ROME & FLORENCE

We’re on the plane headed to Rome. It’s odd having people all around you speaking a language that you don’t understand (Italian). Although, it’s a beautiful language.

There are very attractive Italian men here :)

Not sure if I’m ready for this. 16 hours is a long time to be on a plane.

In other news, we had a mini stressful experience. We thought we were going to miss our plane. We were supposed to be boarding, but we were still in line at security with about 40 people in line ahead of us. Luckily, there was a lady working there that helped us jump ahead. It mad me feel extremely rude… I NEVER want to do it again.

Cutting in front of people made me feel like I was trying to be more important than everyone else and that’s not my personality at all… I hated it.

So next time, I will be VERY early to the security line.

Take off should be soon. I’m excited, worried, scared, and I have no idea what to expect. Hopefully it will be all I expect and more. Rome, Florence, Paris, Normandy, Rothenburg here I come!

July 7, 2011

I’m not exactly sure if it’s the 7th or not because we are so far ahead of Utah time. We arrived in Rome yesterday.

Welcome to Italy!

We visited the Vatican city on a tour that lasted 3 hours. We saw St. Peter’s Square, St. Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. Let me tell you they were AMAZING!

I couldn’t believe how beautiful and intricate the paintings and sculptures were.

Everything was so huge!

Mom made the comment that you could probably fit the entire Sale Lake City Temple inside St. Peter’s Basilica—it’s that big.

All the Bernini statues inside blew my mind. Oh my I can’t even get over the paintings! Ah! They had this one type of painting where you couldn’t tell if the ceiling was a sculpture or a painting because of the way they did the shadowing. The paintings and sculptures were crazy insane! Especially the painted maps in the Pope’s hallway. I can’t imagine how long it took the artists to paint those.

The most amazing paintings are in the Sistine Chapel. Seeing real, actual Michelangelo paintings was an experience I'll never forget. The work he did is unbelievable. The talent he must have had to paint like that and upside down, too! Ah! Just baffles me.

The giant mural of the last judgment is amazing. You haven't seen a painting until you've seen that work of art. All the symbolism with the skeletons and snakes dragging people to hell, then the angels carrying people up to heaven, Christ in the center, Michelangelo’s empty skin, and the devil in the corner. It's crazy! The paint looks so thick and almost like it jumps off the walls. I found it interesting how Michelangelo painted himself into the painting is an empty skin. I wonder if he believed that he had no soul, or that he had lost his soul, or something entirely different. It's always interesting to me to get inside an artist’s mind and to discover their thoughts behind the work they created. I would've loved to talk to Michael Angelo as he painted the Sistine Chapel.

The Basilica was also intense. The statues in there are in Normas! It's odd how in there, there are a few encased, preserved popes. They look just like they could wake up any second, other than some of them had turned green. The Basilica is sooooo tall. It's an odd feeling to be in such an important place to many people in the world, but not so important to me.

I mean, here is where they hold conclave, where the smoke rises when a new pope is chosen, where the new pope gets anointed, and where Peter was supposedly crucified. It was all right there and to think that I saw all this amazing history in one day. Amazing.

July 9, 2011

We are in Florence. It was an adventure trying to figure out which train to get on to get here. Italy is beautiful. Yesterday we did a walking tour in Rome and saw so many buildings but sadly I can't remember what most of them were called.

There was a castle where I took some pictures next to some dressed up Roman soldiers. They were funny. They kept asking me to marry them or if I had a boyfriend and I told them… sort of… haha.

After that we cross the Angelo bridge to go over to the plaza where they had tons of artists in the fountain of the four rivers. It was a magnificent fountain (a Bernini work). Our guide talked about how the 4 men represented the continents. She told us that the reason the man representing Africa has cloth over his face was because the Nile river was a mystery and unknown to its viewers, much like the face of the masked man. After seeing the fountain, and the work of the street artists who had some amazing paintings, we headed to the pantheon.

I love the pantheon. I couldn't believe how big and how old it was. It's all buildings around it that completely hide it from the streets. You walk around the corner and the pantheon practically jumps out at you. I couldn't even comprehend the dome. Do you think that it was built over 1500 years ago, and with how perfect it is, geez! It's amazing that Rafael is buried there so it was cool to see his tomb.

We left the pantheon and then stopped at this amazing fountain I can't remember it's name but it's very famous and you see it in movies.

You go there to make your wish and toss in your coin. I wish that everyone on our trip would have a good time and enjoy it.

After the fountain we went and saw the monument to Victor Immanuel 1st King of Italy. They call it the wedding cake. While we were there we almost got killed by a pinecone! It fell from the tree, went right in front of my face, hit the ground and exploded into pieces!

We decided to move on and went to the Roman forum after that. Can you imagine what real must have looked like in all her glory?!? What a sight to see. Just the arches that they uncovered from underneath the city were astounding. Our guide was an archaeologist and she said the only 10 to 15% of the ruins our uncovered. Everything else is underneath the existing city.

The Colosseum came next. It's so huge! So many people were there. Can you imagine all the innocent blood that must've been shed for merely the sake of entertainment?? Can you imagine the gladiators and the millions of spectators?!?

Our guide talked about how gladiator name graffiti is still visible on the walls below. That's some form of really sick entertainment if you ask me. Just as bad as the hunger games.

That was our last stop. We met up with the Ostler family because they were also in Rome and had dinner together. We had yummy pasta! I had gnocchi, calamari, and shrimp. The shrimp had eyes!!!! Eek. I went to pick one up, turned it around, and it scared me half to death. I literally jumped. They tasted very good though. That was the last thing we did all day.

Today we mainly walked around seeing Florence. We went into some amazing cathedrals. This one church was free, but it was the most amazing cathedral I've ever seen. It still remains my favorite cathedral I've ever seen to this day. It's called Virgin Mary’s Basilica. I would go see it again in a heartbeat. I also love that it was a cathedral commemorative to a woman.

We went and saw the David as well. What an amazing sculpture. Michelangelo was so talented. He had to have had God-given talent. He was a genius. He puts all other art to shame. I cannot even describe the David in words. The details in the hair, hands, the veins, the indentations that are perfect in the knees and ankles just wow! It is so perfect. I don't know how he did it, or how anyone could've done it. It shows you that genius exists among men.

God is the greatest artist of all. Michelangelo created David, but God created Michelangelo.

It was just such an amazing sculpture. I felt bad for the other art in the gallery though, as it probably gets overlooked in the shadow of the David. There was one Bartolini piece of his wife that was spectacular. The relaxation in her fingers and the details in her knees and toes bath with me.

How can artist take a rock, hard rock, and make it look soft and beautiful?!?