Day 4

Well, It seems like I have fallen behind again. At the moment I am on a bus to Florence through the Tuscan countryside. I’ll catch up to that part eventually, but for now let’s go back to Day 4.

On Day 4 we learned better and didn’t even attempt to set our alarms, just waiting for the wakeup call at 7:30. We went downstairs for breakfast and ate pretty much the same as the day before. Instead of class in the morning we had it in the afternoon and had a visit to the Vatican planned for the morning.
We walked to a nearby subway station and worked our way through the maze of hallways until we found the right train for us. When the train pulled into the station we realized that it was packed full of morning commuters and tourists. I don’t mean that there was standing room only; I mean that there was barely room to squish in; we had to leave half of our group to wait for the next train.

Once we had all reunited we walked the ten minutes from the station to the gates of the Vatican and the entrance to the Vatican Museum. With our tour guide we made our way through the 7km of art gallery, barely scratching the surface of what is housed there. There was everything from ancient Greek statues to murals by Raphael to a collection of modern art. All along we were constantly pressed by an unending throng of tourists, it made the whole museum feel somewhat claustrophobic. At the end of the museum there was a door into the Sistine Chapel. I had heard a lot about the Sistine Chapel but nothing can really explain what it’s like. On either side wall there is space for tapestries for about 20’, then a frieze of paintings by renaissance teachers, including the teachers of Michelangelo and Raphael. On one side they depict the life of Jesus; the other depicts the life of Moses, meeting in the front of the church with the death of Moses and the resurrection of Jesus side by side. To put it most simply, the ceiling depicts the story of Genesis. That is a gross understatement. When Michelangelo reluctantly agreed to paint the fresco he was given a team of students to do the labour while he directed, as most artists worked in that day. After one day he dismissed them all as incompetent (he was a very moody, grumpy, but fiercely independent man) and decided to paint the entire ceiling alone. It took him 4 years to do, lying on his back on treacherous scaffolding with paint dripping in his eyes. When you are looking at the ceiling it is hard to realize how large the figures depicted are. They could only be 50 feet above your head for all you know, when if you take a step back you realize it is much, much higher and each person painted is 5-10 times the size of a real person. On the back wall is another painting by Michelangelo, the only other one available for public viewing at the Vatican. It depicts the last judgment, with the righteous ascending to heaven with the angels and saints, while the sinners are being damned into hell. Michelangelo painted this 30 years after he painted the ceiling and you can see how deep his depression had set. The colours are all much darker and the entire sense of the painting is more malicious almost. In fact, one of the saints is holding his own skin (he was flayed alive) and Michelangelo painted his own face onto the skin to represent how tired and in pain he was (his back never recovered from the 4 years spent painting the ceiling). He also held a grudge very vindictively. One cardinal constantly criticized his work, so he painted him at the bottom right of the painting (the deepest into hell) screaming while a snake ate his genitals. After the glory of the Sistine Chapel we visited St. Peter’s Basilica. There has been a church there since the 4th century and the time of Constantine, always built over the final resting place of St. Peter himself. The original church was destroyed and rebuilt over 200 years in the middle ages. The actual structure and architecture was designed by Michelangelo and is distinctly renaissance while the interior decoration was headed by Bernini and is definitely baroque, creating an interesting mix of styles. There are many sculptures, mosaics and paintings inside the church including the only sculpture by Michelangelo ever to be signed. After the basilica we moved into St. Peters square and soon headed back to the hotel. One interesting tidbit of information I learned was that Raphael and Michelangelo were extremely jealous of one another. Michelangelo was the better artist and Raphael refused to accept this, while Raphael was handsome, outgoing, well behaved and popular, all of which Michelangelo was the opposite. One of the places you can actually see this rivalry is in one of the Raphael rooms inside the museum. These rooms were painted by Raphael after he heard of Michelangelo’s work on the Sistine Chapel. In one painting, The School of Athens, we see famous Greek philosophers and writers conversing in ancient Athens. There are many small features that mean a lot about that particular philosopher’s beliefs. Since nobody knew what they looked like, it was common for painters to give these people the faces of famous contemporaries. Raphael painted himself in the crowd along with DaVinci and others. There is one figure sitting away from the crowd with a sour expression on his face, excluded from the party. This figure has the face of Michelangelo. This bitter rivalry ended soon as Raphael died partying in his thirties and Michelangelo lead a long, depressing life into his eighties.

After the Vatican we had a few free hours before lunch. I decided I should finally try some Italian pizza. I went into a little pizzeria and didn’t find the typical types of pizza, but prosciutto, Caesar salad, Mediterranean, etc. I decided to try the prosciutto and got the largest slice of pizza I have ever seen. It was truly amazing. After my pizza experience I tried to hang around the hotel for a bit, but it was boring so I grabbed my textbook and headed out a few buildings down to a little corner café where I ordered a cappuccino and read my homework while watching the Roman world go by. It felt like my first truly Italian experience.

In class we delved into the Greek wars, including the Persian invasion and the story that inspired the movie 300. Actually, at some points he asked us who we would cast in what roles if we were to make a movie of certain events. It was a very interesting class.

After class and dinner (pasta, meat, cake) I made my way down to the Internet café again and caught up on my communication while doing some research for my ancient myth presentation. I had some gelato and some more cappuccino while there. After that, me and the group I was with stopped in at a local store and I found a replacement adapter (mine didn’t fit the plugs). I went back to my room and met some of the people my roommate had over. It turns out I am not the only one that is going into grade 11 next year, so that was good to know. They left after a bit and I watched some more Gilmore Girls, finishing all but the last episode of the last episode of the series, that one I am saving ‘till I get home.