The day the blog forgot

Even though the group is back in the United States by now, I thought that I would finish up the trip with a summary of our Thursday adventures.

We began the day with a short bus ride to the Vatican for a tour through the museums and St. Peter's Basilica.  The first thing we noticed as we arrived at the Vatican was that the line to enter the museum was over a block long!  Fortunately for us, our group reservation let us skip the line and basically walk right into the museum checkpoint.  We passed through the entrance and into a courtyard where Loredana was able to explain the history and meaning of the fresco in the Sistine Chapel.  After a brief art and history lesson we meandered back up to the balcony for a group picture and then continued to the Acorn courtyard and into the indoor museums.

Our next stop was Laocoon and his sons in and the Belvedere Torso - both amazing examples of Greek sculpture displayed in the museum.  While most of the other sculptures in the museum are ancient Roman copies of earlier Greek pieces, these are well-preserved originals.  We then continued through the halls of sculpture, the hall of tapestries and the hall of maps and entered the Sistine chapel.  No photography is allowed in the Sistine chapel, so students were able to enjoy the masterpieces on the ceiling and walls without the distraction of trying to capture it with photos.  

Our final destination of the tour was St. Peter's Basilica - the Largest catholic church in the world.  Just inside the door, the first chapel holds Michelangelo's Pieta.  This sculpture is the only one actually signed by Michelangelo.  The tour through this church seemed to go quickly, but the sheer magnitude of the building would have been hard to appreciate with any amount of time.

After finishing the tour for the day, the rest of the afternoon was free time for everyone to explore the city center for a final time before we left the next day.  Some of the students took the opportunity to ride the elevator to the top of Vittoriano for a bird's-eye view of Rome.  Others went back for a last look at the Coliseum while some others spent the afternoon shopping or relaxing once they walked back to the hotel.  

Our final group event was a farewell dinner.  This 5 course meal was a relaxing and fun way to end the trip.  Bruschetta, 2 courses of pasta, a meat course, and then desert and coffee--I have no idea how Nate said that he was still hungry!  Along with the food a duet of a guitar player and a flute player, both of whom also sang, provided excellent entertainment and the perfect atmosphere.  The kids had a great time talking and eating, and it seemed a great way to connect with each other before we all packed up and left at 6:00 the next morning.