We awoke early today to catch the shuttle to the train, which is only running a certain amount of hours today due to the workers' strike. I am ok with strikes, and I am very ok with unions. We visited the Vatican. We walked through a million rooms with some art from Raphael and a whole bunch of other people; it took forever to get to the actual Sistene Chapel, and by the time I was there I was literally sitting down on a bench, passing out. Getting up early in the morning is really not my thing. By noon, when we left, I was drinking a Red Bull.
I am not particularly interested in traditional, religious art. And now, a reconfirmation- I am not pleased with the Catholic Empire. The Vatican makes 14 euro off of each person who walks through their doors. Plus more money for audio-tours, gift shops, food, drinks, etc. There is a line from morning til night to get into the place, so tens of thousands of people. And the people of Rome pay a small percentage of their taxes to the Vatican. Yet the Vatican does not pay any taxes- not even on the commercial sale of souvenirs and blahblah. And then, besides all of the other ways the Catholic Church gets money, think of those poor devout people who follow the rule of giving 10% of their income to the church when the collection plate goes around. If you add all of these things up, it is just ridiculous. An anti-gay, anti-choice, anti-condom, anti-everything getting all this money that it does not deserve. I paid to get in, but I am done with churches. Unless there is a dead saint's body part under glass, or some event like a wedding or funeral, I am not granting this institution the privilege of my attention.
We saw some other stuff, such as The Pantheon, which was cool. Until the 60's it was the biggest sphere in the world. I enjoyed it. We saw some other stuff too. Then we went to a few bars.
No comments:
Post a Comment