The Great Journey FROM Rome ... and Back Again

It's not the walking that kills you, it's standing still. When you walk here, whether it is in Rome, Assisi or Florence, you are constantly thinking of something else, the street name, where you are going, how much time you have, etc. etc. But when you have to pause, even for a moment, for a speaker or a rest, that is when it comes creeping upon you like a shadow in the night, a slow agonizing account of all your aches and pains. Your feet, your arms, your thighs, your back, name a body part and I swear, it aches.

And you know when your grandparents (or parents) always reply to your complaints with "Well, I had to walk to school uphill both ways," and you scoffed? Obviously you've never been to Assisi.

Don't get me wrong , Assisi is a wonderful place. It was there and in the surrounding area that we were able to see the very roots of our St. Scholastican Heritage. But the HILLS! You DO end up going uphill both ways to go anywhere. The city streets seem to wind this way and that, up and down, sideways, zigzag, and upside down and backwards. But the view was worth all of it, and seeing where St. Francis did much of his life's work.

We saw a few of the churches and he rebuilt with his own hands. When we saw where St. Benedict stayed for three years and the back of the actual cave he stayed in, it was like looking through a window into history. There is so much about CSS and the story behind the sisters that we don't know that I don't even know where to begin and I've had the intro here!

Florence in general was ok, but I prefer Rome. I thought it was awesome to see David in the Academia, but they do not allow pictures and are really strict about it, to the point of making sure that your cameras are out of sight. The Uffizi Museum was a nice place to visit. It was in the Uffizi Museum that I saw my first portrayal of Christ being taken off the cross. It was kind of interesting and somewhat of a shock, as I had never seen one before. I liked the presentation of the baptism of Christ that was there. There are so many little details you see when you look long enough. That and the painting of the annunciation were worth the trip to Uffizi, not to mention Boticelli's Birth of Venus!

Once again art and history overload fried my senses so that I was glad to return to Rome and begin more adventures in a city that is more well known to me.
(Sunnah Maki)

Sunnah's Photos

Sunnah shared some of her photos.

Check out the set "Sunnah's Photos" on our account at Flickr.

To go to our Flickr photos: click on the link or the photo box at the right to get to our photo account.

Losing Sight of the Big Picture and Looking at the Parts to Get it Back

There is so much to say but such a difficulty to express everything in words or even thoughts as opposed to feelings and understanding. Today we went to the Vatican Museum and the Sistene Chapel. It was so overwhelming that you begin to just waltz by magnificent objects and works of art not really caring as you did in the beginning. That is the way it is in the entire city of Rome and with this whole trip, you can only take in so much and as the day goes on things lose meaning and significance that they would have had in the morning or on another day. So I will talk of one thing at a time and hope that you will all hold the enthusiasm that you should have when thinking of what has to be said. When I got overwhelmed in the Vatican Museum, I just went to the Sistene Chapel, sat in the back and focused on two things, "The Last Judgement" and the painting of the Last Supper. It was just fascinating to actually take time and disect the paintings and see all they had to offer. I personally had not done in depth research about these paintings, so seeing the contrast of colors and objects in the paintings to make you think on their meanings was just a treat. When I noticed the little demon on Judas' shoulder in the last supper and the dark cloud behind the crucified Jesus in the window shown in the back right of the painting, made me look at the whole picture a lot differently, made me notice other things because of the connotation of the things I saw before. The Last Judgement is just overwhelming as a whole, it just never seems to stop. There seems to be paintings withing the painting, just too much to go over in such a place as this. Perhaps another blog, by another blogger.