Friday, May 29, 2009

vatican city

so today started bright and early - we walked to john cabot our university to print our tickets for the Vatican museums and Sistine chapel! woohoo! so we ventured on our little walking way to vatican city - we found it which is always a good sign and we continued on to go inside, once inside the line to get into st. peters basilica was forever long.. so we decided to go to the Vatican museums first. we went into one it had a lot of paintings and frescos and yes to even pass the threshold of the door to the museum - knees and shoulders had to be covered. you would be surprised at how many people don't even think about this?? whatever.. so once we were inside we journey through the museum took some pictures but were on the hunt to see the vatican dowry. which we had a very hard time finding. once inside we went to the other vatican museum that contained a variety of other artwork, lots of ceiling paintings and tapestries which were all cool to look at but there were so many people we jsut wanted to make it to the sistine chapel. we finally got close after being faked out many times by a variety of signs everywhere.. we went up and down stairs, right and left through hallways, outside on scaffolding, and back in.. it was ridiculous and we thought we'd never make it..

once inside the sistine chapel there were people everywhere, mind you the space isn't really that large and they have guards everywhere telling you no pictures- and there are people walking around not even being discrete about it and pointing their cameras upward and using a flash - which destroys the artwork - people basically have no respect i've come to find.. but while we were in there for a short while after quite a long walk it was well worth it - and it was beautiful - however i attempted to take a picture when a security man stopped me dead in my tracks - i had missed the no picture sign because everywhere else it was only no flash - but some of the other girls got good ones so im going to steal theirs!

after walking through the sistine chapel we ventured into the carriage polladium - when we walked down the stairs i wasn't sure what to expect but it was the evolution of the pope mobile throughout all the popes - from horseback, to horse and carriage, to a variety of cars - clearly pretty dang cool! (yes lots of pictures of these)

we visited the egypt part of the museum here before racing to st. peters basilica to go inside there in hopes that the line was shorter - it only took about 15 mins for us to get into the basilica which was surprising after the length of the line we saw that morning. once inside we were awe struck - i took quite a few videos ill post some and quite a few pictures just of the amazingness of the inside - there is no words to describe this place and although a picture is worth a thousand words - these pictures are speechless. i dont even know where to being - lots of art work, sculptures, candles, shrine type things, pope and saints remains, lots of amazing things -- we even got to see La Pieta which was immaculate just stunning after seeing replicas in the other museums we had to find the real one -- we were still on the hunt for the vatican dowry since we heard how awesome it was..

and then behold off one side of st peters, there it was.. 4 euro for an audio tour and admission - we scooped up on that and walked around for like 2 hours, so many gorgeous things, gemstone studded, pope garbs, and books, tombs, tiaras, crowns, older pope's hats, pictures and things from pope john paul II and just wonderful things - just utterly wonderful! :) however we weren't able to pictures which was a bummer, but it was amazing to look at one of the coolest things we were able to see today

now time for my little rant - it is unbelievable about how disrespectful people are. i know i am catholic and vatican city is a very special place for my religion so i was very cautious about my knees and shoulders, not only of me but of the people i was going with since it's conservative and i wanted everyone to enjoy it and not worry about their clothing, taking pictures without the flash, and things like that to preserve the memory of what i believe - however no matter how many signs, or people telling other people to cover up or turn a flash off (i saw a museum man tell a guy no pictures while he was pointing his camera upward at the sistine chapel ceiling and have him still take a picture with the flash on right then, seriously) - they still wouldn't do it. i have just realized that although i have respect for my own things and other things that people believe in and show off, majority of the worlds population doesn't even care and still doesn't care when they are disrespectful.. i mean to them yes it might just be a museum or something else but just warning after warning and still not caring is a huge disappointment.. basically boo selfish humans.

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