Rome Part 3

Well, the next day we had alot to do. Because we were cutting the trip a day short we had to do the Vatican, St. Peters, and the Galleria Borghese all in one day. We woke up around eight o'clock (not an easy thing to do after walking around rome until four in the morning the day before) and then ate breakfast (two croissants, a glass of orange juice, and a coffee) and then went out headed for the Vatican. Again we naviagted the metro and buses (we really were getting the hang out if by the end) and made it to the Vatican around nine thirty. Really the day can be summarized into three things: 1. we saw the Sistine chapel, it was incredible and also saw Raphael's School of Athens. 2. we saw the galleria Borghese, which holds of all Bernini's sculptures and was my favorite part of the trip, and we saw St. Peter's Cathedral. It was a really long day, considering we had to go across town form the Sistine chapel to get to the galleria Borghese (because we had to make reservations) and then go all the way back to see st peters. It was all incredible though, especially Bernini's artwork. Ive seen st peters, and the Sistine chapel before, but I'd never even heard of Bernini. He was called Michelangelo reincarnated, and truly was as incredible as the best of the world. He worked exclusively for the pope, and was able to create movement within marble that still doesn't seem perfect. Michelangelo's philosophy of sculpting was to remove the unnecessary pieces of marble to expose what God had put int the piece, Bernini's was a step further. He tried to free the marble from what was unnecessary around it and also from its physical limitations, he wanted to turn it into something other than marble. The sistine chapel was...well the sistine chapel is known for: being incredibly beautiful. And st peters is exactly what st. peteres is known for: being really really big.

it was a great day, and the amount of walking that we accomplished still amazes me. Rome really is something special