St Peter's

We toured the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel earlier in the week, but photos were not allowed and the crowding was terrible. An early effort on Wed. to visit the basilica flopped as the Pope addresses the public at 10am on Wednesdays, so access was impossible until mid-afternoon. On our last morning we made early, beat the crowds and were even able to access the dome.

S. Peter's Basilica. We managed a visit on our last morning, got there early and beat the crowds (especially the cruise ship hoardes)

Two altars are seen, the closer is an 'in the round'. Nothing we had seen (and believe me, we saw plenty of big churches) came close to the scale and majesty of St. Peter's.
Both sides of basilica were lined with altars , and masses were being held constantly (priests must celebrate mass daily) at those smaller altars; six or seven were in progress during our visit.

We climbed to the top of the dome. It's shadow is cast over the Papal gardens, most of which can be seen.

Note the 'bump-out' of the dome at the bottom of the picture? there are many around the dome, each with a unique inscription.

A view from the top! With the camera on a ledge
the shutter timer did the work .

It looks like the sunbeam is chasing Carol! The view is toward the front of the basilica.

Seen here is the right side of the basilica with the camera turned sideways but still unable to capture a full vertical field.

The Pieta, Michaengelo's first major work (he was in his mid-twenties when he completed it) is immediately in the front of the basilica on the right. There is a heavy glass shield protecting the piece.

The last 2 postings were made from home. Internet service in Rome was just too sketchy, especially when relatively lartge files were involved.

We hope you got a little taste of Italy. Ciao!

More Pompeii

Pompeii: a town of thousands, already 800 years old when Christ walked the earth, with theatres, stadiums, roads, sidewalks, plumbing, sewage management, even 'crosswalks'. A new Pompeii sits outside the old and we lunched there before going to the dig site. The new town is like any other small Italian town, except for the sleeping monster right behind it.

The roman road in Pompeii was no place for human feet: it was part of the sewer system. Notice the raised, oval stones rising out of the road? crosswalks! at the same elevation as the sidewalks. The wheels of carts and their draw horses passed between, their axles clearing the tops. Notice the grooves in the road stones? worn from the iron or bronze 'tire' of the wooden wheels. Our guide likened the conestoga wagon wheel to the ancient design (nothing new under the sun, he reminded many times)




Those stones and everything else are a rare and unique time capsule because they've remained in place for thousands of years, unlike most other places where the building materials were 'retasked' (eg: much of the colosseum became Papal basilica)


Their neighborhoods are marked at the perimeters by tile insets such as this; and street addresses on every place, all well preserved by Vesuvius' residue. (reportedly, 2/3 of the mountain blew off, plus the ash and pumice)










Many of the remaining homes were thoroughly decorated. Our guide (a college professor) informed that all efforts to replicate the pigmentations have failed - possibly because plants used originally are extinct.













Plumbing. A terra cotta pipe with a flange
connection much like those used today.












A typical void-casting: the individual appears to be shielding his breathing, perhaps using a cloth as a filter, but in vain since the toxic, volcanic gasses would have displaced any breathable air.











And finally, Vesuvuis; sleeping now, but awake only about 50 years ago, though not in full fury like 79AD. The view is from the Forum, a central square surrounded by 'municipal' buildings. The peaks seen here are not different hills, but remnant sub-peaks: imagine the outer-most slopes coming to one peak to get an idea of how much taller Vesuvuis originally was.

A Long Day - to Pompeii

Just got back from Pompeii and can't manage a complete posting. 16 hr trip, less than 2 hrs in the dig! Days would be needed to see it all!
Can report that Vesuvius buried the entire region in 79AD under 20 to 40 meters of ash & pumice, thus preserving the town.
Many other towns got buried by lava, and probably will never be uncovered.
Early archaeology kept finding voids, and eventually the idea arose to fill one with plaster: the result was whole-body casts of victims, apparently overcome in their tracks and encased. Their remains turned to dust leaving a reverse body cast. Hundreds have been rendered in plaster, including pets.
Pictures tomorrow. Ciao!

Bonus Pics!

A few more pics

Fonts are everywhere in the city too, running 24/7 - no valves, just running constantly.

The water is fit to drink.

Looking east

What can be said?

More Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome is the only content in this installment. We have hundreds of photos in each camera; these probably aren't the very best but hopefully give some idea of the site.
I believe a few whole days would be needed to walk every path and see all uncovered aspects - and the work continues.
Enlarge each photo and enjoy.







A street-level view of the dig and some of the buildings which evidently weren't completely covered.














View from in the dig, and approx. midway between the lowest and highest areas.



Notice how high the present street level is?

The arch of Tito is on the right. It's smaller that the arch of Constantine, only about 50 ft. tall.

Rome

SO! Roma! The eternal city! and most of looks like it's been here forever... older than even us!
Our train ran a bit late (do NOT travel with us: we have a curse! ours was the only delayed train on the board) but the ride was otherwise uneventful; downright pleasant, in fact.
From Roma Terminii we took the subway to Lepanto and walked about a half mile to the hotel. That's right, Carol rode the subway! It cost 1 Euro each. (which was good for 75 minutes)
The subway was the safe part of the trip: the drivers don't try to hit you, but they do seem to be trying to run over your toes. (that way their car isn't damaged AND you can't chase them!)
We walked for a few hours looking (in vain) for a particular Irish Pub (burger & beer deal advertised) but wound up eating a piece of pizza instead. The streets and piazzas just got busier as it got later. At 10pm, rain be damned, people were everywhere and going in all directions: the restaurants were hopping and the roads clogged.
English-speakers are harder to find than in Florence and Venice, so asking for help was fruitless. (luckily, we worked on the language and are otherwise getting by)
The streets are narrow and cobbled, largely dark, but seem safe at night. Navigating is a pain because there are no straight roads, streets are very short and street names change at almost every "corner", or piazza. Street names are carved into stone on buildings, usually 12 - 15 ft high, and almost every 'intersection' is some kind of piazza. (I think maybe they have too many dead people to remember and not enough roads!)





At the close of a morning tour we visited Vatican City and got a treat. Il Papa addresses the throngs gathered for some sort of agricultural celebration, at the end of which the Papal blessing was bestowed upon us and our belongings!










The Pope is standing in a window of his residence (next to St. Peter's) giving his presentation. The Vatican broadcasting service had many vehicles with large TV screens and loudspeakers and the whole thing was presented better than most events we are used to!









Next it was the ancient city. There's too much to say. The Colosseum alone is a lot to take in but only a fraction of what's there. Once it was complete, but an immense amount of material was pillaged to build other things (truly the underlying theme in most of what we've experienced here) and yet what remains is so thrilling.







Finally, we entered the Foro Romano, an immense dig site adjacent to the colosseum, where remains of the original Roman Forum continue to be unearthed. Note the Roman road paving.
Where they've dug deeper they've found earlier remians: recycling takes on a whole, old meaning.
It will take days for us to simply SEE everything in the ancient city, which is immensly more interesting than most of modern Rome.

Buon Giorno from Fierenze and Tuscany

By 'popular demand' the visual content is shifting away from just sights. Hopefully, the change won't adversely affect the ratings!

By the way, clicking on the pictures should bring them up, and clicking again should make them full size.

If you like churches and old paintings Italy is the place for you!




The Ponte Vecchio bridge is the real subject, but Carol happened by.

The bridge is the only one crossing the Arno River not blown up by the retreating Germans in WWII, supposedly on Hitler's direct order. This explains why the thing is so tawdry (close-up!) but it does look great from this vantage point, which is the Piazzale Michelangelo in the hills across from Florence (Fierenze to the Italians)



Today we traveled by bus to the Tuscany region, which is south of Florence. It was a full day trip including stops at San Gimignano and Siena. These are both ancient towns where everything is stone, and little to nothing has been built recently.
It's magical walking through these places, where the pavings are the same as when Roman sandals first trod them. Many stone steps are so worn that a careless move can be painful. Most walls and walks include volcanic rock, which is grey with large pocks & has mixed content (it looks like coarse concrete cut to a flat face, but with unusually large aggregate) and sedementary limestone (typically brown). Important buildings also have marble in white, green and pink.



In San Gimignano there are no level places outside of buildings. Except for wires, the outside of the buildings appear to be original (centuries?)
It's a hilltop fortress with two defensive perimeter walls, great stone gates with massive wooden doors, etc., where folk from miles around would flock under threat.
As when it was originally built, few live within the walls.















Within the fortress we found this spot where you can see original roof sub-structure as well as tile roof surfaces. The stone steps next to Carol have hollow spots from centuries of foot-fall, especially at the doorways where a 'rotation move' naturally wears the stone. One misstep and....









In Siena the Coat of Arms on the palisade behind us is everywhere; it's of the Medicee. This dynasty 'sponsored' Michealngelo and most of his masterpieces belong to them and adorn their tombs. Like so many other dynasties they simply 'died out', but they seem to have built Siena.

From Venice to Florence

We did not have access to the internet yesterday so we are now catching up!



So here is the train that we took to Florence, not
the old nostalgic train that I was expecting but a high speed, first class 2 hour ride - funny thing,
though - there was nowhere to put any luggage!
Nice ride though and the train station was very
close to our hotel in Florence so that was nice.







This is Piazza Santa Maria Novella, same name
as our hotel. (which is actually on the square)
There are many very old buildings in the area; you can walk anywhere and find something interesting at every corner. There are many open markets and more (former & present)churches than anywhere we've seen, including Ireland - but we haven't been to Rome yet!








The Duomo Santa Maria del Fiore is in the
background, and the round building in front is the Baptistery. Our tour guide informed us that at one time, everone in the area was baptised here,
including herself.












Inside is beautiful, they have these 'tree of lights', we both lit candles for our Moms.
Below floor level an archaeological dig is underway and revealing a previous church (wow! another church!).

Day 2: Doge Palace and Murano Glass

The Doge Palace is on the right. Just left of center is dell' Orologio (Clock Tower).
Note the bell, which is rung by the figures in accordance with the time displayed in the 2 small rectangles below the lion figure: the left is the hour and the right changes every 5 minutes!
Below that is an astronomical 'clock' .
The lion figure with the book is the symbol of St. Mark (San Marco)








Following a morning walking tour (highly recommended since it got us past long lines into the the Doge Palace AND free entry to several other sites) we also got a free boat ride to the isle of fire (where all glass businesses had been relocated ages ago) and Murano glass factory.
The 57 yr veteran master created a vase in about 2 minutes , and then created a rearing horse in about the same time, complete with all features from ears to tail.






Piazza San Marco in the evenings proved interesting owing to Aqua Alta. (high water) Only a few inches deep at most, the rising water showed the irregularity of the square, and indeed all buildings suffer from settlement. If towers appear tilted it's because they are!
The residents (very few) seemed to know when to wear rubber boots. We quickly learned alternate routes to our hotel.

Finally, Venizia!

Planes-Trains & Automobiles! What a comedy-well, we didn't have any opportunity for train problems, but....

The hour-and-a-half drive to JFK took 3 hours, sorry Jess & Randy, but we checked in with plenty of time to spare - yes plenty, we were on the plane and on the runway for a little more than 2 1/2 hours...but we are here and it is beautiful.




A driver was waiting for us at the airport, holding a 'McGovern' sign. We were his only passengers (probably because we were so late)
This is the water taxi station, the second leg of the transfer to the hotel.













Here's Dan's first artsy shot with the new camera, the 'street' off St. Mark's Square that leads to our hotel.
The foot bridge on the left (over a canal leading to a gondola station) is the only ground path to the hotel.
There are simply NO vehicles in Venice; riding bicycles is prohibited.








It's a different and peaceful world without cars. The streets are very narrow and there are surprises at every turn. You can walk for hours; there are cafes and shops along every path - and water everywhere. The weather is mild and the sun is warm, just perfect!











We returned to the hotel after this picture, which was taken at the Dogana da Mar (Custom House) and behind me is the Grand Canal. Now we are going back out to see Venizia at night!

Today's the Day

Hey, Jessi here! As usual, I'm writing the first post and the real authors will be taking over once they reach their destination! Here's a farewell pic of Mom and Dad finishing up the packing process (and you can tell their bags are underweight because they're still smiling). Check in regularly for wonderful trip updates, and enjoy!!!