Musei Vaticani

It's Sunday here in the city of Rome.  I have yet to have a single day off of school this week.  As I mentioned in earlier posts, this entire weekend was centered around the study of the Vatican City and its design.  On Saturday, we had a lecture at 10 in the morning.  It is always difficult to get my butt out of bed on the weekends.  I did it anyway, but I wasn't too happy about it.  Dr. Golden lectured about the interior of the Vatican Museum.  After the lecture, we were free for the day.  I took this opportunity to take a nap.  I didn't do much else.  Watched a movie and went for a walk to a hill overlooking the city of Rome.  This basically concluded this day.

Well here we are to the highlight of the week for myself, Sunday's visit to the Vatican Museum.  We met our professors at the horrible hour of 7:45 am.  We received our portable headsets to listen while in the museum.  The line for the museum was literally a mile in length.  Approximately 10,000 people pass through the museum each day.  While in line, our professor Dr. Golden had us all work our way through the line where people weren't standing.  I had a man yell at me, so I kept walking without acknowledging him.  Other people were yelling at us all as well, but I just kept following Dr. Golden.  She told us they should have filled in the holes in the line!  Anyway, we made it into the museum after an hours wait in line.  The Vatican museum is the most expensive collection of art in the world.  We took several hours working our way through the museum.  The pieces of art were all impeccably preserved.  Everything still looked pristine.  The end of the museum tour was the highlight and one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had.  We walked into the Sistine Chapel at the area where the votes are burned during conclave.  The ceiling painted by Michelangelo was everything I expected it to be.  It is very hard to appreciate this chapel without actually stepping foot in it.  Of course, my favorite part was the painting of God reaching out to touch Adam.  I can only imagine the turmoil Michelangelo went through to complete this masterpiece.  After what seemed like only ten minutes, Dr. Golden told us we had spent an hour in the chapel and it was time to leave.  I could have stayed for another two hours!

This coming week will be void of blog posts.  I will be spending this week in Viterbo, Italy with my class from Monday to Wednesday and then in Valencia, Spain with my friend Lauren Briggie for the remainder of the week.  I hope I have a heck of a story to tell when I return.  Until then, ciao!