I am in a group from Gonzaga University COML/ORGL programs...consisting of 21students, two instructors and some friends and family of students. I will attempt to be professional and academic in my response to what I am experiencing here, but it is honestly over the top and I am not just a little overwhelmed.
While in Rome, we meet daily for some kind of guided excursion. I do not usually gravitate toward either the major sites or the official guides...all those assumptions and ways are nullified now. Yesterday we went to the Vatican and today we toured the Coliseum, Forum, and Pantheon. Huge crowds and lines...but well worth the wait and the congestion.
In our syllabus for this summer class we were advised that we would be walking 5-7 miles per day. I thought this was an exaggeration. It has proven otherwise.
Our Vatican tour guide supplied us with remote sets and earphones that allowed us to hear her as we worked through the crowds of other similar tours.Three fourths of our tour was in the Vatican museum, but the climax was the Sistine Chapel. I am not proficient at crowd estimations...there were maybe 1000 or more in the chapel..instructed to maintain silence (in vain) and not to take pictures (many did so anyway). The various panels on the large vaulted ceiling were so familiar from many books and videos over the years. Michaelangelo's wrenching and rewarding task transcends words.
I am left with a sense of awe at the depth and richness of the artifacts we saw firsthand. As we were leaving, I turned to a classmate and remarked that I invest hours in a small watercolor painting. If someone were to look at that work as most of us looked so quickly at these great works today, I would question why I took the great effort. These works require pondering and attentiveness to receive from them what the artist was doing in its creation.
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