March 31, 2009

We left Follonica the same way we arrived, in a flurry of suitcases trying not to be blown away by the wind. Instead of taking the train, we took a coach bus to Orvieto. The trip to Orvieto seemed to take forever; it also seemed like we were traveling back to Florence as I saw many signs say Siena and Firenze. But, as Bob explained to me later, we had to go that way to get onto the autostrade to take us to Orvieto.

Orvieto is a city situated on top of a plateau. When we arrived we had to walk a short way up an incline to our hotel. Our first night, Eldon checked out the churches and came back and told us that about a free concert being preformed. So, we went to the concert that night. It was completely amazing. The music was classical, one composition by Brahms; I can’t remember what the other piece was. But it was soooo good to listen to a concert; it brought back memories of my concerts. I guess that I miss playing in a band but the SMU band doesn’t seem as challenging as I would have wanted.

Anyway, the rest of the weekend was pretty blah because it was raining off and on most of the time. We went to see these underground caves that had some old artifacts from Etruscan/Roman time; it was pretty cool. Jill and I then walked all the way to the end of the plateau where there was a look-out point of sorts. By this time it was raining pretty steadily. We walked around this garden area, took a bunch of pictures, and then walked back to the hotel. I went to Mass on Sunday, in a side chapel in the Duomo. It was in Italian so I didn’t really understand much. I tried to translate but I couldn’t catch all the words. I pretty much just let the feeling run through me and didn’t really hear anything.

Monday, we took the cable car down to the lower part of the town, off the plateau, where we then took a train to Rome. We got off in Rome at the Roma Termini station where the group then split up. Bob gave us the option of taking a taxi, where he would pay half of the fair, or taking the metro. Four took the metro, including me, while the rest took a taxi. It was an interesting experience, taking the metro with my entire luggage, but we finally made it to our hotel after getting off the metro at the nearest spot and then walking past the Vatican and meeting up with Bob, on accident, near the hotel.

The hotel is a renovated nunnery. The rooms look like a freshman dorm and but it’s comfortable and very near the Vatican, just like a ten minute walk or so. Bob walked us around the Vatican after we dropped our luggage off and then we had dinner.

Tuesday, today, Ania and I went to see St. Peter’s Basilica. We first went underneath the basilica and saw some of the pope’s tombs, including that of Pope John Paul II’s tomb. It was very moving experience. There were a lot of teenagers there that didn’t seem to understand the significance of what they were seeing but one has to be committed to their faith in order to feel the deep spiritual aspect of the tour. We then went into the basilica and walked around. We saw Michelangelo’s Pieta along with a lot of other sculptures and paintings. It was an amazing sight to behold.

Afterwards, we went back to the hotel where we met up with Nikki and Bailey. We went with them to the Vatican Museum to see the Sistine Chapel. We got a discount at the ticket office by showing our ISIC cards, 8 euro instead of 14 euro. Anyway, we really wanted to see the Sistine Chapel so we headed that way first. One hour, multiple courtyards, numerous sculpture rooms, tapestries, paintings, and artifacts later, we finally made it to the Sistine Chapel. It was everything you thought it would be including a pain in the neck, literally. You had to crane you neck to see the ceiling and there were people all over the place it was so crowded. But we saw what we came to see and then found our way out of the museum.

Ania and I headed back to the hotel for a little rest. On the way we stopped and got gelato. Back at the hotel, after logging online for a bit, we went our separate ways. I met Allyson’s dad at one point, before dinner, when they headed out to see the city. Dinner was a fun affair as we listened to Mike’s many stories.