Italy: Day 5

The next pictures are from Santa Maria del Popolo. I can't remember what day we visited here. It might have been day 4, but I guess that doesn't really matter.  We started day 5 going to the Vatican in the rain, but I'll stick these pictures in first.

These paintings were a little difficult to get a picture of, but this is The Conversion on the Way to Damascus. Amazing and vivid.

The Crucifixion of Saint Peter.

We also enjoyed visiting Piazza Nivona - also not far from Giolitti's. :)

I loved every bit of our trip to Rome.  There wasn't one thing we did that I wish we hadn't done, but if I had to choose my favorite part it would be our visit to the Vatican. It was also the most crowded thing we visited as well.  For anyone planning a trip to Rome I highly recommend purchasing tours or tickets online.  The lines are crazy and the tours allow you to save time.  Even in Venice check online. Marc saw that we could pay 2 euros each to not stand in line to visit St. Mark's Basilica. We walked right up with our little computer print out with no wait.  There were hundreds of people waiting to get in for free (I think) and they probably waited in the hot sun for a couple of hours.

So back to the Vatican.  We had to be there by 8:30 and it was a solid 30 minute walk from our hotel.

I'll just let some of the pictures speak for themselves.

Tapestry

Take a close look at this ceiling.  It's painted, not sculpted.

A little bit of a closer look.  We were amazed that it was just painted on a flat surface.

I thought this painting was fun.  It was painted by Rafael and depicts many of the major educators and philosophers of the time (Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Plato, and many more). He also added the faces of several artists into the picture. Plato is in the red clothing in the center of the picture, but it is the face of Leonardo da Vinci. The man in the white robe standing on the left hand side is Rafael. And supposedly the man sitting at the bottom middle was added at the end. It is the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, also known as the weeping philosopher. Michelangelo wasn't known to be the friendliest of kindest person so Rafael chose to use his face as Heraclitus.

 

We finally made it to the Sistine Chapel. They ask for no pictures to be taken, so we put our camera away.  We couldn't figure out why we couldn't take pictures without a flash.  After some research when I got home it seems that the company that paid for the restoration of the ceiling paid for the right to photograph. Ridiculous if you ask me.  And normally I'm a strict rule follower, but when will I probably ever be in the Sistine Chapel again? So I have a pretty cool phone that allows you to touch anywhere on the screen to snap a picture.  I was able to very discreetly point the camera to the ceiling and touch the screen from the underside. I probably took about 20 pictures having no idea what they were looking like.  I ended up with a few that turned out pretty well all things considered.

Artists didn't used to sign their names to their paintings.  Instead they would put their self portrait somewhere in the artwork. It was also common for paintings and statues of martyrs to in some way show the way of their death.  In this piece Michelangelo depicts the apostle Bartholomew who was believed to have been flayed and crucified. He chose to place his portrait on the skin that Bartholomew is holding. Twisted if you ask me.

Michelangelo was a sculptor and had no desire to paint.The Pope at the time had asked him to begin working on a large number of statues to be used at his tomb.  While he was working on this the Pope decided that he wanted Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. In order for Michelangelo to complete the sculpting he must first paint the chapel. 

We ended our morning at St. Peter's Basilica. Truly breath-taking.

 Michelangelo's Pieta.

Underneath this bronze dome is supposedly some of the remains of the apostle Peter.  There is a crypt below the basilica where the bodies of many popes rest. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering the streets of Rome and just enjoying ourselves. This is the Tiber River.

Egyptian obelisk brought to Rome in 10BC by Augustus to commemorate the conquering of Egypt by the Roman Empire. 

You never know when you will turn a corner and find more ruins.

 

San Pietro in Vincoli

Another one of Michelangelo's sculptures. 

Moses was often depicted as having horns due to an incorrect Bible translation.  When Moses returned from mount Sinai with the second set of ten commandments the translation said that he returned horned, but it means shining, as in the shining of a horn. His face was radiant. Interesting history there. 

The black part of the Colosseum has yet to be cleaned from the years of pollution.

The side of the Colosseum showing where the outer wall really was. Most of it is no longer standing.

And after a long day of walking miles around this city we returned to our hotel to finish packing for our flight home.  We had some babies to return to!