Rome

Yesterday (Friday the 28th) I went to Rome. We were split into two groups and my group when to the Vatican. I think we lucked out because it rained a good half of the day. I love it. The smell of rain was so refreshing.
Our tour guide for the visit was this little old Italian woman. She had so much spunk. At one point she was showing us pictures of the Sistine chapel (because you're not allowed to give tours in the actual chapel)and informed us that the ceiling part that Michelangelo painted he started from the end of the creation story and worked his way back to the beginning. Because of this he actually drew Even being created first "and that I think is more accurate" she said "because Adam and Even were actually created not side by side." Our tour guide, Gabriella, holds that the original translation says this and that the rib story was added later. "When somebody asks me how do I know this? I ask them how do they know any different?" :-) She was an instant favourite of mine.
It is so hard to describe what I feel when I'm surrounded by so much history. I saw one gal actually crying in the Sistine Chapel and at one point I thought maybe I'd do the same. I kept asking myself why do people want to keep sculptures with only the torso remaining? Why is this HUGE museum kept and why do so many people come from around the world to see it? Is it just because we learned about it in a textbook at some point? And because the creators of these works of art greatly affected art as it is today? Perhaps those are a couple reasons but I think it is more. I am not an art aficionado so I don't even appreciate fully all of the technical aspects of the art. For me there's something beyond just the art. It is the building, the place itself. To be withing walls that hold so much history is intoxicating. Just walking down the halls and into the Sistine Chapel there is a presence, a largeness (pardon the not so great choice of words)that surrounds me and feels powerful. That is why people hold to history and places like the Vatican. Its history and prevalence today is powerful.