Roma Miscellany

These photos are from various places I visited:

The National Museum of Rome (Museo Nazionale Romano): I have more pictures from this museum, but I still feel that this rock chest is perhaps the most amazing item in the collection. Just look at the detail:


Victor Emmanuel Monument: Emmanuel was Italy's first king. This monument was built in 1870 in an effort to bring together the various regions and create an Italian national identity. Rick Steves' makes mention of the fact that most Romans do not like this monument, often referring to as "the wedding cake," "the typewriter," or the "the dentures." From street level to the roof where you have great views of the city is 242 steps and I climbed them all:


The size of the monument is overwhelming, 200 feet high and 500 feet wide. Everything is super-sized. This monument provides a good example. This statute is of the king, and is 43 feet long and is the largest equestrian statute in the world (oh the facts that Rick includes). The king's moustache is five feet wide and a person could fit into the horse's hoof.


Like so many other countries, Italy's tomb of the unknown soldier, with its eternal flame is located at the monument and is continually guarded by soldiers.


The Pantheon: This famous piece of Roman architecture just comes up from nowhere. You are walking down a fairly narrow alley way and then you exit into a piazza and wham there it is. Built before the fall of Rome and dedicated to martyrs just after the fall of Rome, this building was left untouched by the invading barbarians and locals didn't not use it as a quarry. The columns are all made from one single piece of marble (biggest in Italy) and shipped from Egypt.


The dome is 142 feet high and wide and was Europe's largest until the Renaissance. This dome is 3-feet larger than the one at St. Peter's. The dome becomes more thin and lighter as it rises up and the stone at the highest part is volcanic pumice.



The tomb of Raphael. Victor Emmanuel and Italy's second king are also buried here:



An alley on the way to the Pantheon:


And again, you are walking along and all of the sudden the alley empties out on to a piazza and this is what you see, the Piazza of Stone (Piazza di Pietra). This square was actually set up as a quarry to chip away abandoned Roman buildings. The holes you see in the columns and wall are from people stealing the metal pins that held the slabs together. Which makes one wonder exactly is holding all of this up?


The Trevi Fountain: Italy's fountains are powered by aqueducts and the force of the water flowing out of the fountain depends on the water pressure provided by the aqueduct. As you can see the Trevi Fountain's aqueduct is quite strong. Again a case of walking down an alley way and wham, you are there. You hear the crowds long before you get there.


There are 24 spouts tumbling over 3o different kinds of plants, all carved in stone. The fountain was completed in 1762 by Nicola Salvi, and it looks as if the fountain was carved strait out of the marble used to build the building that sits as the fountain's backdrop. No streets directly approach the fountain, so you have to get there by foot.


The custom is to a coin over your shoulder for a wish and to ensure that you will once again return to Rome. I did indeed toss more than one coin, hopefully ensuring numerous trips back. The money thrown into the fountain is gathered and used to help Rome's poor.


Have to include at least one photo of myself:


The Spanish Steps: The piazza at the bottom of the stairs is named for the Spanish embassy to the Vatican that has been here for more than 300 years. The pink house on the left is where John Keats lived and then died:



Next to the Spanish Steps is this house where Lord Bryon lived:


These photos are the last from Rome, yes I have not even left Rome yet. I am sure you are super excited for what I saw after leaving Rome.

The Pilgrim's Rome

There are three churches not far from where I stayed that are the destination of Catholic pilgrims. I was motivated to go more by the fact that there is a set of stairs that supposedly Christ climb than by the proximity of the churches.

Church of Santa Maria Maggiore: Has some of the best surviving mosaics in Rome. The church was built as Rome decline was beginning. This was also the church where I attended mass on the Sunday I arrived.


For some reason this photo makes me think of an Indiana Jones movie.



This is probably an invasion of privacy on some level, but since you can't see the face of either the person giving confession or the individual taking confession I rationalized taking the photo. There were confessional boots up and down the nave where one could give confession depending on the language you spoke, I did not take advantage of the service.




Church of San Clementine: I will confess here. I didn't not take any pictures of this church because it was dark inside and there was not much that inspired me to take pictures. Either that or they didn't allow you take pictures. Think of it this way, you have reason to visit it when you go. Supposedly, you could pay a fee to enter the ruins of older church and a level below that, the remains of pagan temple.

Church of San Giovanni in Laterano: This church was built by Constantine and was considered the most important during medieval times. The building with the stairs that Jesus climbed is located next door.



One set of doors:


Another set of doors:


The ceiling outside the entrance:


The nave:


The dome:


The alter:


The nave ceiling:


The Holy Stairs (La Scala Santa): I did not climb them. I took the stairs to the left that you could climb on your feet to reach the top and look down.

The World's Smallest State

I spent one day visiting the Vatican City.

The Vatican Museum (Musei Vaticani): I started with the Vatican museum which is full of statues, tapestries, and many other items. The pièce de résistance is the Sistine chapel, but they do not allow photographs. Apparently the company that restored the ceiling agreed to do so only after securing this promise. I don't quite understand why the Vatican agreed to this. It wasn't as if the restoration company painted the Sistine Chapel and therefore getting any royalties for it and I like to think that Michelangelo would want his work to be photographed (at least I like to think he would). Anyway, the only thing I can say that it was a truly amazing experience to stand and gaze up at the most famous ceiling in the world.

The Sistine Chapel is an amazing feat when you imagine the discomfort Michelangelo must have endured in order to complete this masterpiece. The ceiling, depicting Christian history, is 5,900 square feet of frescos, nearly the equivalent of painting a football field. Michelangelo did the majority of the painting himself, and instead of lying down as myth has it he bent backward and reached up. Assistants would apply plaster to an area only large enough that Michelangelo could paint it in one day. Michelangelo had to paint quickly before the plaster would dry. If there were any errors, the plaster was scraped off and the area was painted again. He began in 1508 and finished in 1512.

Since I have no photos of the ceiling I can only provide photos of other paintings and statues from the museum. I just really liked this painting, not very light and airy, but amazing detail on the castle and the cloth in front of it.



The Final Supper:



Julius Ceasar, I think:


Luckily the Vatican believes in Modern art and had a small collection. Here are photos of my favorites:





The Vatican garden:


Various ceilings and floors in the museum:



These two floor pieces are made up of tine little stone squares. Glad I wasn't the person who had to put them all down.








The Sistine Chapel is the last stop in the museum. You are then required to walk around the walls of the Vatican to the piazza in front of St. Peter's Basilica.

St. Peter's Basilica: Rome does not have a modern city skyline because no building can be taller than St. Peter's. The Basilica is extremely large, there are marks on the floor that indicate where the next largest churches would fit if put inside. The church is big enough to hold 60,000 worshipers and stands on 6 acres. Much like the Colosseum, it is impossible to describe or photograph the splendor of this building.


Bernini's seven-story bronze canopy. It sits directly over St. Peter's tomb.



St. Peter's tomb:


The ceiling of the dome:


This is where the marks for the next larges churches are laid:


The nave's ceiling:


Below the dome, St. Peter's throne and Bernini's starburst dove window:



The letters are 12-ft tall.



More proof of my existence:

On the outside:


The colorful guards provided by the Swiss government. They did not inspire fear.



If you stand in a specific spot in the piazza the pillars all line up. Obviously I am standing on that spot.


The thin wire on the corner of the roof is where the white smokes come out when a new pope has been named.


The last two windows on the top row are the pope's study and bedroom windows. Somebody must have forgotten to tell him of my visit.


There were several screens around the piazza for the weekly broadcasts from the pope on Sundays and Wednesdays. I didn't having a strong desire to see the pope, which is why I visited the Vatican on Tuesday to avoid the Wednesday crowd.


Playing around with the black and white feature:

Is that enough photos for Vatican City? I have so many more, maybe warranting another post in the future.