November 2008 - Rome, Italy

November 8

The plane landed in Rome. The flight consisted of two meals, dinner & breakfast, a movie, Meet Dave, me sleeping, & some turbulence. I got off the plane & went first through Immigration & then to baggage claim, where my parents and I met up with my sister Leslie. This was from 8:37 A.M. - 10 A.M. Italy time. It took ten minutes to find our baggage & to find the shuttle my Mom booked to take us to our hotel, Hotel dei Congressi, located on Shakespeare Street. We arrived & met the head of my Mom's conference, Adesh Jain & his wife. Then all four of us trumped up the staires to room 575. At 10:39 A.M. everyone but me laid down and took a nap for an hour. I took a shower & barely dozed.

At Noon the four of us went to the Metro Roma the subway station about two blocks from our hotel. We paid for 4 all day tickets, which was 16 euros or $18. We rode the blue line to Terimini and ran to the Orange Line. We got off & walked to Vatican City. It was raining so we stopped at the first door in the  wall, which led to a car garage, & asked the guards there it said  the Sistine Chapel was open. One guard was very rude & told us that we should visit the Basillica, St. Peter's instead since the Chapel was closed. We re-traced our steps along the wall to another, smaller, entrace & passed through. We saw a man dressed in a blue cap and poncho looking drapery & asked him if the Chapel was open. He said, "Ci, it closes at 4. It should take you 10 minutes walking to get to the entrance of the Vatican Meuseum, in which the Sisteine Chaple is located.

Yes again we walked along the way we had come & passed through Meseum security at 2:20 PM. It was beautiful walking through the corridors & rooms of artwork kept in the Vatican. There were oiriginal Salvidor Dahli paintnigs & original fresco work along the cielings and original Raphael tapestries.

Two paintings that caught my eye were:

The Salvior Dahli's painting of Jesus suspended in the air. But the viewer of the painting sees a cross even though one is not painted.

&

The Dream of Death. This oil painting depicts a woman lying on a cold concrete slab. The woman herself hovers above her body a look of horror on her face. In the lower left corner the Grim Reaper stands with his mouth open in an O sucking a shrould into his mouth.

Raphael, who I mentioned above, was a Renisance artist who painted graphic and horribly grotesque versions of Bible stories and Parables.

The Sistine Chapel itself is nearly indescriable. Above your head soars the fresco's of Michael Angelo depicting Genesis from "The Creation of the Sun" through "The Betrayal of Eve" and ending with "The Drunkeness of Noah."

On the wall, near the door you enter, is the painting of Jesus' crusifiction that Angelo did 22 years later. The deatil is flawless and beautiful. The painting of Jesus looks as if Jesus is 3D sticking out of the wall even though he isn't.

After the Chapel we exited the museum and ate Gilatto, I had Watermelaon. We walked back around the wall making our way to St. Peter's Basillica. The pillars holding up the courtyard walls are all topped by statues and in the center of the courtyard entrance is a small fountain. We stood in line and entered St. Peter's and viewed Michael Angelo's Pieta, a statue depicting Mary holding Jesus ( I think), it is behind bullet proof glass after a man tried to vandelize it in the 70s with a mallet.

In nooks & crannies are life size statues of the Saints, as well as cherubs. Near the main alter a staircase winds down to the crypt of St. Peter. Above the staircase sits a brass platform that stands on twisted legs about 6 feet tall. The brass & iron used for this were taken from the brass & iron tiles melted down from the pantheon. The alter near St. Peter's grave was taken from the Temple of Minerva from Nerva Forum in ancient Rome.

At the middle of the chapel is Micheal Angelos dome. The dome is beautiful, the art hard to make out from the ground. Near the entrance of the chapel is a red circle which was the place where Roman emperors and kings were crowned by the Pope.

Before we left the Vatican Museum we did look into the Vatican Garden. In the center of the garden is a rotating brass & iron earth that looks as if it's torn. It is supposed to represent the rise of mountains from the Earth's core.

A detail I forgot to add.The driver of our shuttle from the airport said "You are American? OBAMA!" and punched the air with his fist.