ROME

Rome was the first place on my travels and there is just so so much to see, it is unreal. It feels like the city is literally bursting with architecture and art, statues and buildings, monuments and fountains are around every corner and endless churches and religious ornaments. We saw as much as we possibly could in the four days we were there. Majority of which, was either Catholic or related to the Catholic church or owned by Catholics.

The Colosseum
The Roman Forum
Musei Vatican - The Sistine Chapel
St. Peter's Basilica
Il Convento dei Cappuccini
Crypta Balbi
The Pantheon
San Giovanni in Laterano
San Clemente
Palazzo Medici Riccardi

The Roman Forum, The Sistine Chapel, Il Convento dei Cappuccini and San Giovanni Laterano where by far the best things we saw. The Sistine Chapel blew my mind. I have seen a hundred photos of it before and not one of them comes even close to portraying the glory of the real thing. It is utterly, mind blowingly beautiful. Just one section is a master piece and it is hard to comprehend how Michelangelo even managed to paint that, let alone the entire ceiling.

Il Convento dei Cappuccini is the bone chapel that I was determined to see. There is nothing that quite prepares you for the 6 small arched rooms which contain thousands upon thousands of bones either in piles or in ornate decoration across the rooms and ceiling. Hip bones are put together in floor shapes, jaws hang from the ceiling and there is even bone chandeliers. The hardest to take in thou is the still robed, monk figures whose flesh has dried on to their wizened faces and hands. The feeling of death is overwhelming, it is in the air and stays with you even when your finally step out into the fresh air.

Courtyard of San Giovanni in Laterano - Mini Diana photograph