7/03/09 -- Rome: Borghese Gallery, Colliseum, Tour of Rome

This day was such a blast! We woke up and went to the Borghese Gallery. The Borghese Gallery is a musum that houses a lot of Bernini's work. My favorite was the sculpture of Apollo and Daphne. It shows Apollo reaching out to grab Daphne, but she turns into a tree and he is unable to save her. Daphne was a beautiful maiden that Apollo was madly in love with, but she did not return the feelings. So she asked her Father, who was the king of the river, if he would turn her into something not so beautiful in order to keep Apollo away from her. When Apollo reached out to grap Daphne her Father turned her into a tree and Apollo could not chase her anymore. Bernini captured this part of the story perfect. It shows Apollo reaching out for her, but at that moment her father is changing her into the tree. Bernini sculpted Daphne's face as if she was regretting her decision, and would rather be with Apollo then this hideous tree.
After the Borghese we took the metro back to the Colliseum. Julia and I were starving so we got off a station before everyone else in order to grab some food. By the time we made it to the Colliseum we only had about a half an hour or so to see the inside before we had to meet as a group once more. So we rushed in and ran through the whole Colliseum. Even though I didn't get to spend as much time in there as I would have liked, it still blew me away. I couldn't believe that there was as much of this building standing as there was. While I was in there I liked to imagine what it would have been like during Roman times. A lot of sad and great events happened inside the Colliseum.
The last thing we did this day was go on our Tour of Rome. We had the greatest tour guide. She was a history of architecutre professor at the Univeristy of Italy, so it was so fun to hear the architectural side to all of the stories and buildings. She took us to some of the major churches in Rome. It turned out to be only about thre because she said there are over 2,000 Catholic churches in Rome alone. The first church she took us to was one of the oldest churches in Rome. It had been built upon Roman ruins, each new basilica just being built on top of the other. We were able to walk through all the old churches because the new one was built right on top of them. It was really neat. We then went to the only church that is dedicated to Mary Magdalene. It was beautiful inside. The Catholic church has this door inside 4 of their main churches that is called the 'holy door'. Every so many years this door is opened and people can walk through it on December 24. After this holy day is over the door is sealed and then cement is put on the back of it so it can't be opened until the next holy year. There was one of these doors in the Mary Magdalene church. It was really different, but cool to see. There is a door just like it in St. Peter's and the pope is the only one that closes and blesses that door. After we visited the churches we went to Trevy Fountain and threw coins in just like on 3 Coins and Fountain. We made wishes that we would return to Rome. It was such a blast!