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| Photos: Adam Yeske (Vatican) |
This morning Adam and I went to mass. Walking into the Vatican for the first time was like nothing I had ever experienced. This church held so much history of my faith that I was over whelmed and had to fight back tears. I couldn't believe I was in this church. We walked down the aisle of the basilica and noticed at the various alters masses were being held. At the farthest point, just a little before the alter of St. Peter we saw there was a mass being held in English, so we joined that one. It was strange, there weren't any pews and people just gathered around the alter where the priest was saying mass. It was a beautiful service and we even got a picture with the priest! Right after that, a mass started in the main portion of the basilica and as we were creeping to get a closer look, we stumbled upon the basement where there were the tombs of the popes and some other saints. We went down and looked around and I was able to see the tomb of St. Peter. That lead outside so we went back around to go back in but when we tried again to have a closer look at the main mass the security stopped us and said we couldn't enter. It wasn't just us, it was everybody. We had gone at the right time when most of the church was open. We looked at a few more alters before leaving. I can't wait to go back! As we were walking out of the square, we saw that the line to enter the church, which had only been about twenty people when we went in, was at least a quarter of a mile long! In the hour and a half that we had been there, the line had grown that much?! Good thing we got up early!
Later that day, we visited the Capitoline Hill which used to house the imperial palace. It was interesting to think that the few pieces of flooring that were left were walked on by the emperors. It was an exciting moment to be standing in their doorway.
The last part of the day almost rivaled the Vatican. We finally were able to see the inside of the Colosseum! The archways and the views were so spectacular I stopped taking pictures after awhile because they just couldn't capture the beauty of the structure. I stood on the second level just imagining what the games were like. Thinking about all those who had died there. When we were walking through the lower arch ways, it was hard not to imagine how the gladiators must have felt walking through these arches, wondering if they would make it out alive. By the time we left, we had spent almost an hour and a half there and I could have easily spent the entire evening there. It was a spectacular sight.
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Photos: Jonah Poppen (Colosseum)
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Awesome post Rachel! The Colosseum is also my favorite place to I loved reading that you could have spent the whole night there! What are your opinions on the activities that happened over the years in the Colosseum? ie gladiator fights, plays, battles, possible Christian killings, etc?
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't like killings but the Romans did. I really hate the man on man fights or any situation where the person dies, Christian or non Christian. But I feel like parts of the Colosseum's shows still go on around the world. There are very gruesome plays that would have probably been acceptable at the Colosseum and, in a way, the bull fighting rings around the world are, to me anyway, an echo of the animal vs. human fights that were held at the Colosseum. I've never seen a bull fight but my grandparents told me about the one they saw. My grandpa said it was the most disgusting thing he had ever witnessed but people still love them. Why do you think the animal vs human act has survived this long?
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