I booked an early train for Venice tomorrow (trying to get the most bang for my buck since Venice is so expensive), so this is my last day in Rome. The more I explore, the more I try to understand why I explore. The picture CD I'm sending home will have lots of pictures of little clay lamps, almost overgrown paths, and side streets that just drew me in. Over time I hope to understand what draws attention, useful in all visual arts. I keep thinking about video games, though. I would fly to Japan in a heartbeat to see a museum designed and organized by Shigeru Miyamoto. His games are so often built to feed the joy of exploration that I'm sure would make for a truly great museum.
That's not to say that the Vatican Museum was bad, of course. All I've done today, apart from blogging and burning a CD, is spend time in and around the Vatican Museum. I was in line two hours before it opened. Well, I was in line two hours before it opened to individuals. Tour groups get in forty five minutes earlier. So by the time the rest of us get in, there are already dozens of clusters to weave through. It makes taking pictures an interesting proposition as well, since much of the art is too big to photograph close up, but there are too many heads to get pictures from far away. But the fact that pictures are allowed at all is great. You can't take pictures in the Sistene Chapel, but it would take too long anyway with the huge crowd and sheer size of the place. It turns out the Sistene Chapel is where they elect new popes, so it's been used recently, which is pretty cool.
I also visited the Coach Museum, featuring lavish carriages that carried popes past, including a 1977 Toyota LandCruiser. Cute. There was also a small painting museum (mostly closed, so if they had any Caravaggios, I didn't get to see them), and some cool chambers by Raffael. They also had some gifts to popes past that were pretty impressive. It's good to be the pope.
So now that the papal goon squad has been paid off, it's time to see if I can squeeze in a visit to the catacombs.
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3 comments:
Cool Roma stories. I would love to hear if you managed to get into the catacombs.
As for pieces of the true cross, aparently during the crusades, they found enough pieces to build a ship to sail them back to Rome.
So what is on the itenerary for Venice?
One of the big museums/cathedrals has the bones of Luke or Mark. The interesting thing about that is that they stole them from the sack of Constantinople in 1203.
Oh, email me when you get a chance. We need to talk about your credit card.
Enjoy the rest of Italy!
And were you able to send my regards to PBXVI?
Yeah. I assume there's a good reason for that. Probably it's because groups don't go screaming down the hallways towards the Sistene Chapel like bats out of hell. Letting in the groups first is like planting trees on a hillside to prevent mudslides.
Shhhh! The nun-cops are always listening. ;)
I think I already failed at that.
Bambino
I did get into the catacombs. I'll put it in the next update.
I'm not surprised about the true cross. There were probably street vendors selling two by fours.
Venice is a day and a half with a trip out to Torcello to commemorate my favorite acting experience (Robert in Betrayal). I even brought some Yeats to read.
The big cathedral here is San Marco, so I'm betting it's Saint Mark. We'll see what I can see.
I'm afraid the pope was busy, so you'll just have to send in your indulgence check like everyone else.
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