We woke up at eight, ate breakfast included in the hotel, and then met outside for our Panoramic Bus Tour of Rome. This basically means that API paid for a bus to drive us around the city and drive by some important places. I wasn't that impressed by it because we saw so much and the tour guide told us so many facts that I couldn't remember everything. We did stop at el Coliseo, or the Colosseum. Unfortunately, I didn't get time to go in and see it, but the structure is still massive from the outside. After we saw the Colosseum, we all got in the bus and the tour guide asked if we wanted to continue the tour or if we wanted to see the pope speak. He does this every Sunday at noon and he gives a speech in Latin. Most all of us wanted to go, so the tour guide, kind of reluctantly, brought us to Vatican City.
The running joke that the tour guide used was that we were leaving the country. "They won't ask for your passport and you won't get it stamped," he said. Then he explained it is because there is an agreement between Vatican City and Italy. Now, I said this before, but Christianity is everywhere. Even though I knew it existed, and some of the ins and outs from Angels and Demons, it's crazy that the center of Christianity has its own country. I saw the outside of Vatican City the previous night and it looked amazing, but seeing St. Peter's Basilica is absolutely stunning. When we arrived in the city there were already many people gathered. When the Pope started speaking, everyone cheered. There were kids on our left who were waving around blue handkerchiefs. After the Pope finished his sermon he started speaking in Italian. Some people cheered further away from us cheered. Then he started speaking in Spanish and the people on our left cheered and waved their handkerchiefs. Then he started speaking in English and welcomed all of the students from America. That's when we cheered. Unfortunately, we didn't have anything to wave, so we just cheered really loudly.
After this, we went and saw the Castillo de San Angelo, which is a castle that was used a long time ago. We didn't learn much about this history, but there was a great view from the top. This building also contains il pasetto, a not so secret entrance directly to the Vatican.The next thing we did was go to the Wedding Cake. I don't remember the real name, but when we drove by it, the tour guide called it the Wedding Cake of Rome. It is a massive white building that you can go to the top and look out unto the city. It was 7.50 €, so two of us opted out, but two others wanted to go up to the top. Instead, we went through this museum of ancient artifacts that followed several wars that Italy had fought. Then we saw a nice iglesia, or church, that was situated right next door. You can tell the impact of church because of all of the effort they pout towards making them stand out. Simply amazing.
After this, we met back up with our other friends and went out for dinner. I got this amazing pizza called Diavola with "spicy" meat. It was huge and it had meat, so it was awesome. That's all I'm going to say on dinner and then we had a slow night and went back to the hotel and watched The Gladiator, an appropriate movie for the place we were in.
Alright, we arrived at our last day. We spent the majority of the day in Vatican City.
The two major sights were St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museum. St. Peter's Basilica was massive. We found a list of the popes, which also helped me understand who was alive and when. I didn't actually connect the fact that the first pope was St. Peter right after Jesus died and the fact that they have had a Pope all of the time since, making a lot of popes. We also saw the place under which St. Peter is buried.
Then we went to the Vatican Museum. Essentially, there was a giant collection of everything. It is probably worth billions. On top of that, there was the Sistine Chapel, a building that houses Michaelangelo's most famous work. It was disappointing in the sense that it was so far away, as it was drawn on the ceiling, and because there were so many people. And the security team kept yelling, "No photos!" But obviously, it is still a masterpiece and I'm glad I got to see it.
After this, we went to Las Catacumbas, or the catacombs which must have been the oldest ruins we got to walk through. It was also the furthest place we had to go. It was on the outskirts of the city and it was surrounded by a plain of sheep. They were built during the third century and used up until the fifth century and has over 500,000 people buried underground. The place came about because Rome banned the burial of anyone within the city walls. So, the Roman Catholic, Calista, donated his land for the burial of Roman Catholics. Unfortunately, in the fifth century, the Visogoths came in and raided all of the tombs. This included the removal of some remains of past popes and saints. After they left, the Christians reburied the bodies deeper in the caves. We couldn't go down that far but we saw the old tombs and the body of a saint and of a little kid. Their bones were so frail and weak, but the human skeleton still existed after 15 centuries.So that was essentially my trip to Rome. Sorry that so much happened and I had so much to write about, but if you skipped everything and are just reading this part, look at the pictures. They are worth a thousand words. Just by looking at two you will have learned more than I wrote.
¡Hasta Luego!
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