First Tardy

Tuesday, May 29, 2012. 1637 RT:

So last night I passed out reading Unbroken and therefore skipped on my blog! Sorry!

Anyway, yesterday was fantastic. Got an early start; headed out the door at 0730 and met Rich outside of the Vatican Museum. After an introduction to the some things we would be seeing, we were off.

The tour was amazing. Rich really is a great guide and showed us a lot. He mentioned that we would be seeing about 10% of the entire Vatican collection! He said that if you were to spend one minute looking at each item in the entire collection, it would take you 12 years to get through!! I was happy with what we saw.

He took us down some hallways filled with statues of Greek and Roman characters, out into a courtyard, and then through the 3 rooms of Raphael, one of which contains the famous School of Athens fresco. All of the rooms were incredible but they all lead up to the Sistine Chapel; the Last Judgement, the Creation of Adam, the Flood; some of the most famous and well-known pieces of art ever created. I have to be honest... My first thought upon entering the chapel was that it was smaller than I expected! But nevertheless, the work is insane; I could have spent hours just looking up were it not for my intolerance of crowds. With good reason, many many people from all over the world come to the Vatican. After the Chapel we continued the tour through the tapestry room and the map room. Both incredible. One thing that struck me was when Rich pointed to a map and said "oh here is a map of America from 1530". Stupid me never put two and two together to realize that America had actually been discovered by the time Michaelangelo was painting himself into history (~1508 is when he started).

After the tour we headed home. Most of the group slept on the tram. We got back then I went out with Caleb and Jessica to the grocery store (they had dinner duties). Had a relaxing night, some delicious spaghetti and zucchini bread, then discussed the day.

As I mentioned before, I got a lot of reading done but it did me in. I fell asleep on the couch and woke up at about midnight long enough to get to my bed and rest for the next day.

Batteries were dead in the camera so I'm relying on others in the group until I get the issued resolved.

Love you all!

Dylan