Adventure17.1: Rome - Day 2

Rome Day 2: June 17, 2011

We woke up early to catch the metro to the Vatican Museum. We had reservations and this was a great idea (thanks Teacher because we all know I never plan anything). For the first few hours we strolled around with ease. By 11 AM the place was packed and it was hard to see anything. Early is best! The Sistine Chapel was amazing and Michelangelo was an amazing painter. I find myself wondering why the picture of Adam and God with outstretched hands is so famous. There are so many magnificent scenes in the Sistine Chapel. There are the 10 plagues, the 10 commandments, Mary and Joseph getting “the news”, the baptism of Jesus, His teachings, the last supper, the Easter story, and an entire wall with a depiction of what I could guess to be Heaven. Let me show you a few of them. The pictures are not so good. I wasn’t actually supposed to be taking pictures, so no flash and quick snaps.

We toured a good portion of the Vatican Museum, then I mailed a post card to ma and pa from the Vatican. This marks a new country to the list. The Vatican had 100’s of sculptures. A large portion of which depict pagan gods and goddesses. This is completely amusing to me. A gigantic Christian organization (the Catholics with all of their strict manmade guidelines) has a collection of art from other religions. Interesting! Most of the male sculptures have their penises cut off. There is an absurd reason for this…such as some pope went crazy and decided to cut them all off and put leaves over them.

The next stop was St. Peters Basilica. This was nice, but after seeing the Sistine Chapel you just can’t compare. Although, they did have a dead Pope on display (or a replica. It looks to be wax)! Upon leaving the basilica, I spotted some very famous Swiss people – The Swiss Guard. So why are the Swiss guarding the Pope anyways?

Then off to lunch…which took a bit of time and involved walking in circles and ending up where we began. However, the pasta was very good and a Coke on a hot day is divine. We found our way to the Pantheon where Raphael is buried. We sat down to take a look at the map (shown below) and then I proceed to give the Teacher our options for the evening (also shown below).

We opted for the garden. This was a great option. There we found crazy sculptures, beautiful water features, and I rented a row boat for Teacher and I. The row boat was awesome! Let’s just say that neither one of us was very good at rowing. I don’t think I’ve ever tried it before. Sure I have been canoeing and whitewater rafting, but these are 1 paddle events. Rowing with 2 is way more difficult.

That evening we headed to a famous pizza area where I had the best pizza – Mozzarella, Gorgonzola, and Apple. For an appetizer, bruschetta. Yum Yum! On the way there, we saw 2 cross dressers. They were quite scary looking. We are pretty sure that the one had a blowup butt! Yikes! Take a look…what do you think?