Vatican Museum & Sistine Chapel

4:15

So today I got a lot of Roman things accomplished. I got lost. Twice. I took the wrong bus. Twice. And I explored the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. First of all, imagine me literally sprinting down the street in my Sistine Chapel-appropriate long pants and covered shoulders outfit, trying to navigate to the Vatican from streets where I've never been and not be late for my class. And it's about 8:15 in the morning. I'd been up since 6:30. As we like to say, "no bene" or "not good." But I made it. Breathless and unhappy. But let me tell you, it was totally worth it. The giant Vatican Museum was full of incredible ceilings, sculptures, and paintings in literally every direction you look. Thankfully, I've been learning about some of the art that's in the Museum, so I was able to better appreciate what I was looking at. As cheesy as this may be, it really does make a huge difference to know details about the art instead of just admiring the colors and shapes without any of the meaning behind it. Some of my favorite things I saw in the Museum was the Wall of Philosophy painted by Raphael for Pope Julius II - we discussed it for an extended period of time in class, and I know why. It's an incredible painting to see, especially in person. While I obviously didn't know about a lot of the things I saw, just because of the things I've learned from my teacher in this one class, I was at least able to recognize some details. When we were standing in the Julius II's library, I even had a woman come up and ask me a question about the Wall of Theology. And I answered her. Correctly. Hey Mom and Dad, looks like I am good at this whole school thing, huh? The Sistine Chapel goes without saying, but it was absolutely beautiful. We learned about each scene on the ceiling, the painting of The Last Judgement, and a few scenes about Jesus and Moses that appear on the walls. While there were quite possibly one million people in there and about 50 large tour groups, we were able to enjoy the art for a while and see in person what we've been discussing for weeks. My friend, Megan, and I were talking about our favorite scene on the ceiling, the scene where Adam and Eve are being sent away from the garden by God, and one of the professional "shh-ers" as we like to call them, came and "shh-ed" us because you're not supposed to talk. Oops? Anyway, it's fair to say that it was a amazing experience that I'll never forget. I'm not finished yet though. So I go to leave, and a girl in my class tells me to take bus 23 back to our area of town. I should've realized it was a bad idea when I didn't really recognize any of the stop names at the bus stop, but I did it anyway. And I rode that  bus in the complete wrong direction for an hour until it circled back to the Vatican. That was fun. I decided to ditch the bus idea and just walk. In my pants. In Rome. In June. Hot doesn't begin to describe it. Needless to say, I was speed walking so I could get back that much sooner, and was a hot mess when I met Margaret for lunch. No bene once again. It also led me to a giant nap and a large bottle of water. Thank goodness for free water refills all over the city of Rome due to an endless supply of free fountains! I'm now off to finish studying for my Italian test tonight, but I will post the few pictures that I took today soon - my camera died halfway through. Of course. Anyway, ciao for now! Love ya'll!

Corinne