Throughout the second half of our time spent in Italy, we explored the more southern parts of Italy, starting in Rome.
We spent two days in Rome; the first seeing all the old, classic Rome places. I am going to tell you about my experience at each of these by including a bit of my journal entry from each one, since it's been so long!
Circo Massimo: "When we got out of the train station and headed towards the old Roman sites, we randomly came across a huge field full of people dressed up in ancient roman gear, acting like their outfit choices are completely natural: sitting with friends, eating, drinking water, talking, feeding babies... it was the strangest thing.... Hundreds. Everywhere. An unimaginable amount.
That was the weirdest part.... It did kind of serve to get us in the mood for our day of exploring ancient Rome and get us excited about it as we imagined being one of them dressed up in a beautiful toga with flowers in our hair and falling in love with a gladiator... we were ready to see the ruins."
Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum: "Walking through the gardens and stadiums and houses and various aspects of ancient roman life... made the craziness of history and particularly Bible times really come alive. Seeing how people lived so far from God and actually witnessing evidence of Pagan worship.... Seeing the places where this stuff happened was insane and eyeopening. Feeling so close to antiquity made me realize how insignificant right now is and how we are just another tiny piece of a huge, fascinating, weird history."
The Colleseum: "The building was amazing, sure, but it was hard... to be joyful and excited and cheery about it as all the tourists around us seamed to be. We were reflecting on what went down in the place we were standing about 2000 years ago and how utterly heartbreaking ancient roman society is. It's weird because they were brillant intellectually, artistically, and architecturally, but they had such ridiculously nonexistent morals."
The Pantheon: "Exhausted, lost, and laughing, we finally found the Pantheon only to find it had just been converted into another basilica (which we've seen about a million of) completely crowded with tourists." (Despite our lack of enthusiasm, it is really cool because it is the best surviving structure from ancient Rome. So there's that.)
Trevi Fountain: "The Trevi Fountain shocked me a little bit-- it was beautiful.... And it was kind of a magical place. Everyone happily throwing coins in (and knowing the money goes to charity!) and joyfully making wishes... it was such a happy, perfect place where EVERYONE believed in magic, even if just for a moment. Any age, from anywhere, everyone was enchanted by Rome and embracing the magic of the city... Chances are everyone is really wishing for the same things: travel, love, or prosperity. it's funny how, when it comes down to it, everyone wants the same things. Which is just another reminder that we need God!"
For, our second day in Rome, we went to Vatican City and explored the Vatican Museum all afternoon, after waiting in line for over an hour in the rain! It was very worth it though; it was probably my favorite museum that I have been to in all of Europe. I will explain about my two favorite parts of the museum using exerts from my journal (again, I know, I'm getting tired of blogging, sorry, I can no longer come up with new things to say in here so I just copy parts of my journal).
Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam" in the Sistine Chapel: "Looking at the little square right in the middle of the ceiling of the most gorgeously painted room ever (the walls and ceiling completely covered by Michael Angelo's depictions of various Bible stories or Christian imagery)... what really hit me was the message of the painting. God reaching down to us, humanity, but we are too lazy to make the tiny extra stretch to grab his reaching hand. It hurts my heart to look at that picture and see how our sin separates us and so evidently prevents us from getting to God."
(sorry I don't have a picture for this one, they are not permitted in the Sistine Chapel!)
Raphael's Room of Segnatura (one of the four reception rooms of the Palace of the Vatican covered in frescoes painted by Raphael): "This room is split into four parts by the four walls all the way through the ceiling, each section filled with paintings representing one of the branches of humanistic learning: Poetry, Philosophy, Justice, and Theology. The main, huge painting on the wall for philosophy was "The School of Athens," a painting I had studied a bit in class last year, and I was completely awestricken upon seeing it. I starred at the painting, recognizing Raphael's depictions of the famous philosophers and noticing my favorites.... I felt like I was a part of something. I've studied and read and know these philosophers just like Raphael... I'm connected to this ancient painter.... The previous reception rooms that Raphael painted had frescoes of Christian history and Bible stories, many of which I could recognize their story upon first glance. I stood in this incredible room, under this incredible painting, feeling like I understand. Feeling very small, but a part of something very big."
Unrelated: Also in Vatican City, I had one of my absolute FAVORITE pieces of pizza in Italy: fresh out of the ovan and completely covered in fresh veggies! Yum!
With Jaime's parents, we took day trips (by car! Absolutely crazy-- we hadn't been in a car since we got to Europe!) to Pompeii and Caserta, and explored some other parts of the more southern parts of Italy.
Walking through the ruins of the ancient city of Pompeii was a really neat experience. Pompeii was a city in ancient Rome that was not far from a dormant volcano, which the ancient romans thought was just a mountain, until it exploded, completely destroying the city and killing everyone. Since then, the ruins have been uncovered, revealing what typical life in ancient Rome looked like. As has become the norm for this final travel blog post, I will include an exert from my journal to explain some of my thoughts while exploring:
"They were so smart and advanced and shockingly civilized for how long ago it was. Some of their architecture, ideas, lifestyle, etc. just amazed me. The thing that once again hit me (but way way way harder this time) was how huge their sin and unpleasing attitude toward God was: we saw depressing brothels where there were paintings on the walls from which you could order what you wanted from the prostitute like a menu at a restaurant-- it was sickening. We saw pagan temples and places where sacrifices were made to gods that do not exist. We saw evidence of a culture of self-service, greed, power, and self worship around every corner. We saw the remains of a city that was completely neglecting God. Even worse was realizing how much our modern civilization and culture mirrors all of it."
We still had a ton of fun wandering around the ruins, imagining what life was like for the highly civilized ancient romans.
On a more positive note, afterwards, we drove along the Amalfi coast, witnessing the classic beautiful Italian scenery, and stopped for gelato and a bit of shopping.
For our last day in Italy, we explored the breathtakingly gorgeous gardens of the Reggia de Caserta, the palace where previous Italian monarchs lived. It was absolutely beautiful, and as we walked around, we would find random chapels, temples, baths, buildings, and other beautiful old Italian architecture in the midst of the gardens. We walked, chatted, climbed a tree, relaxed, and watched school kids play football (soccer) on the lawn.
Inside the apartments of the palace was also incredible, marble everywhere! The coolest part about the inside was that one of the rooms was just randomly a chapel. I was thinking how it would just be so cool to have your own gorgeous chapel in your house to worship in, and then I remembered that I did living in memorial last year and in the fall!
Getting to go to Baylor is such a huge blessing. It's crazy to find a reminder of how awesome my school is in a palace in Europe, but God works in mysterious ways, and a reminder of how awesome Baylor is was exactly what I needed as I had to say my good-byes to traveling Europe.
And that sums up the remainder of my time in Italy, the very end of my frolicking through Europe! How crazy!
No comments:
Post a Comment