Ciao Bella!

Buon giorno!

So, today is my last day in Italy, and I'm for sure going to miss the Gelato! Oh man is it ever amazing here, with soooo many awesome flavours. Like Kinder, Nutella, honey, cinnamon.... delicious. And the pizza and pasta... wow. Italians sure know how to eat I'll tell you that. I've never seem more shapes and sizes of pasta in my life. I wish I could send a bag of each kind home to try later.


Pasta!!

Anyway, I figured it was about time for an update, since I've done so much in the last week and a half. First off, Roma!

I had four full days in Rome, and I packed in a lot. On the first day I took to the streets (being very careful of pickpockets and scooter theives) and just walked around exploring. I found the Spanish steps (overrated I thought), the Trevi fountain and the Pantheon. I really liked the Trevi fountain, and even though I was there about noon, it wasn't as busy as I thought. I was able to get down to the front very easily, and there was tons of room for me to sit on the edge of it and just look at it for a while. Of course I did the whole coin over the shoulder and another for a wish thing, but I felt pretty stupid doing it even though everyone else was too. The pantheon was beautiful, and the tomb of Raphael is actually in there so that was neat.



In the hostel that night I met two guys from Edmonton who were going to be there for a few more days like me, so the next day we met up and went to the Colosseum. That was super cool! We were there early, before 9am so there was hardly any line and we breezed right in. It was pretty impressive! It is kind of hard to imagine what it looked like in its fully glory because time and weather have kind of eroded the seats and stands after over 1700 years, and a lot of the tunnels and stairways have been blocked off or covered in to make it more tourist accessible. The floor is not there so you can see all the tunnels and passageways that would have been underneath it, but there is a sample section at one end of what the floor would have looked like. It was way smaller than I thought though. After movies like Gladiator and stuff where they're riding around in horse drawn carts and all, it's hard to believe they had enough room to maneouver them around. The floor area was smaller than an ice rink. And I couldn't figure out how the trap doors in the floor worked, because I didn't see any ramps or anything from the area under the floor. I'll have to watch Gladiator again when I get home I guess. Haha.





After that we went to Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum and spent a few hours looking through the old Roman Ruins. I think Rome has more ruins than dog poop. Seriously. Even just walking down the street you can come across random huge fountains, amazing buildings, or big carved walls that aren't even marked on the travel maps. There is so much history here that it's hard to comprehend considering how young of a country Canada is.

The next day we decided to take a tour of the Vatican. The tour advertised that on Wednesdays you get to see the Pope, and that happened to be the next day so we were all for it. But we were late getting there and had to get through a security line and so we missed him riding around in his little Popemobile, which disappointed me greatly. So by the time we got in he was sitting under his little awning thing way up in front of St. Peter's, and there was no way to get closer because of all the pilgrims that were in the middle of the square. So I saw the Pope, but he was about the size of an ant. Boo.


Um, he's the one in the white near the middle of the photo.

That ceremony goes on for hours, so we only stayed for a few minutes before heading over to the Vatican Museums. We got there about 11am, and there was absolutely no line. Turns out that everyone has the impression that they have to go super early to "beat the line," but that actually creates the line because they all go early. Once all those people get in then there is hardly a line at all! So we only had to wait a few minutes. There was a lot to see in the museums and it was all super interesting, but you probably don't care about that. You just want to hear about the Sistine Chapel right? Probably.

It was so awesome! It's so hard to believe that Michaelangelo did that whole ceiling in just 2.5 years. It is the largest fresco in the world, and the next biggest is only 2/3 the size but it took the artist twice as long to do it. And Michaelangelo wasn't even a painter! He was a sculptor and actually hated painting. And contrary to popular belief, he didn't paint the ceiling while laying on his back. He actually did it standing up, head bent back and painting above him. And because frescos are actually paint mixed with plaster so that they become part of the actual wall or roof, he had to work in 12 hour shifts to still get enough work done but allow the plaster 12 hours to dry. Insane.

The Pope who asked him to do it absolutely loved it, and promised Michaelangelo he would never have to paint again. But not long after that he died, and the next pope comissioned Michaelangelo to paint the Last Judgement on the large head wall of the church. He hated people watching him paint or seeing his work in progress, but one day he let the Pope in to see how it was going, and he brought a few other important people with him. One was stupid enough to insult Michaelangelo's work, and so after that Michaelangelo painted him into the painting as the guardian of Hell, with donkey ears and man boobs. When the painting was unveiled everyone recognised him and he was the laughing stock of the city. Serves him right!

A long time after Michaelangelo died and quite a few Pope's later, one decided that all the naked men in the Last Judgement was not acceptable, and so he comissioned another painter to come in and cover all the private parts with cloths or fig leaves. That pope was also the one who was resposible for the cutting off of the penises of all the statues that were in the Vatican at that time. But they couldn't just throw them away, so believe it or not, someone is actually paid to sit and guard a room full of penises every day. Can you imagine telling that to someone who asked what your job was? Pretty funny.

Anyway, you're not allowed to take pictures inside the Sistine Chapel anymore, and you get hugely shamed and maybe even kicked out if they catch you. But I just hid behind the two guys and snapped away. So here for your enjoyment, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and the Last Judgement on the wall.



After we left the chapel we went over to St. Peter's Basillica and looked through there at all the huge statues paintings and stuff. The church is huge and gorgeous, with over 4 tons of gold used in the ceiling and on the altar. But the coolest thing in there was Michaelangelo's Pieta, which is absolutely beautiful. It is the only piece of art he ever did that has his signature on it, and that is only because when it was unveiled there was doubt that he actually did it. So he went back and carved "Michaelangelo did this" onto one of the folds of fabric across Mary's chest. In 1972 some crazy Australian managed to get right up to the statue and knock of Jesus's foot and Mary's nose, but they were able to restore it. Why would someone want to do that? I don't know. Next we went down underneath St. Peters to the Papal tombs, where we got to see Pope John Paul's tomb, as well as St. Peter's tomb. We weren't allowed to take pictures down there though.

Wow, okay, so that's a lot of stuff just on Rome. I should move on.

Next I headed out to Naples for 2 days, and had some lovely Pizza there, since that where it was invented. Heavenly! I stayed at a great hostel where the guy that owned it showed me everything there was to do in town and gave tons of great help and advice. He even took me and some other girls out rides on his motorbike around town. Holy crap, Italians are worse drivers than Indonesians... and that is saying a lot! They purposely double park and leave their cars in neutral so other people can push them around when they need to get their cars out. Scooters are everywhere, in the middle of roads, the wrong side of roads, and just zipping in and out all over. Everyone speeds up to over 60km for even the shortest stretch of road only to slam on the brakes 400 meters later at the next stoplight. Absolutely crazy. But the ride was still fun, and he took me up to a viewing area on a hill where I got a great view of the whole city with Mt. Vesuvius in the background.


Naples with Vesuvius in the background

Speaking of Vesuvius, I went out to Pompeii one of the days and spent a few hours walking around in there. That was a really weird experience, and seeing the bodies of people who died in their sleep or trying to flee the city was a little disturbing. They are so well preserved that you can see their faces twisted in agony, or their arms are up over their head trying to protect themselves. Some of them still even have their teeth and nails, and some hair too.


People that were sleeping during the eruption

Some ruins of the city with Mt. Vesuvius in the background

Next I actually went to Vesuvius and climbed up it. It gave great views of all of Naples, and the entire coast all the way down to Sorento. It was supposed to be possible to see Pompeii from up there, but I sure couldn't find it in the middle of the huge city around it.

After Naples I came up here to Florence, where tonight is my last night. I went to the Uffizi Gallery on my first day and saw the Birth of Venus painting, and a whole crapload of "Madonna and Child" paintings by about 50 different artists. After that though, I went and waited in line for the Gallerie d'Acadamia where the David statue by Michaelangelo is.

Wow. If I wasn't already impressed enough by Michaelangelo's painting on the Sistine Chapel, David blew my mind. It was his very first sculpture, made out of a chunk of marble that was going to be thrown away. I knew it was big, but I thought it was about 11 feet tall, when it is actually over 16, just the statue itself! It is brilliant, and absolutely perfect. The anatomy is impeccable, and it is so detailed that you can even see veins on the arms and everything. Just amazing. I didn't want to leave! You weren't allowed to take pictures in their either, but I just hid from the guards behind a column and snuck a few. Here you can see how huge it is because I left some people in the picture to give it scale. Just... wow.


Isn't it amazing?

I also went and did a quick half day trip out to Pisa, since the only thing to see there is the tower. It started raining when I got there too, so all I did was just take a few pictures and then head back to Florence. I took the mandatory "holding up the tower" photo, but the guy I asked to take it for me didn't guide me very well and it doesn't look right unfortunately. :( So here is just a normal shot of the tower.



So, that brings you all up to date on my recent adventures. Tomorrow I leave for Nice and Marseilles in the south of France, and then I'm off to Switzerland for a few days. Hope you all are doing well!

Oh, and I added a Traveller IQ quiz down at the very bottom of my blog. It's pretty fun and addictive! See if you can beat my score of 305,653!