Vatican and back home....

Vatican Vatican Vatican.....Another early morning, but the sun was shining on our last day in Italy. Sad to think about it, even though we al lmiss our families and the comforts of home, it is always very exciting to be travelling around the world. And from our point of view, when you have very little to worry about in the area of discipline, then it seems like a piece of cake. Group Health update...Kelly is vertical and looking more presentable to today and my little buddy Liam is still feeling a little queezy, not sure because of the food or because he thinks he may be entering the priesthood today while he is at the Vatican. He is fine Marsha just has a bit of an upset stomach, personally I think its because the Leafs just keep losing.....

Weaving through traffic in a bus is an art form, fittingly enough we are headed to the Vatican Museum for the morning. Thank gosh for Summerside because what is about 10 miles in total takes about 35-45 minutes because of traffic. Rome is home to the most cars per capita in Europe and is home to over 900,000 motor scooters. Far too many vehicles and they all drive by themselves...strange for a city that is so into conservation and re-use for the last 2000 years.

Upon arriving at the outer wall of the Vatican we prepared ourselves to cross the border, as you know the Vatican is the smallest country in the world somewhere in the range of ½ square kilometre. Very fascinating! The kids are ready for a morning of art, ho hum to many, but I really don’t think they realize just what and who has work in here. Hopefully when the guide mentions Michelangelo and Raphael they don’t have visions of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. For the most part, the Papacy inaugurated the museum to house many of its collected pieces throughout their history as well and open it up to new and aspiring artists to have their pieces displayed within their walls. None of the pieces are bought or sold, all donations or conquests of time.

Much of the early pieces are works from ancient Rome and Greece and are actually the pieces or styles of pieces where Michelangelo learned to sculpt. As we know, Michelangelo was not a painter by trade, but obviously became very well known for this talent. After traversing through centuries of sculptures and pieces of ancient art we moved onto the painted apartments of former Papas. Now these were impressive, especially when they begin to tell you that they are painted by likes of Raphael. Perfectly before our eyes were some of the most famous fresco depictions in the world...very wild!!!

The artwork is much to lengthy to describe, because in order to do it justice you would need to describe it piece by piece and I am no art critic. I can barely draw stick people on my board!!! In the last few hallways prior to the Sistine Chapel we were able to view more contemporary religious pieces of art, interesting but obviously nothing can compare to Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Chapel over a period of 4 years, many do not know that this was his first attempt at painting. If I may, he did ok for his first time!!!!! On the entering wall of the chapel is the “Last Judgement”. Speechless....what is so cool about these pieces are the symbolism and hidden pictures that you can find, and of course you can find out the reasoning behind the symbols you can see he had quite a sense of humour. If you look in the bottom right hand corner of the pci you have just googled, you will see a man entwined with a serpent and ram horns growing from his head. As we found out this morning originally the Vatican or “at least” the Vatican secretary did not like the fact Michelangelo painted nudes. The secretary ordered them covered and he said no. Well in true Vatican style, no was not an acceptable answer so they hired another painter to cover up the genitalia. Michelangelo went one step further as that figure I mentioned earlier in the bottom right hand corner is in fact the secretary and to boot Michelangelo has the serpent biting him you know where!!!

Time to leave the Chapel, which I could have stayed in for hours looking at all of the different characters and levels of it and mostly because I am not sure when I will ever see it again. I really hope I do see it again someday. Exiting into St. Peter’s Square just to the left we got our first glimpse of the Swiss guards, or as Liam said....”Is that those funny Japanese guards??” I have since told him the difference and we had a good laugh. St. Peter’s Square is amazing, the people are milling around and I could picture a mass given by the Papa and thousands of people standing in the square. This year’s Christmas ceremony live from the Vatican will certainly take one more meaning for me this year, now that I have been. Off to the Basilica....WOW WOW WOW!!!! If I thought the Basilica of St. Paul was large, I am not sure what this would be described as. The Latin inscription on the middle ring of the church has letters that are almost 7 feet tall. They look about 1 foot tall. We, the chaperones, all agreed that there is no point in trying to describe the Basilica because it is beyond description. None of us have ever seen anything like it and you need to go there to understand. I realize that this is a bit of a letdown if you were expecting a complete online tour, but I wouldn’t know where to start and I certainly couldn’t do it justice. In all areas it deceives your eyes, and in true Michelangelo style(he was the architect) you are amazed by all that you see, not just a couple of things, but everything you and you almost wondered if you died and went to...well you know.....especially for Catholics!!! The excitement for the mass was beginning to set in.

We soon headed off for some free time, lunch and of course more shopping. Jordanne continued he assault on her bank account, Liam was feeling better at this point but was the opposite of Jordanne as he was trying to escape Italy without dropping so much as a Lira, and Pat has begun to develop an interesting skill for bartering with the street vendors. Vanda and Steve watch out when he gets home and begins negotiating for an extended curfew or the family car. He is impressive!!! By the way, when we have free time everyone travels in groups of 3 minimum and other than today usually had a chaperone with them. They have become very confident and very wise travellers in a short time and besides we secretly follow them quite often as
they are easily picked out of a crowd.

Back to the Vatican after a 3 hours of free time for a large group photo with all of the other groups. Do you remember when once upon a time I told you that there were be a large number of students attending??? The last meeting I had heard about 800 students would be attending, not sure where the info came from but I was wrong. We were 1200 strong and another 200 parents and grandparents for a total of 1400 in St. Peter’s Square, and of course our students were the best behaved, best looking and the smartest....just like proud parents!!! We began to line-up for entrance to the Mass for the Fallen Canadian soldier attended by two Vatican priests and presided over by Father Gaby Legault of the CDN. Armed forces, no Papa but we knew that already.

The mass was held in the secondary altar, as no one other than the Papa holds mass on the main altar and it was truly a beautiful ending to a great week. Father Gaby talked about the pilgrimage they made to Ortona, the lives they remembered and the lives they would change by getting others involved in remembering the men and women who have sacrificed so that we could have “our today.” HE also talked about the need for peace in the world and how they were the leaders of tomorrow and they had the power to make that happen. Communion time and all were invited to take the host if Catholic or be blessed at the altar, many of our students chose one of the author. Liam was a little sceptical because of his queasiness all day but by the time communion rolled around he said he was doing fine, and I said good because your mother will kill me if I don’t get you to the front of the Basilica for communion at the most famous church on all the world.

End of the day arrived with everyone back on the bus and you can tell I am fading fast again....wake up time is at 3:15 and it is 11:15...I will leave you with one picture tonight as you call can see the Vatican when your kids get home.

The end of the journey leads back to where I wanted it to lead....connecting the past and the present through the eyes of our youth of today. Remembering those that have come and gone before us and the sacrifices they have all made so that we can live in a safe and peaceful country. Don’t ever forget what the veterans have done for us, because before too long all of those stories will be buried with them. Talk to a veteran, shake a veteran’s hand and don’t ever forget what they put on the line!!!! Enjoy Karen and Kenny.....

PS With us luck and thank you to all of you for reading the blog...see you all in a few hours....
dc