We've finally gotten to go to the Castel Sant'Angelo! Huzzah! It has been on my list of places to visit for a while. A group of my classmates and I have been trying to get to it for a few days now. Having most of the day off, we've been able to go to it since we were sure that we would have enough time to fully explore the place.
Getting off of the crowded bus, we push our way through the crowd of tourists and vendors towards the entrance of the Castel. While the line is not at all that long, we still need to wait a few minutes until a group of tourists exit and we are let in. At the ticket office, I panic a little as the first ticket seller tells me that she does not have a change for a twenty (which, alas, is the only money I have on me, having spent all my change elsewhere, for fear of incurring the wrath of Italian cashiers who hate giving out change.) Thankfully, I find that the second ticker seller not only is able to break my twenty, but also does not comment on it. After I fumble with my wallet, dropping a few euros onto the ground making me awkwardly scramble around for them, I join the rest of the group and we head into the Castel. As soon as we take only a few steps down, the temperature drops to a deliciously cool temperature and I smile in relief.
While these medieval castles must have been utterly awful to live in, in the winter, and excluding the fact that they did not have modern toilets and other "luxuries" (that we now see as necessities,) I cannot help but think that it must have been awesome to live in one during the summer since it would be, quite literally, cool.
Heading up the spiral walkway, I feel excited, but not entirely sure of what I’ll find inside. As we continued, I began to feel a little bored, as stone walls are not particularly fascinating things (the Fora Romanum is an exception, of course.) Wandering still further, I wondered why I felt bored. After all, I was so excited about this, not five minutes ago! Then a realization hit me. I had been thinking about this from the mindset of a tourist who had no previous knowledge of the fortress, and who was there solely to see the monument as something that they knew that they "should" see. I stood still for a brief moment in a room where there was a large circular window set high in the wall, and began to reflect upon the history of the monument. I set in mind who would be walking around the part of the building that had been built around the tomb, and began to imagine the pope and other church officials, and servants, walking throughout the building. Imagining the rustle of velvet, silk, and other fabrics in the stairwell and the conversations held in the doorways (however serious or mundane,) reinvigorated my excitement, and I went up the stairs to the courtyard. I whip out my camera and take a few obligatory pictures, and then spot a sign for the art exhibit and head in.
Retrospectively, I didn’t like the exhibit very much. There were wonderful things, and it was lovely to see, (and a little ridiculous to imagine living with such beautiful things every day,) but I didn’t feel that the exhibit was organized well. Every exhibit should have a good flow, allowing the viewer to walk comfortable around, and to properly enjoy the pieces. This had awkward corners and spaces, because of the small size of the room, which also meant that you couldn’t stand back to take in large pieces as a whole, and that you constantly had to be aware of other tourists walking behind you. I enjoyed walking on the battlements and the rooftop, and through the corridors, because of the view of the city, and, once again, because I was imagining living there, and of the past that must have occured in all those places.
No comments:
Post a Comment