Rome

In my sophomore year of high school, I had the opportunity to travel abroad to the great country of Italy. It is, to this very day, the best vacation I have ever had. Not only is the country bursting with tasty cuisine, but fashion, art, the effects of the Renaissance, and the remains of the great Roman Empire can be seen at every corner.

Favorite Things

However, my favorite city was Rome. Within Rome were magnificent pieces of art strewn left and right. This is where I saw the Pieta - an amazingly life-like sculpture by Michelangelo. This is a statue that everyone must see in person in order to understand what a great artist Michelangelo was.

Equally impressive was the newly restored Sistine Chapel (detail pictured left). I found out that it had just reopened after years of restoration by the Vatican. They literally cleaned hundreds of years worth of wax and ash from the ceiling, allowing us to see the original colors of Michelangelo's fresco. It was quite breathtaking and I would gladly spend years there, just studying the artwork that covers the walls from head to toe.

What amazed me most about the city was that it was ancient and modern at the same time. People would walk by magnificent art like the Trevi Fountain while sipping on espresso on their morning commute. Rome is a whole city full of people who have become accustomed to having the ancient right along side the new (I believe the Mc Donald's was not too far away from the fountain pictured left!). To me, that is amazing.