Blog Post 7

The past two days have been spent at the Villa of Maxentius, Tomb of Caecilia Metella, Catacombs of San Sebastiano, and lastly the Vatican Museum. My favorite by far was the Vatican Museum, although there was a lot of people, so it kind made it a little less enjoyable.  

Entombment of Christ- Carvaggio

The Vatican Museum was really packed. We got some headsets but I'm not sure they actually helped and it seems as though we only used them for not even half of the visit. In the Vatican Museum theres a bunch of almost... sub museums or different sections that contain different things. My favorite parts were the Pinacoteca section of the museum and the Sistine Chapel. In the Pinacoteca part of the Museum, it had one of the paintings I've been looking forward to seeing, which was the Entombment of Christ by Caravaggio. It is an altarpiece for one of the chapels in Santa Maria in Vallicella. I had taken an Art History class and it was one of my favorites mostly because of the lighting and intensity of the painting. It actually looks kind of like Caravaggio took a picture, but the fact that it's an actual painting is just remarkable. Also, since I am not a religious person and I was drawn to this painting it just makes it that much better for me. I was actually really lucky to have gotten to see this section of the museum because when we first showed this section was closed. When I was getting ready to leave I walked passed it and noticed it was open so I decided to go in, so It seemed like I happened upon it by chance.  The Sistine Chapel was also one of the main things we had learned about in my Art History class too. So when I actually saw it in person I was overwhelmed. I'm sure if there wasn't so many people there, I probably would've cried. It was an overall great experience, I just wish there wasn't so many people. I'm sure though, that if we had went later on in the day it would've been way worse. 

Part of Circus of Maxentius

A few other things we saw were: The Villa of Maxentius, Tomb of Caecilia Metella, and also the Catacombs of San Sebastiano all located on the Via Appia (oldest road in Rome). At the Villa of Maxentius we mostly saw the Circus of Maxentius, or basically a few ruins in a big open field with some random hay bales on it.  It was pretty cool to walk on the walls of the Spina on the Circus though (The Spina is the middle of the circle where the chariots or racers would've raced around). The next thing we had seen was the Tomb of Caecilia Metella or I guess also the Caetani Castle which was pretty cool. But it was a little small for what I was expecting. I also saw other rooms and stuff within the castle that seemed to be blocked off. I'm not exactly sure if we are able to go explore those but my curiosity was getting the best of me and making it hard to focus. 

Caetani Castle (Where the tomb of Caecilia Metella is located)

Entrance: Catacombs of San Sebastiano

The last thing we saw were the Catacombs of San Sebastiano. These were really amazing and I didn't know what to expect before going down on the tour to see everything. But once we did go down underground, it was basically a maze of tombs. I wish we had more free reign to get lost down there, but then again, being underground where dead people were buried seems a little scary to me. I am not religious, or spiritual, nor do I really believe in ghosts, but down in the Catacombs I was afraid to touch anything. I kind of thought it was disrespectful because these were basically graves and I really don't know where the line is between history and learning or being disrespectful and walking on sacred ground when it comes to things like this. They may not have the bodies in them, but they were once occupied by dead bodies and that's kind of why it was scary to me. And okay, maybe I was thinking that a demonic spirit would possess my body and the Pope would have to approve my exorcism.. but you know, whatever. 

Both days seeing all these things were great, I've gotten to experience things like the Catacombs- which I knew nothing about, and I also got to see things that I did know like fresco paintings in the Vatican Museum. Since this trip is coming to toward the end, I'm starting to get more sentimental, taking everything in and just trying to absorb as much as I can and enjoy it.