The sistine chapel, fountains, coliseums and many many steps (both walked and sat on!)

Now that we have our whine out of the way let us tell you of the things we did like today!

We had planned to get up early and go check out the sisten chapel and then take another train to the coliseum. These plans changed however though when we accidently slept in, despite an alarm being set. Oops. After a very nice and cheap breakfast across the road we made our way to the sisten chapel where we were able to enter the museum with little fuss and queuing. It was wonderful! We did have a look through the museum, you have to as it’s set up in such a way that you have to snake through all the bits and bobs of art and artifacts before you make your way to the infamous sisteen chapel, where you see the art work of the great (and late) Michelangelo. This was AMAZING.

The hall room is jam packed with tourists, you can barely find room to stand, but you don’t mind as the work around you is so breath taking and detailed you forget about everything else. The paintings show so many different aspects of Jesus’ life and ministry and they also show Moses’ story, these paintings are all along the sides of the room.

The roof was made up of all these little paintings showing different apostles, stories, interpretations, all wonderful, and of course, on the roof here is the famous “Hand of David” painting. This painting shows God reaching down to touch David’s. David is weak and limp and Gods hand is strong and powerful and you can tell that by one touch David’s strength will be restored. This is a lovely painting and I took in this one for a very long time!

The biggest and most detailed painting takes up one whole wall. Chris and I interpreted this as being ‘Armageddon’ This painting shows angels above pulling people heavenwards, while others below them blow trumpets and then below them, demons pull at and torment people. Chris really liked this one and appreciated all the work and time that must have gone into painting this masterpiece.

After this (and a few very sneaky, blurry photos) we made our way back out into the blistering heat and made our way towards the Spanish steps. It was very impressive here, huge steps leading up to a grand old building. Chris tried to coax me all the way to the top of the stairs; I only made it half way. Energy had to be reserved I felt as the heat was sapping it straight from me. On the plus side though, we were able to buy a very cheap, not so great looking but practical none the less, sun umbrella to ‘protect’ me somewhat from the nasty rays that would otherwise burn my pale English/Irish skin (can thank my mum for that)

We slowly made our way on towards the Trivi fountain. A HUGE fountain with amazing statues and art work. We were both very impressed by this monument, but so with the amount of tourists! It was crazy how many people were crowding around this semi circle area to take in the site. We had some very quick photos, a very quick ice cream and moved on away from the crush of people and where we could breath.

The pythanon was our next stop. This huge dome is made from marble and has been in use since the day of the Romans, meaning, it’s about 2000 – 3000 years old. Very impressive! It’s rather empty looking inside now, apart from a few catholic statues, an alter and some pews, which we took full use of and sat down in with much delight.

It wasn’t long before we were up and walking again though, making our way slowly on towards the Coliseum. As we walked in this general direction we passed the impressive monument Emanuel II and then past the forum on towards the coliseum.

We didn’t actually go into the Coliseum, but we can say with complete sincerity that this site is HUGE! It’s beautiful and historic and you can just feel the history and past oozing from it! While we would have loved to go in, we just did not have the energy to do so. I know that sounds like a complete cope out but it’s so true. Despite drinking gallons and gallons of water to keep hydrated we were both suffering terribly from the heat with pounding headaches, sore feet and drenched in sweat now. The line up was over 40 minute wait and we near collapsed at the thought of having to line up for that long! We decided not to go in but were delighted when we found a high point while walking around the building that allowed us to see through the ‘windows’ of the Coliseum and into it. While we weren’t able to see everything of course, we were able to get a good idea and feel for it from here. We were a bit chuffed with this discovery as it was in the shade and gave us a free ‘look’ into the site!

We then DRAGGED ourselves back to the Metro, where we stumbled onto the busiest, stuffiest carriage we could find (please note that that is extreme sarcasm) and then made the short ride back to the hotel where we collapsed onto the bed and welcomed the intense air conditioning. We know that with global warming etc at the moment we’re told to take things like air conditioning a little slower, but the professionals suggesting all this have clearly never been to Rome in the summer time. If so they would understand that air conditioning to the extreme is vital for the survival of the Romans and their guests.

A dinner of “pick your own pizza slices to make a full pizza” was had along with a few chilled drinks and we then lazed about the hotel for the rest of the night relaxing and catching up on emails etc. Up early tomorrow to go to Imola and meet some of my wonderful friends!

written by  Chris and Emily on July 24, 2009 from Rome, Italy
from the travel blog: Europe 2009
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