Roma Part 2

Day 2

I'm very tired. And the Vatican museum is not open today. I decide to stay another day and explore 'Renaissance Rome' tommorrow.


Day 3



I am waiting in the line - a short one by usual standards: only an hour or so. I happen to be standing next to an American tour group. It's good luck - the guide is young, jovial and informed. He surprises me with his knowledge of the Arab influence on the Renaissance*.

To be honest, I've stayed in Rome for an extra day to come to Il Museo Vaticani because of one thing - the Sistine Chapel. It doesn't dissappoint. I also wonder through halls and halls of Catholic loot and gain a real appreciation for the luminous and masterful Raphael.

Michaelangleo, Raphael... These names have now lost their association with 90's action figures, but the works of these artists do seem superhuman. It's amazing to me that the same person designed both this



and this as well.



Day 4
I'm hooked now and, inspired by a chance meeting, I spend one more day in Rome, which is more about meeting locals. A gathering of couchsurfers/hosts helps. Andrea is obsessed with films, particularly (like many others on the continent) those made by Stanley Kubrick. He's lived in Rome all his eighteen years and never been to the Vatican Museum.

Giadita looks at the skyscraper-free view from the Pincio and tells me "I don't mind that we aren't modern, that the trains don't work properly... I love this city."

And Carlo is annoyed that I won't get drunk with him. Thwarted, he takes us to eat a late-night Italian specialty (fried battered fish... sound familiar?) and disses my harmonica playing. The next morning I ask him if he stands by his criticism. "I'm very open" he says. "is that an Italian thing?" I ask, searching for my nugget of cultural knowledge. "No, it's a Carlo thing" he says.

*The seeds of the Renaissance were sown by the revitalising re-introduction of previously lost Greek and Roman classics. It was through Arabic scholarship and translation that the West regained contact with many of these texts.