Judgement Day

Two days ago we went to the Vatican. My favourite part was the painting by Michelangelo in the Sistine chapel called "Judgement  Day" to my surprise more so than the painting of the hands touching on the ceiling. "Judgement Day" had lots of detail and was very different from the rest of the paintings in the Vatican museum that we saw before it. Most of the paintings in the main museum were not very bright but "Judgement day" was a bit lighter in its colours and had a lot more going on.




Ethan

Clever ancient Romans

ifitwasntfortheromansallwritingwouldlooklikethis

I'm glad they figured out punctuation!

Paul

Clemesseum.

Yesterday, we went to the Basilica of Saint Clement.  It is actually a church on a church on a church.  On the top level it was just like any ordinary church in Rome.  On the second level down there were a lot of artefacts like ends and parts of pillars. On the bottom level, which was underground, I found out that there was only a very small community and only males were allowed inside then.

After that, we went to the Colosseum.  It was very big and it looked different to how I expected because the top layer was just stone with square windows, instead of arches like other levels.  On the inside the arena part, most of it was uncovered, and underneath it there were stone rooms where I think they might have kept the lions and bears.  Most of the stone seats were worn off, so it looked like a big slope.

After the Colosseum, we went to a pizza place for lunch.  I got a pizza with slices of hotdogs on it.  It tasted like the best pizza I’ve ever had (obviously)!

Angus

Chateau de Chambord

On Tuesday, we went to Chateau de Chambord. First, we saw the inside of the Chateau. There where three floors. We went from the top to the bottom. In the stair case me and my mum wet on one side and Ethan and my dad went on the other side.  In the stair case we could look through windows and see each other.

After we had viewed the inside of the Chateau we all went on a peddle car.  Ethan and my dad went in the back seats to drive and peddle and me and my mum went in the front.  Near the end I had a go a peddling and steering.  I drove terribly!

Au revoir

Angus

Bloody royals

Yesterday we visited the Versailles Palace, and Chateau de Chambord, both former royal palaces to different kings.

Both incredible structures.  The hall of mirrors at Versailles was particularly spectacular, with windows along one side, and then mirrors on the other exactly matching the windows in position and shape.  Chambord was about 2 hours from Versailles (which was just out of Paris), on 4,500 hectares of largely forest.  Inside it was largely empty, although it had a fantastic staircase that they believe may have been designed by Leonardo Di Vinci when he lived there for 4 years.  But it was the setting of this enormous castle, in amongst the forest that was the most striking.

I don’t know enough about French history to make sense of the French revolution, however the enormous excesses at these buildings gives a bit of a hint as to where resentments might have bred.  There was evidently considerable wealth within France in order to construct these palaces, but it would seem that wealth was restricted to a very few, who then felt the need to spend it building grossly excessive homes and living ridiculously decadent lives – the king at Versailles had a going to bed ceremony and a getting out of bed ceremony.

Perhaps it’s no different to other parts of the world, eg, Taj Mahal in India, but here it seems the people decided enough was enough and threw the royals out.  They’ve left behind some great tourist attractions, but I think if I was the average French person back in the day, I’d be glad to see the back of them.

Paul