A visit to Italy

Where do all these people come from? Look at the line of tourist busses! And towards the end, they are double parked. So today became an opportunity to tour the city.

A couple blocks away, along the Tiber river, is Castle Saint Angelo, at some-times a hide-out for the pope, connected to the Vatican by secret tunnels or passageways. It is now open for tourists. The guide books didn't list this as a prime site, so we took a few outside pictures and went on. (Upon doing more research later, this may have been a mistake - apparently it is very interesting.)

Continuing towards the Coloseum, we passed the Forum of Trajan, outside Trajan's Market that survived Nero's fire in 64AD.

You can see the several layers of excavation - for example, the fine brick (?) wall behind the heavy stone wall, and even a column still partially buried in the grass at the bottom, just off the tip of the street light.

A few blocks past the Colosseum we visited the Church of San Clemente, one of the more interesting churches in Rome. Unfortunately it strictly enforced a no picture policy, so here is an outside view, with the "upper" church from the 12th century at street level, built on top of the lower church from the 4th century - you can see the entry to the lower level, accessible from the door seen here about 5 feet below street level. But the lower level was built on top of Roman homes and shops dating back to the time before Christ, where early Christian met in homes rather than churches. (This part of Rome is in a valley, so the steet level has gradually risen over the centuries with erosion from the surrounding hills.) When you go through the lowest level (for a fee) you can still see the alleys between homes, and an underground spring still brings water to that now buried community. I would have loved to have been allowed to take indoor pictures!

We returned past the Colosseum, constructed around 72 AD, and at it's peak, seating about 50,000. One report said about 1/3 was still standing.

This is the other side of the Colosseum. Although much of the guts are gone, the amount that is still standing is amazing. When I was in Rome 25 years ago, this area at the base (with the vendor stands) was part of the highway around the Colosseum ... it appeared to be in the center of a traffic circle! The roads have fortunately been rerouted farther away. When we were in Germany we toured a smaller Roman Colosseum where the underground facilities were still complete, allowing us to appreciate where the gladiators, lions, and other competitors waited.

The Arch of Constantine, from 315 AD, is nearby. That is the Colosseum in the background on the right.

You can't leave Rome without seeing the fountains of Rome. On the way back to the hotel we stopped by the Trevi Fountain

Then we went on to the Spanish Steps. The first McDonalds in Rome is still about a block from here, but I maintained my record of never eating at a McDonalds in Italy.

At the foot of the Spanish Steps is another fountain, of course.

The water in the Roman fountains is drinking water, not recirculating water, so Jenny filled a water bottle, hoping that this was not the fountain with fertility powers.

Shortly after you enter the museum you can go out on a balcony overlooking the Vatican Gardens - numerous office buildings, walking paths, and even a train station on a private rail spur. From the balcony you can see St. Peter's Basilica Dome, which is large, but St. Peter's Church is so large that you cannot see the dome when you are near the building.

There was practically a whole building with ancient Greek, Roman, and other stonework, especially burial vaults. Interesting in life, but boring in pictures, so here is a sample.

More modern, as in Medieval and Renaissance, there were huge galleries of sculpture - busts, statues, and scenes. This is just one hallway of many, to hopefully show the scale of the museum.

The weather was beautiful, so we took the opportunity to walk in several of the Museum Gardens

Most of the signs were in both Italian and English, but at the end of one garden path, there was a stairway down underground with a sign only in Italian. People seemed to be happy as they returned, so it probably wasn't an exit or torture chamber, so we went. It turned out to be the Vatican transportation museum, large enough to be a decent museum itself, so if you are interested, you can link to our garage tour.

In countless rooms the art was the room itself, not just the pieces displayed in the rooms. The best artists of the day were commissioned to paint these rooms, some of which were used as "royal" residences before the Vatican Museum became a museum.

I am not ready to have this type of art painted in my home, but it sure is impressive

Note that the big light in the bottom of the picture is taller than the people in the room - at the height of the big doorways - the scale is huge.

This stained glass window was displayed in front of an open window. It was amazing how many people were taking flash pictures, which would not show the beauty of the light coming through the glass.

It is also a bit of Science Museum. They not only explained embalming and mummification, but had an actual ancient mummy on display. (Many of the church altars in Rome have Saints or Popes in their altars - entire bodies or skeletons, not just a relic fragment. Of course, this guy was older than the saints).

Some of the art was new (if I remember right, about 60 rooms of new art). The metal sculpture told a story with three groups on each side of the room, approaching "heaven" in the center - at the right of this picture.

Many of the hallways are lined with hundreds (literally) of cabinets containing smaller items such as gifts collected by the popes. Most of the cabinets are painted institutional colors from the 1930s, but some are beautiful in themselves... I couldn't resist a picture of this open cabinet, even though the intent is to display the contents, not the cabinet. Gradually they are converting the cabinets from storage to display.

Here is one of the cabinets that has been converted to display ... long enough ago that it was time to clean and dust.

A barrier was placed in the hallway to keep the visitors back, a work table was brought in (marble, or course), the items were removed and dusted, and the case was cleaned. I was shocked that the workers were not wearing the usual protective cotton gloves. The guy behind the workers was a guard who paced back and forth as they worked.

On the way back to the hotel (now 4:45 pm - remember we were at St. Peters at 6:30 am) we walked by an ordinary apartment building a couple blocks from the Vatican. In the sidewalk were three brass plates

What a grim reminder but a great memorial to three people who were arrested here and sent to Auschwitz - a couple on October 16, 1943 (the husband was executed a week later), then they apparently came back for their son on April 16, 1944, who died March 19, 1945.

Today will mark the third assault on St. Peter's Basillica - to hopefully finally get to see it inside. Again we arrived at 6:30 am (and were not the first in line). At 6:45 they started clearing us through airport-like security - metal detectors, put the cameras and electronics on the counter for examination.

After clearing security we waited at the front door for the 7 am opening.

Looking back across the plaza, towards the river, the city was just starting to wake up

While waiting we wandered, exploring the 30% that was still open to the public.

Despite the bullet proof glass added since my last visit, the Pieta was still beautiful, on the right as you enter.

The inside of the dome was spectacular. It is also high, 433 feet (43 stories) as we proved later when we climbed to the top (between the inner and outer layers of the dome).

You can take an elevator to the first level, about 10 stores up, and walk around a balcony inside the dome, looking down at St. Peter's. From this vantage point, you can see three of the many masses still being celebrated in the church below, despite being after 8 am.

One of the problems of a church this large is that the artwork has to be even larger to be seen from below. Note this huge mosaic on the balcony. One book explained that a typical statue, to seem "right" at ground level, needed to be 15 feet tall, but a statue above the first needed to be 25 feet tall to seem the "same" size.

We could also see them setting up for the "big mass" that was going to be celebrated at the main altar (behind the high altar) at 9:30. Note all the chairs added in the center for the officiants. When we later saw the procession (endless) we counted over 10 bishops in miters. When they took off their miters, the skull caps were scarlet. Thus the concelebrants appeared to be 10 cardinals, not merely bishops. Rumor later said that 50 or 60 Americans who had completed their studies in Rome were being ordained deacons. We met one of them, from Pennsylvania, celebrating at dinner with family and probably 50 friends (they took most of the restaurant where we were having dinner).

Not far above the balcony, you can walk on the roof, or take the 320 steps up (and another 320 down) to the top of the dome. The climb is interesting... at first you can stand vertically on the stairs, but as you go higher, the walls slope and the VERTICAL distance from the steps to the outside wall is less than 6 feet. For part of the climb, I had to walk with my shoulder sliding along the inside wall, my feet not directly under my body.

From the top you get a great view of St. Peter's Plaza, through the morning haze (it was only 8:45 am).

Back on the roof, these are the 12 foot tall statues you can see from the plaza.

Back inside, down from the cupola, you can see the 90 foot tall canopy over the "Papal" High Altar, well illuminated because of the ordination mass still going on at the main altar behind it.

After being "buried" under St. Peter's for over 40 years, The body of Pope John XXIII was exhumed, and brought to a "crystal" coffin under one of the Altars in St. Peter's. (His burial place was then available for Pope John Paul II in 2005.) There was a fairly continuous line of visitors to see his body, but the guards must have thought we had a special reverence for him... there were seats in front of that altar where we sat, waiting for the big Mass to end at 11:00, 11:30, 12:00, 1:00....

At 12:30 the ordination mass did end, and by 1:00 pm all the visitors had been ushered out, and the portable chairs were being removed. By about 1:30 we couldn't understand why the barrier was still up, and found a guard who said it would be closed for the rest of the day. And since it was closed, of course no visitors allowed to the crypt under the church.

Conclusion: the guards are very pleasant and unobtrusive, but they don't have a clue. One who spoke better English admitted that when he came to work that day, he had no idea how much would be closed for how long. We wasted a half day waiting to visit the crypt, based on the uninformed guesses of the guards. Yes, the lack of information, and misinformation (guesses) made us unhappy.

Not enough fountains yet, so on to Plaza Navona, originally built as a track for chariot races, with this fountain at one end (Jenny was a recent addition to the fountain).

This fountain and Obelisk in the center of the Plaza

And this fountain at the other end.

Then on to the Pantheon - built in the Centuries before Christ, used to worship various Roman Gods, then converted to a Catholic Church in the early centuries of Christianity. From the outside (approaching from Plaza Navona) you can see the age of the structure.

On the inside, the statues of the Roman Gods have been replaced with Christian Sculpture, and the building has been well maintained.

This altar is not as fancy as those at St. Peter's, but it, and it's building, are many times as old.

The large dome has been standing for thousands of years, and was the inspiration for other church domes including St. Peter's. There is a hole in the top which proudly allows a circle of sunlight to shine on the inside walls, moving around depending on the position of the sun. Of course that hole in the dome also lets rain enter.

And the outside, at the other side, shows the thousands of years wear, but still firmly standing. Note how the flutes on the outside of the column are worn off, but still visible on the protected inside (next to the guy with the blue shirt).

One final fountain, in front of the Pantheon. An amazing place.

Our plan for when we arrived on Friday afternoon was to visit the Accademia, the museum that houses the famous 17 foot tall marble David statue by Michelangelo. Even Jenny agreed that the original is far more impressive than the copies (and even plaster casts) that we have seen. However, the museum strictly enforced the "no picture" policy, so this is a picture from the Internet. (I will have to eventually find my slides from 25 years ago, and digitize them).

David was not the only feature of the museum - there were many tutorial exhibits on painting and sculpture techniques, including making plaster and bronze copies, using historical examples. There was also a special exhibit of musical instruments including several by Stradivarius.

The Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, known to everyone as Duomo for the dominant dome that can be seen from "everywhere" is certainly impressive, and was only a short distance from our hotel. That dome, completed in 1436, was the largest in the world - larger than St. Peter's in Vatican City, larger than the Pantheon in Rome, larger than St. Paul's in London, larger than the US Capitol in DC, until new technology allowed stadium size domes to be constructed. (Of course, how many of the new stadium domes do you expect to still be standing in 575 years.)

The only rain of the trip occurred while we were in the Accademia museum, and ended before our walk back to the hotel, so things are wet and dark when we came back past Duomo, around dinner time.

The tower is just to the right of the main church. The baptistry is a separate building in front of the church (better pictures later in the trip)

As we were walking, Jenny saw some beautiful fabric in a store window, and went in. She has good taste. It was Valentino fabric, at €250 per meter - roughly $350 per yard. The store was fun... they had a collection of antique cash registers, and even had a hand loom that customers occasionally operate. The owner was delightful.

Saturday was dedicated to the Uffizi - an art museum built in 1581 (yes, 430 years ago) - probably the world's oldest museum. (Be sure to get your tickets in advance.) Start by climbing two long flights of stairs to the beginning of the galleries. The first part was poorly labeled identical size portraits of popes and politicians, hung along the ceiling. Then we learned that these were copies of larger portraits, the copies made by famous artists of the 1500s, in matching size and style, for the Medici, and displayed that way in their palace. No photos again, but there were lots of copies of famous sculptures, by contemporary masters, sized to the requirements of the Medici's interior decorators. The Medici didn't seem to worry about having a copy rather than an original if they were well done, nor were copyrights a concern.

Half way through (following the museum map) you could look out on a great view of the Ponte Vecchio bridge, but more important, could see the private passageway from the Pitti Palace on the other side of the Arno River, over the bridge, and into the Uffizi (which was the Florence Town hall in addition to the museum). Lots of people cheated and used their cameras, like we did, for this picture.

Initially built by the Romans, the Ponte Vecchio bridge is lined with shops originally favored by butchers, who simply dumped their offal into the river. The smell was bad, so in 1595 the Medicis prohibited butchers from selling there, and the shops have primarily been occupied by goldsmiths since.

The lines on the museum map that suggested we were half way through were deceptive... countless extra rooms and corridors in the second half showed a vastly larger collection of artwork. Further, construction is under way to drastically expand the museum - apparently a large portion of their collection is simply in storage.

Outside of the Uffizi is the Plaza Vecchio - the old city hall.

From here we could see the tourists at the top of the Duomo - look at the metal rail just above the orange tiles. Having climbed St. Peter's Dome, we didn't want to bother with this one, even though it is slightly larger.

As we wandered the streets on the south side of the Arno river, we happened on this "7-11 in a box" in a residential area. We were impressed. Three vending machines (or some would say, two vending machines and a coffee machine) plus a microwave oven available to patrons. It offered groceries (pasta, milk, wine, cheese, cookies, mustard, mayonnaise, bread, etc.), batteries, shampoo, deodorant, shaving cream, razors, and even ready-to-heat dinners.

The octagonal baptistry is a separate facility in front of Duomo, rebuilt in it's current size and style in 1059.

The doorway called the Gates of Paradise by Michelangelo include 10 gold plated panels with old testament scenes, carved in 3D using perspective (a radical new technique at the time). Surrounding the 10 primary panels are statues and busts, the two in the center (just below the tour guide's pointer) are the artist and his father. It was built from 1425 to 1452 by Ghiberti. Don't tell anyone that the originals have been moved to a museum for preservation, and these are only copies... the protective steel fence (lowered to only about 5 feet tall during the day) is still raised at night.

This set of baptistry doors (four of the eight sides have doors) are less dramatic, but historically very significant.

Being a baptistry, we need statues of a baptism. I haven't figured out how John the Baptist happens to be carrying a cross... that seemed to come a lot later.

As we wandered in the city, the market by the old Roman Gate was having a wine tasting festival. Buy a souvenier glass for €5, and get as much free sample wine as you want from the vendors from various wineries. We saw that approach in Sydney Australia, but weren't planning on staying in the area today long enough to enjoy it.

I doubt if there is anything significant about this building, but both of us thought it was very pretty as we were walking around.

Doesn't every market have a high arched roof with sculptures in the columns?

Back at city hall (Plaza Vecchio) there are quite a few outdoor sculptures. Outdoors means there is not way to keep people from taking pictures. This one is the "Rape of the Sabine Women."

This one is part of a fountain

This amazing area is basically outdoors - we saw a wedding party gathering, apparently for a Justice of the Peace type wedding.

Notice the details on the top part of the columns.

The end of the Uffizi courtyard (location of the statues), towards the river, has an attractive arch.

About a block away is the Gallieo Museum. The Obelisk in the courtyard is a combination sun-dial (clock) and calendar. My $15 quartz crystal wristwatch is easier to use.

I don't think this statue dates from ancient Rome! One soldier protecting his wounded comrade during the Liberation of Italy (World War II?)

We decided to walk along the old Roman wall to "Michelangelo Park" overlooking the city. It may honor him, but that is not were he lived or played.

The park did have an outdoor copy of the Michelangelo "David" statue

And a pretty spectacular view of the city including City Hall (Plaza Vecchio)

And a view of Duomo, from which you can see how massive the Cathedral, Tower, and Baptistry (behind the tower) really are.

I am not even sure what this little church is... we missed visiting one!

Back in town, we did discuss where our next trip might be - perhaps to some country just emerging from behind the iron curtain, that isn't yet swamped with tourists. The only native may be the policeman. Note how everyone loves the gelato (ice cream).

As you probably know, Venice is a series of islands, the main island has no cars (or grass or trees). The main streets are rivers (or does that make the main island of Venice many separate islands?). The busses are big boats, the taxis are smaller boats.

The tourists and romantics take a gondola for a price that would allow you to buy the boat.

The pedestrian streets have bridges (up the stairs and back down) over each river.

If you live here, you may have a small motor boat tied up at your front door.

Half way to St. Mark's, the Rialto bridge crosses the central "Grande Canal"

The Rialto is covered with stores, reminiscent of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence

There is no fee to enter St. Mark's, and (thankfully) the line wasn't long. Of course, once you are in, there is a fee to see the treasury with the plunder from the 4th Crusade (end of the 12th century), a separate fee for the museum, a fee to see the gold altar, etc. And as seems to be common in Italy, no pictures allowed.

Notice the variety of materials in the entry columns.

After paying an extra fee to see the famous Gold Pala (Altar Piece - normally hung behind the altar or on the front of the altar) I didn't feel too guilty sneaking a picture like most of the other visitors. It was started about about 1000 AD and work continued over 300 years, ultimately including almost 2000 precious stones in addition to the gold.

Evangelist St. Mark's remains are entombed in the high altar, as seen in this surreptitiously taken picture. In 828 A.D. two merchants from Venice, who had stopped in Alexandria to pray at St. Mark's Tomb, stole the body, hid it in pork and vegetables to avoid Muslim control, and brought it to Venice where the church was built to house it.

These are the stairs from the ground level to the balcony level of the church, where the Museum is located (and where we got the pictures from the outdoor balcony). I suspect they realize that by the time you climb the stairs, you are going to be willing to pay the fee, not just say "that's too much" and go back down.