After orientation on Friday, Maddie and I decided to explore Trastevere a bit. Thankfully to the Rome book Mom got me, we have lots of different sites pointed out for us. We decided to go see the Santa Maria church, built in the 12th century and is the oldest church in Rome. It is famously known for its beautiful mosaic artwork and it definitely does not disappoint.
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| Altar in Santa Maria |
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| beautiful mosaic artwork |
After seeing a church like this one begins to feel cheated, I think churches like this should exist in Michigan as well.
My ultimate goal thus far is to see the Sistine Chapel, and after learning that on the last Sunday of the month admission is free into the Vatican (usually the Vatican is closed on Sundays), my roommates and I had big plans to see it. But after having too much fun on Saturday night we didn't quite wake up at 8am as originally planned. So at 10:30 Sunday morning Maddie, Leah and I were finally up and dressed and ready to tackle the crowds. However after getting a little lost and taking the wrong bus we didn't get there till a little after noon and didn't make it past security till 12:30, which is also the same time the Sistine Chapel and all the museums close. Long story short we only got to see St. Peters Basilica, which is absolutely amazing but personally I think it looks bigger on t.v. then it does in real life.
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| St. Peter's Basilica |
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| inside view of St. Peters dome |
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| Leah, Maddie and I overlooking the plaza |
When we first got the the Vatican plaza there was a woman's voice on the intercom speaking in the Italian language, naturally I had no idea what she was saying and just thought she was telling the crowd how to enter into St. Peters and where to stand in line. It wasn't until a mans voice came on that I thought "hey that sounds like the Pope!" and low and behold I looked way up and saw Benedict himself saying a prayer (or maybe a reading? wasn't quite sure because he was also speaking in Italian) over the crowd. I was so excited!
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| Vatican plaza...St. Peter's basilica is the building to the left and you can just see the open window to the very right where the Pope was. |
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| Benedict! (thank God for a 50x zoom) |
The pope! L, that's so amazing!!! And can I just comment on how beautiful Rome looks. Gosh, why did I choose the country that has no aesthetically pleasing architecture.... hahaha
ReplyDeleteI love you , L!
Wow! So glad you are taking advantage of seeing everything.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy
As for Michigan, we have some nice churches, Dad and I were in Calumet last weekend and their church is beautiful.
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