Day 3

Today we visited the Vatican.  Vatican City is actually considered to be its own country surrounded by a wall, separate from Italy with its own postal service, grocery store, and everything.   There is so much history inside the Vatican museum, the main attraction being the Sistine Chapel.  Everywhere you turn, there are signs pointing you in the direction of the Sistine Chapel.  So, everywhere I turn, I think I am going to be walking right into it, but instead, there is more hallway, turning into more hallway.  This museum is one crazy never ending maze.  I felt like I was walking in circles for what seemed like forever.  During this journey, we saw Raphael’s amazing fresco, The School of Athens.  This is another art history icon that I have been looking at in books and on slides for the longest time.  I had no idea that it took up an entire wall in this museum.  It was so big and overwhelming.  It took me the longest time to take my eyes off of it.  Finally, we made it to the Sistine Chapel, and I got so tingly.  I could not believe I was actually IN the Sistine Chapel.  Michelangelo’s masterpiece.  I only wanted to exclaim in awe, but the guards kept on shushing everybody.  This is something that everyone has to experience in person.  There is no other way to truly get the full effect it has on you.  Usually the Sistine Chapel is completely packed with people, but because it was February, we did not have to bump into people constantly while gazing up at the ceiling.  I spent at least an hour in the Chapel, until my eyes got too tired.  I spent some more time exploring the rest of this massive museum, but nothing could quite top what I had already seen.  One funny thing though was that I ran into my friend Lisa from another study abroad program. 

            That afternoon a bunch of people from my painting class visited Stephen Wessel, an American minimalist painter who was living in the American Academy villa in Rome.  This villa houses outstanding artists, musicians, philosophers, historians, and scholars each year from America.  It was cool to see this amazing mansion where they lived and Stephen’s beautiful studio.  However, I was not completely impressed with Stephen as an artist.  While we were visiting there, it began to sun shower.  Just as we were about to leave, we saw a crystal clear double rainbow arching across the sky. 

            Two girls and I decided we wanted to walk back to the hotel from downtown Rome, as opposed to taking the bus in order to explore the more residential area of the city.  The air outside had never felt so refreshing.  On our way back, we stopped in my very first Italian supermarket where I bought a beautiful red pepper and some apples.  I later started getting made fun of in my program for always having a red pepper and an apple or carrots or an orange in my bag at all times.  We got a little lost the rest of the way back, but we finally made it in the end with the combined knowledge of the geography of Rome.