep but couldn't (Again) so I read and book until I finally I got tired and went to sleep.
Sneak peek of Rome part 3!! "Yawn" time to wake up. I couldn't wait for what's up ahead!
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