I wanted to see the Pope, so I waited through his address and blessing. It was a little bit chilly, but not too bad. The Pope would say something in Italian (or it might have been Latin), and then the different Cardinals would translate his words into several different languages, like Spanish, French, German, and English. So the speeches took a long time.
St. Michael is considered to be the patron of Rome, because he is credited with stopping a plague there. A statue of him was was placed on top of the Castel, but 3 statues were destroyed. This is the last statue that was on top of the Castel, but it was removed and placed in another location in the Castel to protect it.
The Treasury Room is right next to the library. St. Michael and Hadrian are on opposite sides of the vault, showing that the Pope is sealing together the worlds of the classical tradition with the Christian faith.
I wanted to go to the Purgatory Museum, because it was free and is said to have items touched by the hands of souls trapped in purgatory. I have no idea what they collect, but it sounded interesting. Sadly, it was closed when I walked by and I didn't want to wait for it to open. Next I walked to the Basilica of Sant'Agostino, but it was also closed. By this time it was about 2 p.m., and it didn't open again until 4 p.m. I would have just continued to the next church, but all of the churches were closed.
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I spent all morning studying for my final today. My final was for my Art History class. It was supposed to be hard, because we had to be able to look at a manuscript and identify the name, the date it was produced, and the artist/writer. We also had to be able to look at different writing styles and identify the script and the time periods it was used it. Finally, we had to write an essay about a topic. We got our topics before hand so we could prepare for them, but we couldn't use our notes on the final. When I got to class, I did some last minute studying before the final started. I think I did okay with the manuscript pictures and scripts. I know I missed two of them for sure, but it was my fault. Professor Yawn warned the class that she would pull some images from the student presentations that we had to give, but I didn't believe that she would actually do it because it would be unfair to the class. Those students would have an advantage because they knew everything. Well, she pulled two presentation pictures, and I knew nothing about them because I didn't study the presentations. That sucks. For the essay, she gave us two topics to study for. She said that she would choose one of them for the final. One of the topics covered everything that we had studied throughout the year, so I thought for sure she would choose that one, so that is the one I focused on. The other topic address how to use science in manuscript studies, which we kind of talked about when we went to the Conservation place. I, along with the rest of the class, didn't focus on that topic because I was so sure that the other topic was going to be chosen. Then, when she announced it was time to start the essay, she had us pick a piece of folded up paper. That way half the class got one topic, and the other half got the other topic. I got really lucky, because I chose the topic I had studied and knew a lot about. I feel bad for the half of the class that got the other topic, because we had discussed it before the final started, and no one knew what to talk about for that topic. After the final was finally over, I walked back to the apartment to put my laptop up. Then I left to go to Vatican City. It wasn't that far of a walk, only about 25 minutes from my apartment, and I had no trouble finding it. Then again, all I had to do was follow the Tiber River. When I got to Vatican City, I had to stand in a long line to get into St. Peter's Basilica. The line stretched across the square. I though the line was so long because there was a lot of people in the basilica, but it was really Security holding everyone up. There were only 2 stations open, so that caused a huge delay. But I finally got inside.
I asked one of the guards where to get tickets to see the Pope tomorrow, and he said to leave the basilica, take a right, and you get the tickets from the guard there. So I tried to follow his instructions, but that meant leaving the secure area, which the tickets were supposed to be inside, according to the Internet. So I went back inside the basilica and asked a different guard. He said to exit the basilica and take a left, and there would be guards by a door, and that is where you get the tickets. I followed his instructions, and the guard at the door asked if I had a reservation. I said no, and I almost panicked because I didn't know I need a reservation. The guard left and returned with my two tickets, so I got very lucky.
I woke up feeling a lot better than I did yesterday. Liv and I had set our alarms for 8 a.m., because Liv, Laura, and I were going to go to Tivoli. But when we looked at the weather for Tivoli, it was supposed to rain all day. On a comment someone posted on TripAdvisor, they said that Villa d'Este was closed because of "extreme weather" when it was only cloudy. We didn't want to travel all the way over there to find out that it was closed. So we decided not to go, and stay in Rome. We still wanted to hang out and do something together, but we didn't know what. Liv wanted to go to the Colosseum, and Laura wanted to go the the Vatican Museums. Liv also wanted to go to the Vatican. I had already been to and paid for both places, so I didn't want to pay again. However, when I toured the Vatican Museums, we were rushed so I wanted to go back and enjoy it some more. I also wanted to see Raphael's School of Athens, so I agreed to go to the Vatican with them. Since we had more time, Laura and Liv went back to bed for a while. They woke up around noon, and Liv bought tickets for 2:30 p.m. at the Vatican Museums online. We left around 1:30 p.m. to walk to the museums. Laura new the way to the Vatican and she led the way. However, when we got there, Liv and Laura didn't know where the museums were. Luckily, I still remembered how to get there from when I went with Mom, Aunt Carolyn, and Kendall, so I led the way. No worries, we didn't get lost. I relied on my memory and the signs. Also, there were a ton of people trying to sell us tours for the museums, so we just had to look down the street at all of them and we knew we were on the right path. We finally made it to the museum for our appointment. It was a good thing that we bought the tickets online, because there was a long line to buy tickets. We got to skip it all. We went inside and up to the counter to get our actual tickets for the museum, and then we went in.
I finally found Raphael's School of Athens. I wanted to see this painting because I had learned about it in high school when I took Art. This painting depicts the idea of "Philosophy" and has almost all of the great Greek philosophers, like Socrates and Aristotle.
I had today off of school, so more time to spend with my family. I had slept at my apartment the previous night because Kendall wanted to go out with my roommates. She came back at about 2 a.m. She woke me up long enough to tell me that Mike and Janelle were walking her back to her apartment. She also took the keys. Right after she left I fell back asleep. When I woke up later, I texted Mom to let her know I was awake and to find out when to come over. I wanted to make sure someone was awake before I headed over because I didn't have any keys. She texted me asking to meet at the grocery store. We went there and shopped for breakfast and dinner. Tonight for dinner we are going to make the Italian version of tuna helper. I have made it before and it is good. Then we headed back to the apartment. Of course everyone else was still asleep. We made breakfast again, eggs and potatoes. We had spices this time so it wasn't bland. After breakfast Mom woke up Aunt Carolyn and Kendall. I knew the Pope does a public blessing at noon, but I didn't know that it started at 10:30 a.m., and you had to get there at 8 a.m. to get a spot. In other words, we missed the Pope. We finally left around 12:30. On the way to the bus station, Mom, Aunt Carolyn, and Kendall were discussing ways to kill me for the insurance money. If I die in Rome, Kendall gets $100,000, and Mom also has death insurance on me. I told them that the Italian justice system is different from the American one, and they didn't want to be Amanda Knox.
We arrived at Piazza Venecia, and went to the bus station. I couldn't find a bus heading to Termini directly. I saw a bus that should have circled back to Termini, so we got on it. It led us outside the city to some area. By this time we were the last people on the bus, and the bus driver was leaving. It would have eventually circled back to Termini, in a couple of hours and our bus ticket would have expired by that time. Aunt Carolyn asked the bus driver and he said to take the metro (subway) to Termini. Then we couldn't find the subway station. Mom and Kendall just wanted to hop on another bus and see where it took us. They hopped on and Aunt Carolyn asked the bus driver how to get to Vatican City. He didn't really speak English and had no idea what she was asking. I clarified by asking how to get to Termini. He pointed toward the subway and we went that way. We bought each bought a day ticket for 6 euros a piece. This allowed us to hop on and hop off any form of public transportation. We took the metro all the way to Vatican City.
We rested a while. While Kendall and Aunt Carolyn slept, I made dinner. When it was ready, Mom woke them up, but Kendall didn't feel like getting up or she didn't wake up enough to understand Mom. So we ate without her and then Aunt Carolyn woke her up and she joined us. Everyone was a lot less cranky after they had rested/napped a bit. The original plan was for them to travel to Florence tomorrow. However, they would have to get up around 5 a.m. to catch the first train out. That would have them in Florence by 8 a.m., and give them time to explore. The wine tour was from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m., which would have them back in Rome around 9 p.m. They didn't really want to do that. Kendall really wanted to do the wine tour, but decided to wait and do it in the Hill Country area. There are a lot of wine tours around New Braunfels or Frederricksburg. Instead, they decided to stay in Rome and go shopping. I have class tomorrow, so I can't go. After all of that was decided, I had to run to the Guarini Campus to copy Ch.8 of my Art History textbook. Everyday in Art History we have a 8-minute essay, which counts as a portion of our mid-term and final grade. In order to do the essay, I have to read the chapter first. There is no BS these essays. So I walked all the way over to the Guarini Campus in the dark. When I got there, the lady said I could check it out, I just had to return it by 9:30 a.m. the next morning. So I checked it out, walked back to my apartment, and went to bed. My family is wearing me out.
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June 2022
AuthorThese are details from my adventures around the world. |