Overwhelmed

As I wrote that title I started cracking up internally thinking of that line from the movie 10 Things I Hate About You. "Can you ever just be whelmed?" "I think you can in Europe."

Anyway last Friday, I was very overwhelmed. Still recovering from jet lag, UD woke us up at five in the morning and we piled into buses, dressed in our very best. We knew we were nearing Rome when we began to see aqueducts running parallel to our route along the Appia. Then we passed through the walls of the City and saw St. John Lateran on our left, a Church with amazing huge statues on the roof. We made our way northwest past more and more ancient landmarks, stopping just outside the Vatican. As soon as I got off the bus I linked arms with several other girls, and we strolled briskly under arches and past impressive embassies, squealing with delight at our first steps in a city more ancient than any in America. We entered the Piazza and passed the fountains and the ancient obelisk brought all the way from Egypt to rest in the Circus of Nero, where the Vatican is today. Luckily we all passed the Basilica's strict dress code, and then we arrived in perhaps the biggest building, and certainly the biggest church I have ever been in. There is no way to describe how big it is. You can't help but look up as you walk along, hoping you don't bump into an ancient nun or some young Italian priest. The ceiling is high, the floors are long, the statues are graceful giants, and the paintings show beautiful shadowy scenes on every wall.

We couldn't stop to take in any sights just yet. We hurried over to a side altar, the Chapel of San Giuseppe, where the bodies of Sts. Simon and Jude are buried. There the UD chaplain presided over mass for us, while we gazed in awe on the beautiful paintings and statues that surrounded us. After mass had ended, we walked around the church attempting to be able to remember even a small portion of the sights that covered every surface. The breaking dawn (heh heh) came through the eastern windows, lighting up the spirals of dust started by the shuffling tourists. Michelangelo's Pieta was behind glass, but you could still see how beautiful and calm the expression of Mary was. Out in St. Peter's Square we took a class picture and then began walking tours of Rome in small groups with different professors and RAs.

One of my favorite things to discover was all the public water fountains Rome has to offer. The water is cold and delicious, and spouts from water fountains both decorative and practical, some near every major landmark. My group wandered from the Vatican to the Castel St. Angelo, and down the Bridge of Angels, through beautiful side streets to the Piazza Navona with Bernini's famous Fountain of the Four Rivers (sadly it was under renovation, so we couldn't get a good view of it). We also saw the Pantheon in its strange juxtaposition of pagan and Christian, a church with a famous painting by Caravaggio, the Trevi Fountain with blue water flowing around beautiful white statues, and we ended up on the Capitoline Hill looking down on the Roman Forum. There we reunited with the rest of the class and passed by the towering walls of the Colosseum as we walked to try our first Italian pizza.

As you can tell from the title, it was too much. I can't remember half of the things I saw, and could appreciate them even less. I'm so thankful I have months to spend here to see these things again, even if I do miss my home. I can tell you that the highlight of the day was St. Peter's Basilica. It is gorgeous and gigantic and amazing.
That reminds me of another one of my favorite quotes.

"Crime?"
"Stampeding cattle."
"That's not much of a crime."
"Through the Vatican?"