This weekend, I visited Rome with FUA’s Educational Field Trips (EFT) to go inside Vatican City and, during my free time, the Roman Coliseum. It was also a field trip for students taking the Michelangelo, Caravaggio, and Bernini course, so I also visited many churches and a villa. Michelangelo Buonarroti was a 16th century Renaissance sculptor, painter, and architect. Caravaggio was a 17th century Baroque painter famous for his realism and use of chiaroscuro, light and dark, in his work. Bernini, also from the same period, produced sculpture and architecture.

After we arrived in Rome on Saturday by high-speed train and dropped off our luggage, we visited several churches, one of which was reached through a tunnel after climbing up stairs. The Church of San Pietro in Vincoli featured Pope Julius II’s tomb, which included Michelangelo’s statue of Moses.

Surprisingly, after seeing Caravaggio’s paintings in the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi and Basilica of Sant’Agostinto, we had enough time to go inside the Pantheon.

The next stop was the Vatican, where we went inside the Sistine Chapel. I had always imagined the Sistine Chapel to be bigger and grander. The ceiling was definitely high like I thought, but the crowds of visitors talking and taking pictures, despite repeated warnings by staff, ruined the atmosphere. We visited Saint Peter’s Basilica and looked at Michelangelo’s Pietà.

My friends and I were concerned that we wouldn’t have enough time for the Roman Coliseum, because our friends told us that the lines were long. When we finally had free time after visiting the Vatican, we discovered that it was closed so we went to the Trevi Fountain instead.

We had a good turn of events on Sunday because the Galleria Borghese closed at 11am. While the villa was open, the students in the Michelangelo, Bernini, and Caravaggio class explained the featured sculptures and paintings. After we left and looked at a few churches, we had free time starting at around 1pm, which meant more time than the itinerary planned, so we rushed to the Roman Coliseum.

The lines to the tourist hotspot moved very quickly. After going through security, my friends and I struggled with the tall steps and eventually made it to the second level of the coliseum, where we walked around and admired the “first stadium.”

However, the best part of Rome was the Roman Forum. It was less crowded than the Roman Coliseum and was a large space full of ruins. I had fun walking around the old structures. We noticed an elevated area with people, which turned out to be the Palatine Hill, and went there. My friends and I had incredible views of the ruins and Rome.

Even though I got tired of visiting churches (they were beautiful nonetheless, especially Saint Peter’s Basilica), Rome was a great experience. I was amazed by the dynamic between modernity and antiquity. History is present in Florence, too, but the history present in Rome goes way back.

Crafting into the sunset,
Virginia

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