6/2/15

Giornale 4

            For my final solo excursion I’ve changed my usually excursion team of Franchesca and Glenibel and instead went with Elyssa and Ally to the Church of the Gesu. We took the bus to Victor Emmanuel II Monument, which to me is still too humongous and hideous to be part of this great architectural city. Walking from the monument to the church was a bit of mission, we actually ended up walking in circles before we got to the main entrance. We ended up doing more walking than we really had to, I didn’t mind since I had a big lunch and I saw it as burning extra calories. When I enter the church I go straight to a giant mirror near the entrance of the church, since it was he first thing that caught my eye. When I looked at the mirror it was directed toward the ceiling which is has a giant painting of “Glory of the Mystical Lamb”. The purpose of the mirror was so that all of those in the church can view the painting right side up, and don’t have to struggle with their necks to see what it is. The clouds of the painting didn’t seem to actually be a painting, but possibly wood attached to the ceiling since there seemed to be shadows. Elyssa and I were trying to figure out if it was actually wood or just great painting skills that give it some sort of optical illusion. Ally later convinces us that it is all paint and that the artist could have just painted the shadows with the clouds. Just like most churches I’ve seen in Rome there are multiple chapels dedicated to certain individuals. Before I looked for information on the chapels I started looking at all the different sculptures and painting in the church because it all looked so wonderful and breathtaking. As I walked around the church I noticed that there was one chapel that tourist were not allowed to take pictures or enter. It was because that specific chapel was for praying only. Near that specific chapel I noticed that there were individuals sitting together as if they were waiting for something. I turned around and noticed that there was a priest who was holding confession. As I looked at the lit up confession box I begin to think of the last time I did a confession, I was in the 8^th grade. After lapping around the church I decide to look at the information that comes with each chapel. Unfortunately for me all the information was only provided in Italian. I decided to just look up the information later on my laptop. When we left the church we couldn’t find the bus stop to take us back to the university and again when we found it we realized we did more walking than we actually had to do. When I got home I figured out who some of the chapel were dedicated to. One of the chapel was dedicated to Saint Andrea due to the fact that the previously there was dedicated to that very saint. Another individual who has a chapel dedicated to them is Saint Ignatius. The chapel is said to hold the Saint’s tomb with it. At the end of the day though I have to say that the Church of the Gesu was the best looking of all previous sanctuaries I’ve been to, with the exception of the Synagogue.