we have started picking up the usa today at school and looking at some of the things going on back at home, but mostly the weather around europe.

today in rome it was supposed to be nice in the morning, and then rain in the afternoon, and guess what, it did just so. it rained and rained and rained. it was actually kinda sickening. but it worked rather fine actually.

tonight we had signed up for a private tour of the vatican museums, and the sistine chapel. now mind you this isn't one of those crappy tours that the museum or a travel service offers, this was set up to be lead by leannes prof. who on top of speaking english, italian and some other languages, is listed in the footnotes of some of leanne's reading for class as helping translate somethings from ancient latin to greek to english.

so on top of having this intellegent person taking us on a tour of the vatican museums, it was also a private tour. and not like private as in just a group of us walking through the museum trying to get around hundreds and hundreds of other people, but just 30 of us. just the 30 of us in the entire museum, and just the 30 of us in the sistine chapel!

you could see things that you couldn't see before. In fact you could actually see things. more impressivly, you could see the lower half of the walls and the floor (both of which at higly decorated and ornate).

some may say why is it that cool to see the lower half of the walls or the floor? well i'll tell you.

on the floor it is mosaic tile that not only is beautiful, but was brought from different ancient roman palaces and buildings, that were excavated, and re layed piece by piece on the floors of the museum.

then on the lower walls, are marble carvings and small statues that are very interesting to see. or busts of important figures in history.

then we got to the good part. because there were only 30 of us in the sistine chapel, you could see everything and actually appreciate it much better. seeing how Michelangelo devolped his painting style to be more that of sculpting with paint rather than just painting is very amazing. but most of all being able to calmly and serenly enjoy this chapel is probablly the most wonderful of all things.

after our most amazing cultural expierience we went to a very differnt cultural experience. tonight we had dinner at hard rock cafe: rome. we went out with a bunch of people from school and just hung out for like 3 hours before walking home.