Dear readers:
The title of this blog post is not an exaggeration. At all.
We got to see a little bit of Rome, yesterday, before we went to the Vatican. We saw the Piazza del Popolo, which was lovely, and we saw the Villa Borghese and its gardens -- also lovely, and satisfyingly reminiscent of Italian nature paintings I studied in school.
The Piazza --
-- The Gardens --
-- and the Villa.
But none of that -- NONE* -- compares to the Vatican. From when we got off the metro at Ottaviano, to when we left St Peter's Square five hours later, everything was beautiful. All through the Vatican Museum, and then all through St Peter's Basilica, I was blown away. A scholar could spend his entire career studying just one room of some of these buildings.
I wish I could let the photos speak for themselves, but there's something about being there. Seeing the immensity of these spaces. Realizing that every square centimeter of the rooms surrounding you is covered with ancient art -- from the frescoes on the ceilings, to the tapestries on the walls, to the mosaics on the floors.
Absolutely mind-blowing. Just look at the scale of the above picture (in St Peter's Basilica). I envisioned the Basilica interior being about half that size. But, for scale, look at how tiny those people are. There's a feeling, throughout these spaces, of being a tiny speck in the immensity that is the beauty of the world -- exactly what one wants in this sort of religious space!
Heading to Cologne tomorrow to visit one of Kallista's friends. Would elaborate on our Vatican experience -- e.g. on the insane hike up to the top of St Peter's, or on the entertaining exhibits in the Vatican museum on Vatican postage and the Popemobile/Papal vehicles throughout history -- but I've got to rest up for tomorrow's flight.
Much love to you all readers, and I'll do my best to update you again tomorrow!
- Beth
*Well, maybe the Coliseum does. But we only saw that for a few seconds, in the dark, en route to our camp. That was quite an experience!
The title of this blog post is not an exaggeration. At all.
We got to see a little bit of Rome, yesterday, before we went to the Vatican. We saw the Piazza del Popolo, which was lovely, and we saw the Villa Borghese and its gardens -- also lovely, and satisfyingly reminiscent of Italian nature paintings I studied in school.
The Piazza --
-- and the Villa.
But none of that -- NONE* -- compares to the Vatican. From when we got off the metro at Ottaviano, to when we left St Peter's Square five hours later, everything was beautiful. All through the Vatican Museum, and then all through St Peter's Basilica, I was blown away. A scholar could spend his entire career studying just one room of some of these buildings.
I wish I could let the photos speak for themselves, but there's something about being there. Seeing the immensity of these spaces. Realizing that every square centimeter of the rooms surrounding you is covered with ancient art -- from the frescoes on the ceilings, to the tapestries on the walls, to the mosaics on the floors.
Absolutely mind-blowing. Just look at the scale of the above picture (in St Peter's Basilica). I envisioned the Basilica interior being about half that size. But, for scale, look at how tiny those people are. There's a feeling, throughout these spaces, of being a tiny speck in the immensity that is the beauty of the world -- exactly what one wants in this sort of religious space!
Heading to Cologne tomorrow to visit one of Kallista's friends. Would elaborate on our Vatican experience -- e.g. on the insane hike up to the top of St Peter's, or on the entertaining exhibits in the Vatican museum on Vatican postage and the Popemobile/Papal vehicles throughout history -- but I've got to rest up for tomorrow's flight.
Much love to you all readers, and I'll do my best to update you again tomorrow!
- Beth
*Well, maybe the Coliseum does. But we only saw that for a few seconds, in the dark, en route to our camp. That was quite an experience!
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