Rome was what we both remembered it to be from our previous visits there: crowded, impressive, and full of masculine energy. We spent a day in Vatican City, walking around the museums there and absorbing all the [slightly creepy and sadist/masochistic] Catholic art. The Sistine Chapel was a particularly comical point of the day – Morgan continues to randomly shout in serene moments now, “NO PHOTO! NO PHOTO!! SILENCIO!” mimicking the guards who yelled that at the top of their lungs about every 15 seconds or so to the crowded mass of people all craning their heads upwards to see the famous ultimate work of Michelangelo. After shuffling along through the museums for about 4 hours, we also managed to get to St. Peter’s cathedral, though my feet were screaming in protest (too much time laying around in the sun on the beach in Crete made my tootsies forget I ran around a restaurant 60+ hours a week last year!) and I was tired of fighting through the never-ending stampede of tour groups just to be able to have a spiritual moment anywhere.
St. Peters was massive, dark, moody, and full of hidden pagan and mythological imagery. I continue to find it interesting that though the Catholic church claims to be so purist and original as a religion (or at least, never wants to even acknowledge their basic roots in Judaism let alone say that anyone else has ever influenced the Church), despite the fact that it’s early founders borrowed heavily from other religions and ways of thought. Later, they forced the followers of those influential beliefs into conversion or murdered them en masse. Or both. In St. Peter’s there were quite a few hidden dragons, Athena’s, and protective animal spirits amongst the impossibly massive statues lined with equally impossibly beautiful pieces of marble. In the Vatican’s collection of art I distinctly remember seeing Hera and her peacocks decorating the side of a large tapestry of a saint, as well as some fauns and centaurs bordering another large wall-hanging with Christ in the center.
During the week we were there, we mostly just walked all over Rome. The Vatican and St. Peter’s cathedral were the main things on our agenda there (we’d already done the Coloseum and stuff like that on our own previous trips to Rome), and after we’d checked that off the list we just wanted to wander the city. Rome is surprisingly small – after a full day of walking you’ve sort of seen the major stuff to see. What continues to be present about that city for me is the very strong masculine energy I feel radiating out of every giant columned building I see there. Huge phallic monuments, obelisks, muscley (and very homoerotic) statues and fountains, the obsession with power and dominance, and the cookie-cutter way most of their important/large buildings seem to be stamped from the same mould… A big contrast to where we have just been for a month in Crete, and where we are headed now into Umbria. I think I was more in tuned with my soul on top of the mountain in Polyrrinia, watching the sunset and feeling the wind fly 360 degrees around me than I was in the Vatican or St. Peter’s, looking at busts of popes or heavily guarded and poorly displayed pieces by Michelangelo.
So, I think we are ready to shift gears again and experience a different pace. I want to feel my heart in my chest again, that sensation that calmed me in Crete after those months in Turkey, and what this summer is really about for me in general. Last year, though I was able to squeeze in a few trips here and there, I worked too much and too hard with not enough heart-in-chest moments to keep me sane. Now, I’m trying to make it up to myself to I can return to Seattle with a level head and a solid game plan for this next upcoming year. I need to have more of those moments of soul-recognition and celebration.
Also, Rome has been oppressively hot. I’m longing for our ultra-luxury air conditioning unit we had in Greece! We’re now headed to the top of a small mountain, so I have a feeling the temperature-situation will be a bit more bearable. And Morgan is missing the guitar he had been able to borrow from our expat friends during our stay in Chania. Here’s to hoping our new hosts will have a spare instrument or two…
- nova.
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