Day Due!

Salve!

  Today we walked around a lot more...except it wasn't raining much, so that was wonderful! But I'm going to start with breakfast, because it was very good. My mom and dad got some things from the bakery--salami, bread, and biscotti. I'm fairly postive Italians make the best bread ever!
  Well after breakfast, we headed over to the Vatican City. Actually, we got minorly lost first. But once we got inside the walls (the Vatican City is an independent state), it was very fast going through the line. The tour was really incredible. We all had little audio sets with earbuds, and the tour guide spoke into her audio set so we could hear her even from pretty far away.
 
 (I'm going to put lots of pictures on this post, because I really don't have many words to describe the beauty of these works of art.)

Ok, ok, I know this isn't a work of art (well, that's debatable), but Harry Potter is international! I guess I knew that, but I didn't expect to see it in Italy. Seeing it advertised on the bus was pretty great.

One the way to the Vatican, we could also see Saint Peter's Basilica. It was very ornate from the outisde.

Once we actually were able to go inside the Vatican, our first stop on the tour was a courtyard within the grounds. This pinecone statue was there because pinecones are apparently a symbol of life.

As you can see, we all have our earbuds in. We're in the same courtyard. (Josie decided to jump in the picture at the last second.)

The Vatican had an incredible collection of Roman/Greek statues of gods, goddesses, and heroes. This is the goddess of war--if it's Greek, she's Athena, and if she's Roman, she's Minerva.

From a bit of a distance away, this piece of art looked like a painting. When we got closer, you could tell it's a mosaic! It was amazing how tiny the bits of tile are.

One of the halls (there were lots of those!) I believe named after Pope Clemens (all of the halls were named after a pope) was 120 meters long. The ENTIRE ceiling was painted! Sometimes, the best art was on the ceiling, which was unfortunate for my neck. Somehow, the artists managed to use perspective to create an illusion of architecture and moldings. We were astounded.

This was one of my most favorite works of art in the Vatican: The School of Athens, painted by Raphael. Let me tell you, this painting is even more beautiful in person. AP Euro definitely helped me understand this painting--I was so happy to already know what the guide was going to say!

So this wasn't really a work of art, but it was really fun to walk down!

We weren't allowed to take pictures, but we also went to The Sistine Chapel. It was so wonderful--as I expected, but small--which I didn't expect. The guide said that Michelangelo is considered the only genius of art, as Raphael sort of followed Michelangelo's style rather than creating his own. The colors were delightfully vivid, and the atmosphere was very serene. Maybe serene isn't the right work (security kept telling everyone to be quiet.) But the colors made it seem like it was supposed to be that way. I was surprised to find that Conclave is usually held there!

Wonderful news: I'm having a guest writer write a post for the blog! :) His name is Henry Till. He will be writing about our experience with the Spanish Steps,  a man with a cat, and an Egyptian "statue."

Anway, we had a great day!

Arrivederci,

Olivia