On the 10th of June, Ainslie and I headed out on our 17 day trip around Europe, starting with three days in the town of Gladiators and Gelato – Rome. On our first day we caught the revolting underground train out to the Colosseum. Though an amazing structure and everything and more that I imagined, tourism has had an impact on this great structure. A busy road runs right by the Colosseum, mobile souvenir stores litter the surrounding grounds and a six foot high fence spans the perimeter of the arena, limiting entrance to one ticket gate. It is only once you enter the Colosseum do you then get a real sense of how great the arena once was. If you close your eyes and try to picture it fully intact with up to 50 000 screaming spectators all vying to see an epic battle between the Gladiators and various beasts, it really would have been an amazing spectacle.
On our second day we went to Vatican City and toured the Vatican Museum which houses an array of ancient sculptures and art. We walked through long corridors, all depicting the various Roman times through these pieces of art. Religious art littered the roof, large tapestries hung from the walls and many large sculptures stood along the seemingly never ending corridors. After about 30 minutes of walking you could tell we were getting closer to the Sistine Chapel as the many other visitors started spending less and less time viewing the art and started walking at quite a brisk pace in the direction of the “Capella Sistina” signs. After winding through many more corridors, down several flights of steps, we finally came to a little door with a security guard out the front.
This couldn’t possibly be the Sistine Chapel (I had envisioned a grand entrance with steps, pillars and two great wooden doors), but to my surprise it was. The chapel was crowded with hundreds of people all with heads tilt backwards admiring this famous masterpiece by Michelangelo. Soon enough the modesty of the entrance was soon forgotten and I found myself in awe at the absolute detail and complexity of the many features of this painting that took four years to complete. Even a person that doesn’t have an active interest in art it is still hard not to appreciate the greatness of this piece of work which spans the entire roof and the whole wall behind the altar. After 10 minutes the room got extremely crowded, people were getting in trouble for taking photos and many were trying to keep others quite by “shooshing” them so we left and wal
ked to the plaza out the front of St Peter’s Basilica.
Once we got to the plaza we saw a huge line into St Peter’s Basilica so ignorantly thought there must be an entrance fee and decided not to go in but to sit outside in the sun instead. It wasn’t till later in the day once we got back to the hostel did we find out that St Peter’s Basilica was free and the only reason there was a large crowd was because the Pope had delivered a speech that morning. Regretfully we were unable to get back to the Vatican during our time in Rome to see inside St Peter’s Basilica. On our third day Ainslie and I went for a walk around Rome to see the many other historical sites including Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. Trevi Fountain is a large fountain with a sculptured background where people gather and make wishes then throw coins into the water. While we were there I saw a man with a magnetic rod picking coins out of the water while trying not to be seen by the patrolling Police. We were told by someone later on that during the night all the homeless people come to the fountain and fight for the coins which had been thrown in during the day.
On our second day we went to Vatican City and toured the Vatican Museum which houses an array of ancient sculptures and art. We walked through long corridors, all depicting the various Roman times through these pieces of art. Religious art littered the roof, large tapestries hung from the walls and many large sculptures stood along the seemingly never ending corridors. After about 30 minutes of walking you could tell we were getting closer to the Sistine Chapel as the many other visitors started spending less and less time viewing the art and started walking at quite a brisk pace in the direction of the “Capella Sistina” signs. After winding through many more corridors, down several flights of steps, we finally came to a little door with a security guard out the front.
This couldn’t possibly be the Sistine Chapel (I had envisioned a grand entrance with steps, pillars and two great wooden doors), but to my surprise it was. The chapel was crowded with hundreds of people all with heads tilt backwards admiring this famous masterpiece by Michelangelo. Soon enough the modesty of the entrance was soon forgotten and I found myself in awe at the absolute detail and complexity of the many features of this painting that took four years to complete. Even a person that doesn’t have an active interest in art it is still hard not to appreciate the greatness of this piece of work which spans the entire roof and the whole wall behind the altar. After 10 minutes the room got extremely crowded, people were getting in trouble for taking photos and many were trying to keep others quite by “shooshing” them so we left and wal
ked to the plaza out the front of St Peter’s Basilica.Once we got to the plaza we saw a huge line into St Peter’s Basilica so ignorantly thought there must be an entrance fee and decided not to go in but to sit outside in the sun instead. It wasn’t till later in the day once we got back to the hostel did we find out that St Peter’s Basilica was free and the only reason there was a large crowd was because the Pope had delivered a speech that morning. Regretfully we were unable to get back to the Vatican during our time in Rome to see inside St Peter’s Basilica. On our third day Ainslie and I went for a walk around Rome to see the many other historical sites including Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. Trevi Fountain is a large fountain with a sculptured background where people gather and make wishes then throw coins into the water. While we were there I saw a man with a magnetic rod picking coins out of the water while trying not to be seen by the patrolling Police. We were told by someone later on that during the night all the homeless people come to the fountain and fight for the coins which had been thrown in during the day.
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