Sunday, November 14, 2004
leaving Rome
Today we are leaving rome heading to a smaller town in the hills of Umbria.
Yesterday we got up early and headed to the vatican to see the sistine
chapel. I wanted to be in line by 8:45 when they open becuase the close at
12:30. We got there around 9am and spent 15 minutes walking at a fast pace
past the line, which was ten people wide and about a mile long. We stood in
line for a little over 2 hours and were finally admitted at a little after
11. The sistine chapel closes before everything else so we headed there, but
unfortunately it is at the end of a very long - like half mile
hallway/series of rooms. There were interesting paintings by raphael and
others in these rooms but we didnt really have much chance to stop and look
since the place was so crowded we were basically just pushed along with the
crowd, but very slowly. We finally got to the sistine chapel and at first it
was interesting and impressive, but after you look at it for a little while
it just strikes you how great it
really is. The room was just wall to wall people but at least we were
stopped and able to just stand there staring up in amazement. It is also
amazing how much difference the restoration must have made. There were some
paintings at the side that were not restored and they were a lot darker than
the rest. the restored part of it just 'pops'.
after that, fearing more lines, we headed straight for st peter's cathedral.
There was a huge line to climb the dome so while I would have liked to do
that, we skipped it. But we did look around inside. It was HUGE! they had
markers on the floor noting where the other famous cathedrals in the world
would end if they were put inside - like the big ones in london, newyork,
washington and florence. And there was this gorgeous iron canopy in the
middle over the main altar that is supposedly seven stories high. It was
definitely huge but I am not sure I buy that it is that high. the whole
place was designed to make it look smaller than it actually is and they
really achieved that.
After the cathedral we had lunch then walked around, saw a huge protest of
some kind that brought out about 500 police. We think they were protesting
israel and the USA being in falluja or something to do with arafat. That was
kind of weird, walking past this huge parade basically protesting us! but
they were all really peaceful - how could they not be with all those police
right?
anyway, now we are doing some laundry before we head to Perugia. we got our
reservations for Florence already though, because after the fiasco we went
through here with being switched three times and then last night they
oversold our room. (We were in there around 4pm resting before dinner and
these two Canadian girls came in and said that Seth was on the bed that they
were given. They werent mad at him just went and got the woman to see what
was going on, well there were already 3 italian guys in there and three
other beds were clearly taken and there were only 8 beds so we were one
short. so after discussing the situation the woman moved this wardrobe thing
and brought in another bed - even though there was hardly room to move as it
was. Then like 20 min later two MORE girls came in and said that they had
the one bed that was given to me - I had switched with one of the italian
guys so I could be next to seth so she said that that bed he was in was
hers. Well the italian guys had
already went out for the night so the woman said that those two girls
could have that bed. We still dont know what happened to the italian guy, we
think at some point the reception woman came in and got his stuff.) Anyway,
so everyone we talked to is heading to Florence next so we made reservations
early, for a cheap double instead of a dorm so hopefully we wont have that
problem again.
Ok gotta go our laundry is done!
Meg and Seth
Yesterday we got up early and headed to the vatican to see the sistine
chapel. I wanted to be in line by 8:45 when they open becuase the close at
12:30. We got there around 9am and spent 15 minutes walking at a fast pace
past the line, which was ten people wide and about a mile long. We stood in
line for a little over 2 hours and were finally admitted at a little after
11. The sistine chapel closes before everything else so we headed there, but
unfortunately it is at the end of a very long - like half mile
hallway/series of rooms. There were interesting paintings by raphael and
others in these rooms but we didnt really have much chance to stop and look
since the place was so crowded we were basically just pushed along with the
crowd, but very slowly. We finally got to the sistine chapel and at first it
was interesting and impressive, but after you look at it for a little while
it just strikes you how great it
really is. The room was just wall to wall people but at least we were
stopped and able to just stand there staring up in amazement. It is also
amazing how much difference the restoration must have made. There were some
paintings at the side that were not restored and they were a lot darker than
the rest. the restored part of it just 'pops'.
after that, fearing more lines, we headed straight for st peter's cathedral.
There was a huge line to climb the dome so while I would have liked to do
that, we skipped it. But we did look around inside. It was HUGE! they had
markers on the floor noting where the other famous cathedrals in the world
would end if they were put inside - like the big ones in london, newyork,
washington and florence. And there was this gorgeous iron canopy in the
middle over the main altar that is supposedly seven stories high. It was
definitely huge but I am not sure I buy that it is that high. the whole
place was designed to make it look smaller than it actually is and they
really achieved that.
After the cathedral we had lunch then walked around, saw a huge protest of
some kind that brought out about 500 police. We think they were protesting
israel and the USA being in falluja or something to do with arafat. That was
kind of weird, walking past this huge parade basically protesting us! but
they were all really peaceful - how could they not be with all those police
right?
anyway, now we are doing some laundry before we head to Perugia. we got our
reservations for Florence already though, because after the fiasco we went
through here with being switched three times and then last night they
oversold our room. (We were in there around 4pm resting before dinner and
these two Canadian girls came in and said that Seth was on the bed that they
were given. They werent mad at him just went and got the woman to see what
was going on, well there were already 3 italian guys in there and three
other beds were clearly taken and there were only 8 beds so we were one
short. so after discussing the situation the woman moved this wardrobe thing
and brought in another bed - even though there was hardly room to move as it
was. Then like 20 min later two MORE girls came in and said that they had
the one bed that was given to me - I had switched with one of the italian
guys so I could be next to seth so she said that that bed he was in was
hers. Well the italian guys had
already went out for the night so the woman said that those two girls
could have that bed. We still dont know what happened to the italian guy, we
think at some point the reception woman came in and got his stuff.) Anyway,
so everyone we talked to is heading to Florence next so we made reservations
early, for a cheap double instead of a dorm so hopefully we wont have that
problem again.
Ok gotta go our laundry is done!
Meg and Seth
