Rome Take Two

When in Rome...

The Rome Excursion was planned by our school, Richmond.  This was nice to have a planned out itinerary without having to plan or book a single thing.  This time around I went to so many more churches and museums, plus went back again to all the popular sites.  

Rome is a giant city.  For public transport they have buses, underground trains, and regular trains.  I am starting to get the hang of metro systems and how they work, however buses are harder for me to understand.  There are bus stations and stops all over the city and run at different spread out times.  So I generally take the metro.

But in the case of Rome the metro only runs around the outside of the city center because today's Rome is built over Ancient Rome and all of the ruins.  This leads to lots and lots of walking which I am so familiar with now.

The first day in Rome we visited Pizza di Spagna, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountian and about 5 churches with well known painters works.  Pizza di Spagna is known for it's Spanish Steps.  The monumental stairway has 135 steps.  We did not see the Spanish Steps as they usual are.  It is forbidden to eat or drink on the steps.  However, there had been a very important soccer game that day against a German team.  The Germans had taken over the steps and then the police came and kicked all of the Germans off.  The steps were littered with spilled beer and broken glass.  We were not allowed on the steps while they were cleaning up the mess.

The Trevi Fountian is such monumental fountain.  The fountain is actually just the face of a building.  The fountain is at the junction of three roads which marks the terminal point one of the ancient aqueducts that supplied water to ancient Rome.  The ancient story goes, throw one coin in and you will return to Rome, throw a second coin in and you will fall in love and if you throw a third coin in you will get married.  So guess how many coins I threw in?  Yep, that's right I threw THREE in!

On our second day in Rome we went to The Vatican Museums & St. Peter's Basilica.  I learned so much about the Sistine Chapel and Michelangelo.  The Pope at the time commissioned him to come and build the sculptures for a tomb, but early in the project the Pope changed his mind and told Michelangelo that he was supposed to paint a fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Michelangelo at that time had never painted a fresco before.  He thought painting was dumb and for the weak.  Michelangelo was so mad at the Pope for making him change the project that he left Rome and went back to Florence.  The Pope then threatened war with Florence if Michelangelo did not come back to Rome and paint for him.  Michelangelo dragged his feet back to Rome where he created a masterpiece.

As I said before he had never done a fresco before, so halfway through painting the ceiling it began to rot.  He once again had to start from scratch.  The fresco only took him four years to complete.  Contrary to popular belief he never laid down to paint the ceiling.  He stood and painted from scaffolding that he created himself.  Can you image day and night standing, painting and looking up for four years of your life.  The pain would be unbearable.  Did you know that Michelangelo also wrote. 

Michelangelo: To Giovanni da Pistoia
"When the Author Was Painting the Vault of the Sistine Chapel" 1509

I've already grown a goiter from this torture,
hunched up here like a cat in Lombardy
(or anywhere else where the stagnant water's poison).
My stomach's squashed under my chin, my beard's
pointing at heaven, my brain's crushed in a casket,
my breast twists like a harpy's. My brush,
above me all the time, dribbles paint
so my face makes a fine floor for droppings!
My haunches are grinding into my guts,
my poor ass strains to work as a counterweight,
every gesture I make is blind and aimless.
My skin hangs loose below me, my spine's
all knotted from folding over itself.
I'm bent taut as a Syrian bow.
Because I'm stuck like this, my thoughts
are crazy, perfidious tripe:
anyone shoots badly through a crooked blowpipe.
My painting is dead.
Defend it for me, Giovanni, protect my honor.
I am not in the right place—I am not a painter.

Up until the 1980's everyone thought Michelangelo was a deep dark soul.  His fresco's were very dark and gory.  However, when the Japanese paid for the restoration of the Sistine Chapel everyone soon realized that the paintings were just dirty.  They came to life and are the colorful paintings that we see today.

Just in case you wanted to know how a fresco is made - you first apply plaster to a wall, then you let the plaster dry.  After the first layer of plaster you add more plaster but with pigments mixed into the plaster.  You only mix as much plaster as you can use in one day because it drys fast.  And the process continues until you have a painting.   

We also visited the Colosseo, Foro Romano, San Pietro in Vincoli, Campidoglio, and many more wonderful sites in the beautiful city of Rome.  

Next post will be on tips and things you have to do in Rome. :) 

Hope all is well!