So it's been awhile since my last post, and this one will have to be quick because I have to wake up for my flight back to the US in about 4 hours.
The monastery I stayed in just outside the Vatican had no internet, so I took a self-imposed internet fast for my days in Rome. When I arrived there on Friday, I had enough time to do some sightseeing so I began with the Vatican Museum. It is full of amazing art and beautiful rooms, and of course most impressively ends with in the Sistine Chapel. After this tour, I walked around the walls to enter St. Peter's Square properly. I began by walking down to the crypt, since I was not sure if I would have time to visit it after the basilica itself. Seeing all the tombs of popes was humbling, but of course the most emotional was the very simple tomb for John Paul II (The Great). I then walked up to the Basilica, and was blown away. They did an amazing job of hiding the true size of the church by scaling everything up. Some of the statues, that look about human size, are really 15 feet tall. Most astonishingly, the canopy over the main altar, which looks large but not dominating from the back of the nave, is seven stories tall! I was lucky enough to make it to Mass that night.
The next day I met with an ESA archivist at ESRIN, in a small town just outside of Rome. Outside of some photos, it was more or less a waste of half a day for me, especially since I had to waste almost two hours waiting for a train back to Rome. When I return, I made some quick tours of sights around the train station, including the National Museum (statues and mosaics), the Baths of Diocletian (now a church and impressively massive), and three churches including Santa Susanna, the American church in Rome where I was able to attend Mass in English (a welcome sound).
On Saturday I made my Ancient Rome tour. I began with St. Peters in Chains Church, which includes Michelangelo's Moses and the chains of Peter while he was in prison. Next I went to the Colloseum, which, while packed with historical aura, was slightly disappointing for me (I was hoping for some exhibits). I took a detour and walked over to the church that houses the Mouth of Truth, made famous by Roman Holiday (on the way I passed by the Circus Maximus where some kind of military show was going on). I then back-tracked to Palatine Hill, the location of the Roman Palace. This was my favorite stop of the day because it was less packed with tourists and allowed me to envision Imperial Rome the best. Next was the Roman Forum, which was great but I think I would have appreciated it more had there been fewer people. Just outside was the church/prison where Peter and Paul had been imprisoned and baptised fellow prisoners and guards alike. Unfortunately it has been transformed into a 30 minute light show, during which you only really see their cell for about 2 minutes, which I thought was a travesty and perhaps slightly blasphemous. But I pushed on to the Capitoline Museums with more art including the original Roman Wolf with Romulus and Remus. I finished the day with a series of churches, my favorite of which was Gesu Church, the heart of the Jesuit order and location of the body of Ignatius of Loyola (his study was next door) and the hand of Francis Xavier (the rest of his body, I heard a priest explain, is still intact in India). I was somewhat underwhelmed by the Pantheon, especially after I had heard it was the heart of Rome. Thanks to Rick Steves I did find a nice international student restaurant nearby with cheap but very good food, and I got a free glass of their homemade Fragelino (strawberry wine) because of my book. It was funny to see the owner's son excited to point out his name in the book! I then walked back to my monastery by crossing the Tiber and passing through the Vatican.
On Sunday I decided to begin the day by attending Mass at St. Peter's again. Afterall, when will I get the chance to do so again? I just wanted to point out that St. Peter's, especially Sunday morning, could make for one heck of a Catholic dating service. I wanted to make Sunday a Pilgrims Tour by visiting some of the great churches, including St. John Latern, St. Mary Major, etc., but even after I tried stalling by going to lunch and walking around, every church I visited was having Mass so I could not really visit (I guess I should not complain about that). So I decided to take a side trip to the Appian Way, the original highway. It was fun to walk down such a historical road, despite the painful blisters forming on my feet. I stopped at the San Callisto Catecombs for a tour, and ran into a couple recently graduated from Auburn and now living in Rome. I have my international War Eagle moment! After a long wait for a bus back to town, I made my way down to St. Paul's Outside the Walls, another immense, beautiful basilica (this time in between Masses). I could barely walk by this time thanks to the blisters, and I originally thought about just getting some pizza somewhere since it was still early for dinner, but knowing it was my last real European dinner, I decided to return to the restaurant from Saturday night. There is no easy way to get there from the Metro, so two desperate stops asking for directions later I was where I needed to be. I took my time with dinner, enough to rest my feet just enough to make the walk back again.
Today was mostly a day of wasting time and traveling, since I had to make my way to a hotel near the airport. I got here early in the afternoon, but the remote location and status of my feet has lead me to an afternoon of catching up with sports and other things online, two talks with my parents (and Joey) on Skype, and preparations for my flight tomorrow.
Well, now I really should get some sleep before a very long day returning to the US. I will try to make a few more posts with more details of my last week or so of travels and some overall impressions of my first (and hopefully not last) European trek. See you in the States!
Ciao Italia!
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