Week 5!

This week began with venturing to San Pietro to sketch and it was the first true day of extreme heat since I have been in Rome. Afterwards we headed inside the Vatican Museum to explore. There were so many amazing, varying styles of pieces within, in conjunction to the beautiful structure itself. The Sistine Chapel was gorgeous and so more overwhelming than pictures could describe. The amount of detail and work the artists put into this complicated artwork was incredible. Later in the week, we also visited St. Peter's, which was incredibly beautiful. We climbed to the dome and partially up you overlook the chapel below, which when down there looking up you don't even notice the people above, which puts the space into scale. As we ventured upward the walls start curving in and you are forced to lean up against the other wall, it is indescribable. Once we reached the top, the view was magnificent. You could see the city in all directions as you walked around.

This weekend we headed to Spoleto, Perugia, and Assisi. We first stopped in Spoleto, where we toured around the town for the day and did some sketching.  We continued on that night to Perugia, which was a fun, social town. We spent time looking around the town and visiting different churches in the morning, and then spent the afternoon completing some sketches before catching the train to Assisi. That night we ventured up to Rocca Maggiore Castle and watched the sunset as a group. The next day I did a major hike around the hill venturing to see what I could find. The afternoon/night was spent doing a few sketches, shopping, and then watching the sunset up on the hill again. We made cool shadows on the castle wall before heading back down to the town to watch the soccer game, where Italy won in an exciting shootout! This week was very enjoyable and I got to see magnificent structures that I was greatly looking forward to seeing.