I am back home from my trip to Italy. It was a wonderful experience, one that I will remember for the rest of my life. I visited some wonderful places and met some really great people. It almost feels like all a dream now, the time spent there went by so quickly. I know I keep saying this, but I was so honored and blessed for my time spent there. I will be updating my blog with some more photos from my trip to Spain and more from Rome. I leave to go to Wales, UK on September 11th and I will be there for 9 months. I will be continuing my blog for that trip as well, so please stay tuned. I hope you have enjoyed my posts and I look forward to adding new blogs of my adventures in the UK.
Here are photos from my trip to the Vatican museums. After the fall of Rome the Catholic church began to preserve several cultural artifacts. Within this museum we were able to see artifacts from Egypt, Greek and Roman sculpture, tapestries, maps, Renaissance art, and of course the beautiful Sistine Chapel. One sculpture that we were able to see was the Apollo Belvedere, which was considered to have captured the beauty of the human form. For a long time it was considered to be the most beautiful statue. We than saw the Laocoon. Laocoon was a priest for the Trojans. He is most remembered for having told the Trojans not to accept the wooden horse from the Greeks during the Trojan war. Because the Greek gods wanted the Greeks to win the war, they had serpents come and kill Laocoon. The statue of him depicts his utter torture as he is being enveloped by the serpents. Another statue we were able to see was the Belvedere Torso, believed to be that of Hercules. There is no head and no limbs. However, the great Michelangelo loved this sculpture and later used it as inspiration in his other works. We were also able to see some of Raphael's work. He created the most beautiful paintings within the museum, including the famous Transfiguration. Being in this museum was an amazing experience and I was so glad to have gotten the opportunity to stand in front of some of the most beautiful artwork in the world. Top photo is Apollo Belvedere, 2nd photo is the Laocoon, 3rd photo is the Belvedere Torso, and the 4th photo is Raphael's Transfiguration . Elena
I have already made an account of my time within the Vatican museum. However, while the Sistine Chapel is a part of the museum, I felt that it deserved its own post because it is truly one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. Upon walking into the chapel we were told that we were not to take pictures. Then we walked into the room of hundreds of people, each of them snapping photos. I completely confess to having joined in with the picture taking, I couldn't help myself. I did not use flash though, that is what ruins the paintings and frescoes. Within this chapel are the works of the genius Michelangelo and other prominent artists of the time. The history behind the Sistine Chapel is amazing, specifically Michelangelo's story. He was specifically commissioned by Pope Julius II to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo had no interest in painting, he was a sculptor and wanted to continue sculpting in Florence, which is where he was at the time. However, the Pope ordered Michelangelo be brought to the Vatican regardless of his own wishes. War later broke out against the French and Michelangelo fled back to Florence without the notice of the Pope. However, after a victory over the French the Pope diverted his attentions back to the Chapel and sent what was practically an army to bring Michelangelo back to the Vatican City where he was now forced to paint with no pay, cheap materials, and with little assistance. A common misconception is that Michelangelo painted the ceiling on his back, this was not the case. He had created a scaffolding device to bring him to the level of the ceiling, but he painted standing up with his head tilted back most of the time. This painting position as well as paint constantly dripping into his face caused him to be temporarily blind. It took him four years to complete the beautiful ceiling. As our tour guide said many believe that Michelangelo was driven by his genius and others believe that it was God that guided Michelangelo's hand. Perhaps it was both. All I can say is that it was truly a humbling experience, and I feel blessed to have been given the opportunity to have witnessed such as piece of history, such as piece of art, and such as piece of absolute genius.
Here are pictures of our visit to the Jewish Ghetto in Rome. The ghetto was the forced home of the Roman Jews for over 300 years. According to our guide the Roman ghetto was not as bad compared to other countries such as Poland. However, the people still lived in extremely unhygienic living conditions, with most families living in one room households. The main goal of the Pope and Catholic church was to convert Jews to Christianity. If a Jewish man considered converting, he and his whole family were taken out of the ghetto and had to make choice as whether or not they want to convert. If the husband decided to convert, the children would stay with him no matter what the wife's decision was. Thus, many Jewish women were forced to convert because they did not want to leave their children behind. It was not until the 19th century that the Roman Jewish population gained equal rights as that of Roman citizens. After gaining equal rights they decided to build a grand, large synagogue. Previously, they were allowed only to have one synagogue and they were not to be grandiose.
These are some of my photos from my trip to Florence. The weekend I spent there was very fun. We visited the Uffizi, which is a huge art gallery. It took us three hours to go through it all. Within this gallery were able to see the famous Birth of Venus and La Primavera by Botticelli, Tondo Doni by Michelangelo, Venus of Urbino by Titian, and Medusa by Caravaggio. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of these amazing paintings because we are not allowed to take photographs within the museum. But I encourage you to look them up online to get a visual of what I saw, they are beautiful. We also went to the Academia, which has Michelangelo's David. It was an awe inspiring moment seeing the David. It is very big, much taller than I had expected. The figure has so much detail down to the veins in his arms and hands. When I turned the corner and saw the statue of him I instantly got the chills. I was not able to get any photos of it because we were not allowed to. They had the guards on high alert there. We also went to the Duomo, which is a huge church. The outside of the church was one of the most decorative I have seen during my trip in Italy. The top photo is of the Duomo, sorry that it is sideways. The bottom two photos show the inside of the church, as well as the third photo which is of the ceiling. The second photo from the top is of me in front of the ponte vecchio, which is one of the oldest bridges in Italy. The fourth photo from the top is of the gothic church Santa Croce. Overall I had a wonderful trip in Florence, it was easy to maneuver around the city and I enjoyed each place we visited.
These are photos from my trip to a town called Paestum in Southern Italy. In this town are the ruins of theGreek temples. They were gigantic and absolutely beautiful. They were dedicated to the Greek Gods Hera and Athena. The top photo shows a gorgeous view we got from the museum there. The second picture shows a fresco found within the temples. The last three pictures are of the Greek Temples. We did not have the best guide for this site which was very unfortunate. However, the area was still very pretty and the ruins were spectacular to see up close.
These are photos from Pompeii. The first photo is of two wild dogs that roam the area. They were so cute and followed us around. The next two photos feature casts of people that were killed
and buried underneath the ash and volcanic rock. There bodies created molds in the ash and stone and they were made into casts. These images showed their last physical appearances before they died. The last three photos show an auditorium, a main road, and a large courtyard.
I am sorry I have been unable to update my blog for the past week. It has been a very busy last few days for me. This past weekend I visited Florence and I leave tomorrow to go to Madrid, Spain for the weekend. The pictures I am posting with this blog entry is of St. Peters which is considered the most holy and important church of the catholic religion. It was absolutely beautiful inside. It is supposedly located on the site in which Peter, the apostle, was crucified and buried. St. Peter's tomb is under the main altar within the church. The top picture is when we climbed to the top of the dome of the church which is over 500 steps I believe. It was definitely a tiring climb up, but it was worth it when we got the view of Rome. The top picture shows Rome and the Vatican City. The second picture from the top is of the ceiling of the dome which was constructed by Michelangelo. The third picture from the top is a statue of the Madonna created by Michelangelo. The fourth photo shows a long corridor/hallway. Lastly, the two final photos show the outside of St. Peters.
Tomorrow I leave to go to the town of Sorrento, near the Amalfi Coast, located in Southern Italy. We will be going to Pompeii and Paestum as well. I will be visiting these towns until Friday. Than on Friday I leave to go to Florence for the weekend.
I am hoping to go to the Academia to see Michaelangelo's David and than to the Uffizi. I will be unable to post pictures until next week, but I should have some pretty beautiful photos to share with you all when I finally am able to post them on here. In the meanwhile here is a cute video clip I took while riding on the subway and some of my photos from Venice. The picture of the archways is of the Basilica de San Marco.
Love to All Elena
P.S. Make sure to turn up your volume when watching the video.
Last Thursday we visited a town called Tarquinia, which is North of Rome in the beautiful country side. This town was home to the Etruscans, a mysterious group of people that came to the Italian peninsula between 900 and 800 BC. This culture was highly sophisticated having urbanized much of northern Italy, creating a military, having an alphabet, creating detailed art (paintings and sculpture), as well as possessing religion. This civilization had the largest impact and influence on Roman culture. We were able to enter into many of the tombs that were created as far back as the 9th century B.C. The pictures I have above show what one of the tombs looked like inside. The bottom picture shows the town of Tarquinia, specifically an area in the town where many remains from Etruscan civilization were found. The top picture shows a sarcophagus found in the tombs, dated to around 2nd century B.C.
Last week we visited Palatine museum, the Colosseum, and the Etruscan tombs. The palatine museum was so interesting. In this museum are the objects, artwork, and other valuables found from Palatine Hill. The sculptures are gigantic, most of them depicting Roman gods, such as Minerva (aka Athena). She is pictured below holding a shield and wearing a helmet. Another picture I have included below was of a chariot used during the races at Circus Maximus. The picture of the sculpture of the wolf with two young children suckling from her depicts a legend of Rome. The story goes that that this "she-wolf" raised the two boys who became the founders of Rome. These men are known as Romulus and Remus. The pictures of the woman holding a swan depicts the greek myth of a woman named Leda
who was seduced by Zeus disguised as a swan. This seduction resulted in the birth of one of the most well known women in mythological history, Helen of Troy. The picture of the golden colored sculpture depicts the legendary Hercules. On Wednesday we also visited the Colosseum. This structure is amazing. It is gigantic. This of course was the structure used to hold the fights of the gladiators. It was estimated that approximately 50,000 to 55,000 people could fit in the Colosseum. The games played in the Colosseum are said to have taken the lives of about 500,000 people and over a million wild animals. The two pictures on top are the inside of the Colosseum, specifically the bottom of the Colosseum where the gladiators, animals, slaves, etc. were kept. There was originally a flat surface laid over this labyrinth where the games were conducted.
