Landing and Departure

Bus 2 is at the airport and all checked in! They head home via Philly.  

Meanwhile, Bus 1 is on the ground in Munich and awaiting their flight back to Charlotte. 

On the way home

Bus 1 had a 4:15am wake up call and is off to the airport. Bus 2 will follow along behind. We have some tired but happy kids who are excited to go back to their own beds! See you soon in Charlotte!

There is nothing like herding 46 kids through an airport at 6am…

Last tastes of Italy

The Vatican Museum

We had a special opportunity to tour the Vatican Museum after hours thanks to EF Tours. They rented out the entire museum for us (and about 600 other EF travelers) because it’s become increasingly hard to get tickets during the day. What a unique and convenient way to see one of the most amazing sites in the world!

Waiting outside the museum to be let in - we had to go in groups of 20 and each of us had our own local guide. 

One of things we learned while waiting to go in was about why Italy and Rome in particular is so packed with tourists. First, tomorrow is the Rome Marathon. Second, Italy is very crowded due to its Jubilee celebrations (which happen every 25 years). During the Jubilee, pilgrims can go through one of the four holy doors in Rome and take the Plenary Indulgence. This lets them go straight to Heaven without making a stop in purgatory. It’s the “Highway to Heaven”!

The Pope is the religious leader of Catholics worldwide but also the political leader of the Vatican. Mussolini was in power and allowed the Pope to make it his state.  This palace has existed here though well before the time it became an official palace.  

As we made our way into the museum, we first saw the crypts of Emperor Constantine’s wife and daughter.  Nearby is a bust of Julius Caesar. 

Gallery after gallery showed statues, tapestri was, carvings, and religious relics. The ceilings were painted with beautiful scenes. So many things to see, it was almost overwhelming!

In one room we saw a fresco that shows one of the first camera boxes in history from the late 1800s. Not something I expected to see! It’s in the bottom half of this picture. 

We noticed that all of the sculptures have leaves covering the male anatomy.  The leaves are 150 years old and were added after the fact by a Pope who felt like the art needed to be more modest. 

Rafael was hired by Pope Julius II to paint his personal apartments. (Michelangelo was busy painting the Sistine chapel). The apartments have beautiful rich colors and gold leaf. 

One of the paintings we saw is considered a Renaissance masterpiece that represents the leaders of art and science painted into a biblical scene. He painted Michelangelo into one of his paintings in the apartment as a sign of admiration, even though they were competitors. He added it after the painting was finished and had to add in fresh plater to do it, finishing it in two days. Michelangelo joined Leonardo da Vinci, who is the face of Plato in the painting. Michelangelo is painted writing, as he was also a poet. 

Next up was the famous Sistine Chapel (the Vatican does not allow photos inside, unfortunately, so the photos below are from Google). We had a good amount of time to sit inside it and examine the artwork. Michelangelo painted the ceiling and he painted the creation Adam, of Eve, the garden of Eden, and the final judgment. His paintings are along the ceiling and the wall behind the altar and join paintings of the Old Testament that were already in the chapel. 

This is the place where the Pope says mass, as it’s his personal chapel.  Michelangelo was forced to paint the ceiling by the Pope. He was a sculptor and said no to the Pope 3 times before saying yes. He was taught how to do the frescos technique as he was painting the ceiling. He didn’t actually paint the ceiling on his back though. It took him four years to paint the ceiling, using scaffolding and standing with his arm above his head.  By the end of his life he was almost blind from the eye strain. It’s a beautiful site, and so hard to imagine what it must be like to attend a mass here. The pope hold private masses here for his Cardinals, and also does a public baptism once a year. 

The Final Judgment

The Creation of Adam

The full ceiling seen from below

Inside the chapel, we saw the area where the Cardinals meet to elect a new Pope. When a Pope dies or retires, the Cardinals come to Rome and meet in the Sistine Chapel to elect a new Pope. Each cardinal is electable. To become a pope you have to be a cardinal. Cardinals are appointed by the Pope. To be a cardinal you have to be a priest. It’s the original Pyramid Scheme!  A ⅔ majority is required to elect a Pope. If the vote doesn’t result in that, black smoke will come out of the chimney. There are two stoves they bring in to burn the ballots and a pipe leads up to one of the windows.  When they make a final decision, the smoke will come out white. It takes about an hour for the new Pope to get dressed and he comes out on the balcony of Saint Peter’s to greet the people. 

After the Chapel we saw an area of old Papal robes and rings.

We saw a few more galleries including one with a

Rendering of Saint Peter’s Square.

We made our way to the gift shop and then outside while waiting for all of our groups to reconvene. 

What a fantastic way to end our visit to Rome!