Today we woke up
, you know just a normal day, and headed down to the Vatican City, no big deal. It was a gorgeous day, so we got to spend most of it inside of course going through the Vatican museum and St. Peters. The first thing we did was go through the museum, of which the most significant things were the School of Athens painting by Raphael and of course, the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo. The Sistine Chapel was unreal, it seems so impossible to us for one man to paint that entire ceiling so elaborately and so perfectly scaled and proportioned. It was recently restored, so everything was as clear as the day he painted it, and we spent a lot of time just looking up with our jaws dropped. Technically you are not allowed to take pictures, and there are guards that walk around and yell “Silencio!” every 5 minutes, but it was the Sistine chapel so we all managed to capture a shot here and there, to prove that we were actually there. Next we were walking around the Vatican wall to go up in the dome, and on the way we experienced one of the most terrifying events of my life. We were just walking on the sidewalk when literally
right beside us on the road a motorcyclist lost his balance and slid going at a high speed down the road. I heard the crash and then saw him sliding and immediately turned away,,, but luckily he wasn’t hurt in anyway, and he just picked up his motorcycle, got back on it, and kept going while the traffic drove around him (including an ambulance!) NO one even stopped to see if he was okay! Anyway- then we climbed up into the dome of St. Peters which was a very similar experience to that of Brunelleschi’s dome in Firenze, except for this time from the view you could see ROME. Next we headed back down and spent many hours inside St. Peters. Here is my account of St. Peters, you can probably skip over this part if you wish, but this is what I wrote down while inside the church.
“St. Peters is so big it is overwhelming to the point of being oppressive. There is absolutely no reason why I should feel heavy and bogged down, it is huge, light, and the marble is perfectly chilled… but the mere scale with consistent intricacies is overwhelming all of my senses to the point of shortness of breath. I wish I could have stood under Brunelleschi’s dome, so I could compare the size to this cupola, but I can already tell this church is bigger. My peripheral visio
n can’t even see the top of the church but makes you physically look up to see the most intricate, mesmerizing designs of the entire church. No wonder I missed the Pieta the first time! Trying to imagine myself n this building is nearly impossible. There are too many people around whose scale I can relate to for me to feel miniscule, but if you look up, you can almost get there. Also the fact that you can’t take it all in one view skews a true scale. But if all the people were gone I would be like an ant against giants, a speck against titans- which brings up another interesting point… even though this is an incredibly heavy grounded building it seems so animate and dynamic as if it could pick up and move at any point. That feeling, I believe, has a variety of different sources—one is the dynamic, intricate architecture, the second is the presence of the Holy Spirit well symbolized by the dove glory over the altar, and the third is the oppression that is making my knees wobble and me quiver just looking at it. I shall also briefly mention Michelangelo’s Pieta which I never thought could be paled by anything, but the church has done just that. The thing that really stands out to me about this masterpiece is Mary’s face… with what seems to be very little facial expressions Michelangelo perfectly captured the absolute grief of Mary—it is not an angered torturing grief, but instead the purest saddest grief of which only Mary could achieve. There is no accusation, no denial, no vengeance. The only kind of music that can fill this space is the slow, tension-building, sweet melodies that resonate throughout the entire church, low and high, far and wide.
Towards the end of our walking around this church, the mass started, of which the most beautiful part was the sound of the organ which I previously mentioned in my notes. After this we walked on back to the hotel, and ate in and had a movie night after our long filled day.
~Heather
, you know just a normal day, and headed down to the Vatican City, no big deal. It was a gorgeous day, so we got to spend most of it inside of course going through the Vatican museum and St. Peters. The first thing we did was go through the museum, of which the most significant things were the School of Athens painting by Raphael and of course, the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo. The Sistine Chapel was unreal, it seems so impossible to us for one man to paint that entire ceiling so elaborately and so perfectly scaled and proportioned. It was recently restored, so everything was as clear as the day he painted it, and we spent a lot of time just looking up with our jaws dropped. Technically you are not allowed to take pictures, and there are guards that walk around and yell “Silencio!” every 5 minutes, but it was the Sistine chapel so we all managed to capture a shot here and there, to prove that we were actually there. Next we were walking around the Vatican wall to go up in the dome, and on the way we experienced one of the most terrifying events of my life. We were just walking on the sidewalk when literally
right beside us on the road a motorcyclist lost his balance and slid going at a high speed down the road. I heard the crash and then saw him sliding and immediately turned away,,, but luckily he wasn’t hurt in anyway, and he just picked up his motorcycle, got back on it, and kept going while the traffic drove around him (including an ambulance!) NO one even stopped to see if he was okay! Anyway- then we climbed up into the dome of St. Peters which was a very similar experience to that of Brunelleschi’s dome in Firenze, except for this time from the view you could see ROME. Next we headed back down and spent many hours inside St. Peters. Here is my account of St. Peters, you can probably skip over this part if you wish, but this is what I wrote down while inside the church.“St. Peters is so big it is overwhelming to the point of being oppressive. There is absolutely no reason why I should feel heavy and bogged down, it is huge, light, and the marble is perfectly chilled… but the mere scale with consistent intricacies is overwhelming all of my senses to the point of shortness of breath. I wish I could have stood under Brunelleschi’s dome, so I could compare the size to this cupola, but I can already tell this church is bigger. My peripheral visio
n can’t even see the top of the church but makes you physically look up to see the most intricate, mesmerizing designs of the entire church. No wonder I missed the Pieta the first time! Trying to imagine myself n this building is nearly impossible. There are too many people around whose scale I can relate to for me to feel miniscule, but if you look up, you can almost get there. Also the fact that you can’t take it all in one view skews a true scale. But if all the people were gone I would be like an ant against giants, a speck against titans- which brings up another interesting point… even though this is an incredibly heavy grounded building it seems so animate and dynamic as if it could pick up and move at any point. That feeling, I believe, has a variety of different sources—one is the dynamic, intricate architecture, the second is the presence of the Holy Spirit well symbolized by the dove glory over the altar, and the third is the oppression that is making my knees wobble and me quiver just looking at it. I shall also briefly mention Michelangelo’s Pieta which I never thought could be paled by anything, but the church has done just that. The thing that really stands out to me about this masterpiece is Mary’s face… with what seems to be very little facial expressions Michelangelo perfectly captured the absolute grief of Mary—it is not an angered torturing grief, but instead the purest saddest grief of which only Mary could achieve. There is no accusation, no denial, no vengeance. The only kind of music that can fill this space is the slow, tension-building, sweet melodies that resonate throughout the entire church, low and high, far and wide.Towards the end of our walking around this church, the mass started, of which the most beautiful part was the sound of the organ which I previously mentioned in my notes. After this we walked on back to the hotel, and ate in and had a movie night after our long filled day.
~Heather
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