Rome: Morning of Day 6

September 9

The Vatican

After a long travel day the day before we didn't waste any time in our sightseeing, and woke up bright and early for our chance to see the Vatican.

   We met up with our tour group and walked through the courtyard to get to the museum.

 The courtyard itself had some amazing views.

 Especially of St. Peters

Our tour was a 2 hour tour of the museum and Sistine Chapel, but it went by so fast the 2 hour tour felt more like a 1/2 an hour! 

We started out our tour by entering the sculpture rooms.  After visiting here as well as the Borghese museum (which will be another post in a few more days) I have fallen in love with sculptures.  They where my favorite parts of the museum.

 I loved this one.  It is called Laocoon and he was a high priest of Troy who warned his fellow Trojans not to except any gifts from the Greeks.  However the Gods wanted the Greeks to win and so sent serpents to kill him and his two sons.  

 The famous Belevadere Torso.  This is all that remains of the ancient statue of Hercules seated on a lion skin.  Michelangelo loved this statue and would caress it and say "I am the pupil of the Torso".  This sculpture has been his, as well as many, as a source of inspiration.

 This bearded River Gods pose was Michelangelo inspiration for Adam in the Sistine.

Brad was in awe of the tapestries.  Just at the immense detail it would take to weave a picture like this! I mean you can see veins popping out, thats how detailed these were! 

  Listening to our tour guide

 Then we entered Raphael's room.  Our tour guide said that by the afternoon when those who listened to the pope come through, that this room will be so packed you wouldn't be able to move.

The School of Athens.  Raphael pays respect to the great thinkers of ancient Greece.  In the center are Plato and Aristotle, the two greatest Greeks.  Theres also Socrates, and Leonardo da Vinci whom Raphael worshipped.  When Raphael was finishing up this work he went down the hall and got a glimpse of Michelangelo working on the Sistine and was astonished.  He returned to this work and added Michelangelo (he's at the bottom corner in purple).  Raphael really respected Michelangelo, but from what our tour guide said, Michelangelo didn't give Raphael the time of day. 

They say that when Raphael died that the Renaissance died with him.

  The Sistine Chapel

Our tour ended with the grand finale: the Sistine Chapel.  No talking or picture taking are allowed in the Sistine and so our tour guide spoke about chapel at the beginning of our tour.  The Sistine Chapel is the personal chapel of the pope and where popes are elected, but what makes this chapel famous is Michelangelo's ceiling and his huge The Last Judgement.

Since I wasn't allowed to take pictures these next two are from the Vatican Website.  

The Sistine Chapel is breathtaking!  We stayed and listened to an audio guide on our headphones and it was fascinating as well as impossible to think Michelangelo could create such a masterpiece under the circumstances.  Even though much of what our audio guide said was the same as what our tour guide.  It's one thing to learn about it outside with a pointer vs. being in the chapel to see its breathtaking beauty.  I'm so glad we downloaded the audio guide!

When the Pope asked Michelangelo to paint the ceiling he said no.  He was a sculpture not a painter. However the pope pleaded, bribed, and then threatened Michelangelo to do it.  Michelangelo finally relented as long as he could do it his own way.  Not only was this project massive (5,900 sq. feet), but he had to design and erect the scaffolding.  

To paint the ceiling they would plaster a section and then Michelangelo would paint on the wet plaster.  So if he didn't  get it right the first time they had to wait for it to dry and then scrape the whole thing off and do it again.  I had always heard that Micelangelo was on his back when he painted the ceiling, but thats not the case.  He was standing!  The ceiling took him 4 years to complete and it almost killed him.  Can you imagine the physical pain of looking up at the ceiling would do? Not only that but paint would get in his eyes and just the mental stress of it all.  Its no wonder that many art scholars say that the Sistine is the single greatest work of art by any one human being.

   

Once inside the chapel, I was extremely surprised at the ceiling.  I really only knew of the most famous section of the ceiling where God creates Adam (the finger touching picture),  I had assumed that the ceiling would be domed shaped to fit in with most of the chapels in that area, and was surprised that it was long and narrow.  I also didn't imagine the pictures would be divided the way they are.  I assumed it was one large picture, similar to the Last Judgement wall.

One of the things our tour guide told us, was that in the 1980's a massive renovation was done to the Sistine chapel (1980-1994).  They were cleaning away all the grime from centuries of candle smoke and soot.  After the restoration scholars where blown away at the color and detail that had emerged.  One scholar even said "Every book on Michelangelo will have to be rewritten" because no one knew that Michelangelo painted in such vibrant colors.  There is a section in the corner of the chapel that they left unrestored so you can see the difference the restoration made.

The Vatican and Sistine chapel where really one of the top highlights of the trip.

Since we were at the Vatican on a Wednesday the Pope was in time we couldn't just go to St. Peters from the Sistine chapel and instead got to walk back through the museum to exit. The vatican was massive and being on a tour we missed a lot (like the Egyptian portion) and the things we did see we didn't linger very long at with the exception of Raphel's room and the Sistine, but I loved learning in detail the things we did see.  We would have been so overwhelmed had we tried to see everything and not really even know what we were looking at.  I guess walking back through we could have stopped some more to look, but I think we overstimulated and hungry so we just left.  (FYI the food at the Vatican cafeteria is horrible, but we didn't have very many choices)

Here is the beautiful spiral staircase to exist the museum. 

Istanbul/Rome: Day 5

September 8

Before we left Istanbul to fly to Rome, we had some time to kill and so I wanted to spend the last couple hours soaking in Istanbul's greatest sights at Sultanahmet park.  It was a wonderful time to just relax, sight see, people watch, and just soak in Istanbul's beauty.

Since this day was mostly a travel day and not much happened I'd thought I'd write about the city life.

There are food vendors througout the city.  Most sold kabobs, grilled corn, and gilled chestnuts that I thought smelled horrible.  There were smaller merchants like this one selling nuts and others fruit.  The only thing we bought at these stands was bottled water.

Restaurants are lined up and down the streets and are small mom and pop type places.  All the tables are outside and very few inside.  While you are looking for a place to eat the waiters are constantly bombarding you with looking at their menu and trying to get you to eat at their place.  It was annoying. I love how haggle free america is!

One of the things I noticed that the local men have their hangouts.  You'll see groups of them at barbershops, kabob places, but I never saw any woman groups.  You can definitely feel the culture where men seem to rule.

Oh my goodness isn't he adorable?!  I had to ask his parents to take a picture.  There were a few little boys like this dressed in white.  I'm not sure what the purpose is, but it looks like a ceremonial outfit.  Maybe for a baptism?  I tried googling it and couldn't find the answer.

Just some different street views.

This was our view at breakfast every morning at our bed and breakfast.

This was looking on the other side at breakfast.

outside a souvenir shop.  A lady hand quilting a turkish rug.  All throughout the city were carpet salesman.  They are extremely nice and personable, but you get so tired of so many of them asking you to come see their "family business".  One day after a long day of sightseeing we stopped to rest our feet under a tree, we struck up a conversation up with the guy next to us and was showing us photo's of him and his wife and their recent trip to Rome.  We were having a great conversation, until he asked us to see his family business.  Ugh why did he have to ruin it!  As soon as we told him we weren't interested he was polite, but left.  We did go to one, and the carpets are really nice, we just weren't in the market for one.  You quickly learn to say "no carpets" to any turkish man that came up to you wanting to small talk.

Lots of stay dogs and cats throughout the city.  Some dogs even had electronic tags on their ears.  I wonder if someone is doing research on them.

Man feeding the birds some leftover corn.

 Istanbul has Mosques on every corner as Utah has LDS churches.  

The Turks love their Turkish delights, turkish/apple tea, baklava, and baklava with pistachios.

Loved this sign outside the cistern, especially since our next destination is Rome.  Allahaismarladik (goodbye) Istanbul!  Ciao (hello) Roma! 

Rome

We arrived in Rome late that night and didn't do any sightseeing.  We did find this gelato place right around the corner from our hotel.  This is the number 1 gelato place and where all the locals go.  There was always a long line no matter what time you went.  It was so good! We prefered the gelato in Rome over the baklava in Turkey!

Istanbul: Day 4

September 7

Our last full day in Istanbul.

Hippodrome

This site was once the scene of chariot races and the center of the Byzantine life.  Its located next to the Aya Sofya and the Blue Mosque.  There are two obelisk's that are on opposite ends where the chariot race would circle around.

 This obelisk was first set up in the Lexor from Pharaoh Thutmose III in around 1425 BC and in 309 AD a Roman Emperor had it brought all the way from Egypt to be re-erected here.

 The serpent obelisk

The Grand Bazaar

We could not come to Istanbul without seeing one of the largest and oldest markets in the world; the Grand Bazaar!

Brad and I aren't much for buying souvenirs, but we had fun walking around seeing what they had to offer.  We almost bought a beautiful hand sewn table runner, but they wouldn't except our offer on how much we were willing to pay.

 The market is massive and you could get lost for days.  I know we got turned around a bit.

 The Spice Market

Even though on the map this was supposed to be just down the street from the Grand Bazaar, we got so lost trying to get there!  Although we did get to see where and how the locals shop outside of the touristy area, but my how my legs got tired!

The actual spice market was small compared to the Bazaar and not too exciting to see.  Just a lot of spices and tea sets.

Galata Bridge

We crossed the Bosphorus river to see what the European side of Istanbul had to offer.  It definitely had a different feel to it compared to the historical Old City and we quite liked it.  

We stopped off at Galata Tower to see the beautiful view of the city.  This tower was built in 1348 and served as a watchtower for the city.

Gorgeous 360 view of the city!  So fun to see.

Istanbul Modern

 One of the top things all the guide books and internet told us to see in Istanbul was the Istanbul Modern Museum.  Which is right down the street from the  tower.  I guess Brad and I aren't much of modern art type people.  There were one or two things we liked, but overall it wasn't our cup of tea.

 We then tried to find the rainbow stairs that I've heard about (they are regular stairs that someone painted each step on the color of the rainbow), but we couldn't find it and later found out we were headed in the wrong direction.  We had already walked a long way and didn't want to backtrack.  Oh well.

Hamam

We took the tram back into Old City and decided to cap off our last night in Istanbul by taking a Turkish Bath.  Doesn't the saying go "when in Turkey, do as the Turks?" ok maybe I made that up.  But taking a Hamam Bath (aka Turkish Bath) was one of the highlights of the trip.

The outside of a Hamam.  

Here's how it went:  As we arrived we picked the bath we wanted.  We did the bath plus an oil massage.  The men and women are then separated to opposite ends of the Hamam. I was then given a kit (girls are given a bikini while the men are naked) and I went to the dressing room to change.  I was a little nervous about wearing a bikini as I normally do not like to show that much skin.  I was extremely surprised that when I opened my kit to find that it was only a bikini bottom and no top.  I left the dressing room clutching my towel.  I then went into the steam room for my bath.  My attendant immediately ripped the towel from off of me and I stood there in shock at being almost completely naked with a bunch of other naked women.  After the initial shook wore off it really became no big deal (I guess after delivering 3 babies I've already lost all my dignity) and I had quite the pleasant experience.

For obvious reasons I did not take pictures inside the Hamam, but I found these ones off the internet to give you an idea of what I'm taking about. They have beautiful dome ceilings with holes to let in the light.  Ours was at night so we didn't see it in its daytime glory.

In the steam room all the women lay on a warm circular marble platform for about 20 minutes.  It was heavenly! After my steam bath my attendant brought a bucket of soapy water and scrubbed me all up and down! I was COVERED in bubbles, and after she washed my body she even shampooed my hair.  She was so nice too.  She kept saying how beautiful my face was and asked if I was Italian.  When I said American she grabbed my face and kissed both my checks.    

After my bath I went upstairs to be given an oil massage.  They do your entire body, butt and all!  It felt so good.  Brad and I both agreed it was one of our favorite parts of Turkey and would love to do it again if given the opportunity.