We started our day at the Colosseum in Rome. Our guide is an archaeology student who has done some of her own excavations. So, you can imagine how excited she was to tell us about the history of the Colosseum and the Roman Ruins! She taught us quite a bit about the history of the Colosseum. It was built by two different emperors almost 2000 years ago. It was originally covered in shining white marble, but during the time that it was not in use, most of the marble was removed and used to build other buildings. It was closed during the 4th century when Constantine converted people to Christianity and said there were to be more fights, closing the Colosseum. We also discovered that the Colosseum was built with the ruins from Solomon's temple in Jerusalem after the Romans destroyed it!
(Our friends from Indiana)
Next, we walked out of the Colosseum to the Roman Ruins. It is unreal how much of the old city has been excavated and preserved!
We had lunch just outside of the Vatican walls and started our tour at 3:30 p.m. with 12,000 steps already taken!! The tour begins with a very fast-paced walk through the Vatican museum. We saw frescoes (paintings done while the plaster on the wall is drying), statues, oil paintings, tapestries, and more. Unfortunately, it was so fast, we were unable to really process what we were seeing. The number of people in the museum at one time is literally breath-taking. There is no way they would pass an American fire code!
We finally made it to the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basillica! Wow! It was unreal. We saw more art yesterday than our brains could really process! Our guide had given us a little lesson on Michaelangelo's work in the Sistine Chapel before we went in. So, we were able to somewhat appreciate the Fresco masterpiece he created in on the ceiling of the Chapel. It took him 4.5 years!
We did not see the Pope, but we did see the window that we usually see on tv from which he blesses people.
Next, we walked into St. Peter's Basilica! There are no words to describe it. We have been to A LOT of cathedrals on this trip, but this one doesn't look like the others. It is massive! We saw Michaelangelo's Pieta first. Then, our guide told us about the Papal altar, the dimensions of the church, etc. We were also able to see several former Popes who are in crypts inside the Basilica. This, of course, was fascinating to us all. However, it was the third church in which we had seen a crypt with a body in it.
(Pieta by Michaelangelo)
We ate dinner not too far from the Vatican, and then Miriam led us on a pretty long tour of the city- by foot. The city was alive, and even though we were tired, we enjoyed the music, dancing and conversations all around us! We made wishes to return to Italy in the Trevi fountain. We visited the Pantheon, which has been standing completely in tact for 2000 years, and we had "the best gelato in Rome". When we got back on our bus, we had over 26,000 steps for the day. It was a long day, but it was amazing!
We said goodbye to Miriam and our friends from Indiana, and we met Simone, our tour guide for the remainder of the trip. Then, we went to bed!!
