When In Roma: Day 29-VATICAN CITY-Roma!-Friday-2/25/11

Ciao Bella!!! Guess what??!! I went to the Vatican today!!! Class field trip for art and culture in Rome :) My teach brought us to the Vatican museum first and then the church!! IT WAS INCREDIBLE!!! I WANT TO GO BACK!!! I am still in awe and I didn't even get to see half the stuff!! My teacher told us if you were to stand in front of every painting in the museum for one minute it would take you 14 days to see everything that's how incredibly huge this place is!!! Ahhh!!! I don't even know where to start! Everything was beautiful! There was a hall of maps, the Sistine chapel, paintings upon paintings, and people every where! I can't even imagine what it's like at high tourist season!! I have a ton ton ton of pictures!! Did you know that the Vatican is the biggest church in the world?? On the floor of the Vatican in Latin you can find different churches, such as St. Patrick's Church in New York and stand at that spot on the floor look one way to see how big St. Patrick's Church is and look the other way to see how much more bigger the Vatican is!!! Crazy!! This is going to be more of a visual blog than the others because we were finally allowed to take pictures and words cannot describe this place!!! After the Vatican we stopped for lunch and I got tortellini with prosciutto and a cappuccino because even though the sun was out, it was pretty cold out compared to what it has been. After lunch I walked around with Emily and Liz looking for sunglasses. I brought a pair, but they were from last summer and very scratched up. It took us a long time searching the shops, but we finally found some cute ones for a decent price. :) I was verry happy because the sun shines quite a bit here and I need to protect my peepers! After we our shopping excursion we were ready for a sweet treat. Liz and Emily had still not been to the chocolate dipped gelato place so I brought them there and of course, they LOVED it! Who wouldn't? After that I decided to part ways with them and head back to my apartment. I got back and bummed around my apartment for awhile. I can't really remember, I probably cooked up some dinner and eventually got ready and went to Jodine's apartment to meet up with the girls. We tried a new place to go out to, but didn't really like it and ended up back at Scholar's the local Irish pub where most of the kids from our program and John Cabot, the other program here, go out to.

Layout of Vatican City

What Raphael was painting when he died

Some of the 1st Works of Raphael

Some of the 1st works of Raphael

This painting was considered very scandalous for Michelangelo because when he was painting he used the corpse of a dead man thrown in the Tiber River to represent/ paint the body of Jesus

We didn't study this painting, I just liked all the animals in it :)

These were the Peacocks from Castle St. Angel that guarded the ashes of Adrian (the same Adrian who founded the 3rd Pantheon, the one we see today, Castle St. Angel, and the previous blog about Palentine Hill in Tivoli)

Lacoon

Found in the Golden House of Nero

The story behind it is that he is the Priest of Apollo and trying to warn the Trojans about the wooden horse the Greeks have sent, but Athenia sees this and sends two snakes to strangle him and his two sons.

Apollo of the Belvedere

Michelangelo used this as the profile of the fresco of Jesus painted on the wall of "The Last Judgement" in the Sistine Chapel.

Torso of Belvedere

This inspired Michelangelo for every twisting/turning body on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

Adrian's Lover

Adrian

So this may not look like it, but no this ceiling is not sculpted, it's painted, flat. Incredible! It looks 3D!

This is an incredible tapestry that as you walk from one side of it to the next Jesus's body turn and follows you along with his eyes. I didn't believe it until I tried it.

Same as the picture above, the table turns as you walk from one side of the room to the next.

Hall of Maps

The ceiling is painted all one way, we were going opposite, but it's supposed to be painted the direction the Pope walks through it.

Map of Sicily

Map of Italia

Map of Venice and these are only a few, there is one of every region in Italy!

An incredible ceiling with a 3D painting in the middle.

Closer look at how this painting looks 3D, but again was painted flat.

The School of Athens

One of the most famous works of Raphael

Now, let's play a game of guess who/where's Raphael?

Can you find him in this painting?

Oh there he is! The man looking at you with the black baret on!

Ok, now below is the painting again.... look closely...

Now did you know that although Raphael didn't particularly care for the fellow artists of his time he also included Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo in this painting???