My apartment is a five minute walk from Vatican City. I can walk down the street, grab a gelato, and walk straight into St. Peters. It's been a week here in Rome, and our professor decided that the last week we were here in the city we would spend our time in the Vatican.
The day was hot, and it seems like the longer we are here, the longer the sun is in the sky and the brighter it gets. Ever since I have been here, I have had to cover my body in sunscreen and I am still getting burnt! Anyways, we woke up early to get into the Sistine Chapel and there was still a five minute line to enter into the church. While I was waiting in line, I got to take a good look at the area surrounding the chapel. The area inside the church grounds is what they call St. Peters. It is named after the apostle they believe was given the priesthood, and is passed down through him. He is also buried underneath the church. (which I got to see. I felt like Indiana Jones). The church grounds is surrounded by two half circles that are covered in marble columns and marble statues of their saints. It was meant to look like open arms so the people could feel they were in the arms of the church.
As we finally got to enter into the church, it was huge. It was over 40 feet high and the ceilings were plastered in gold and bronze, marble angels and bright colored mosaics of heaven and the virgin Mary. It was amazing to see. To the side of the church you can see the marble carving made by the artist Michelangelo. It is the first work he has ever done in Rome, and is what they say made him famous. It is of Mary holding Christ in her arms after he was taken down from the cross. Aside from that, they have paintings of Christ given Peter the priesthood, confession booths, angels, Mary, and other popes. It was amazing to see and everything was so decorated. Me and one of the other girls sat and talked about how the people seemed to be so distracted by the costliness of the building and all of the money that they forget the actual church. More focus is on making it look costly instead of putting more focus on what the church is used for. I'm so glad our church focuses on simplicity.
After vising inside the church, we were given a special tour to visit underneath the chapel where they believe St. Peter was buried. I was told by the tour guide that they bury people underneath the church because they believe tombs are gates or portals to Heaven and they want to be close to it. Apparently before the Sistine chaple was built, there was a church built underneath it, ( and from what I heard it was a christian church). There were little rooms about the size of our guest room that were covered in marble tombs and Egyptian mosaics that would have been the burial site of 150 bodies. It was really creepy. . They had the times the people died written on their tombs that went down to the very hour. They also had statues of their bodies put on the wall in front of their tombs to show what they did during their lives. The masks the dead bodies would wear would be placed on those statues. The whole thing was just creepy. They even had a burial tomb dedicated to Lucifer, which creeped a lot of us girls out, but he let us know that it was just what they always did. We got to see the burial spot of Peter, and he told us that the rest of Peters body sleeps in the same area as the pope. haha, sometimes the catholics do crazy things.
The catholics also believe that when Christ suffered on the cross, so did some other people as well. They believe that people would randomly start to bleed in their hands and feet every hour on the hour. Once again, I'm glad to be a member of our Church.
Anyways, I am missing home really bad and I desperate to hear people speak English to me. I hope you get my message before Sunday, but I was thinking we would skype when it was 9 in the morning your time? to be honest I have no idea what that time would be for me, but I will be home all day because it is a free day. Anyways, I love you guys and I miss you....a lot. expecially my mommy and daddy :) and my cat.....and April...and the rest of my family....not in any order :)
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