Rome, Pisa, and Venice

On Friday, I started the day at the Sistine Chapel in Rome. I just wanted to go straight to the Chapel, but instead had to walk through most of the Vatican Museum before I was able to see it. In each room, there was a sign that said the Sistine Chapel was next. Once I went through the door, however, we were in another room showcasing the Vatican Museum. Here are a few pictures of the long halls of the museum...





































This was from one of the rooms. It was painted on the ceiling, so the room looked taller.


















When I finally got to the chapel, we were not allowed to take pictures, so I just looked around a while. The chapel was built as a rectangle, and had a domed ceiling. It was not exactly what I had pictured, but it was still quite amazing. One wall in the front of the chapel was completely covered by a painting incorporating many different figures and stories. I could only decipher a few of them, but there were quite a few of them.


After I finished at the chapel, I got on a bus to go to the catacombs of St. Callisto just outside of Rome. The first Christians were buried here around 100 years after Christ, and the last ones about 300 years after. The catacombs have four levels, and there are hundreds of graves there. I was not allowed to take pictures in the catacombs, but I did get some of the gardens above ground...
















































In the afternoon, I decided to go see the leaning tower in Pisa. Unfortunately, I got completely lost following the directions of a cuople of Italians, but I was finally able to get to the train station. I went to my hotel in Florence, then went back to Pisa the next morning. It was raining, but as we neared Pisa, the clouds started to part. Here is a picture as I was walking to the tower.





































































After I left Pisa, I went straight to Venice to catch a night train to Vienna at 8:30. I got to Venice at about 4:30 so I had some time to wander around. I quickly found that the city does not have a straight road or canal longer than a few feet. My original plan had been to stick to the main canal and follow it around so that I wouldn´t get lost. Unfortunately, most buildings go right down to the water, and so there is not a path along the canal except in a very few places. I quickly became lost. However, based on my experience with Italian directions the previous night in Pisa, I had purchased a good map of Venice. I quickly found myself and from then on didn´t make a turn without looking at the map first. I found the main chuch and tower in town, and went up to the top...





































































This morning I got to Vienna at about 8:30 in the morning, and went to a cathedral downtown. The choir started practicing, and I was able to get some video of it. The sound just filled the room. After that, I sat awhile just reading, and then I went over to the Spanish Riding School. When I was in Vienna a couple of weeks ago, I had bought a ticket to see the famous Lipizzaner stallions do their world famous show. It was pretty amazing. The finale was eight horses and riders doing an intricate routine all in sync. I was sitting up above, and so I could see how everthing was perfectly aligned. The announcement before the show said that picture taking disturbed the horses, so we were not supposed to take any while the horses were in the arena. However, it was not like a hard and fast "no pictures" rule, we just couldn´t disturb the horses. Anyway, I did take a couple of pictures when the horses were not looking.
































Tonight I am taking a train to Switzerland, and I will be there most of next week. Next Sunday I have to be in Madrid for the start of my summer school program in Spain, so I will be flying to Madrid from Dublin after the morning service at the O´Gormans church.