I decided to retrace the path of our tour of the Old City at night to get some pictures
of all the cool stuff. I did not bring my camera on Saturday, which I regretted once I
found out that we would be seeing many of the cool sites around Rome. I decided to start
by taking a train to the Colosseum. I took a few time-lapse shots of the Colosseum, which
is a bit of a challenge without a tripod. I then walked up to the Victor Emmanuel building.
In order to get a shot of the building I had to cross to the center of a 4-5 lane traffic
circle. Traffic in Rome is pretty good about not actually hitting you. You can generally
just walk out into traffic and it moves around you, as long as you maintain a consistent
speed and direction. The next task was to balance the camera on a rail and get it pointed
in the proper direction. Luckily, everything worked out (see right). I walked up Capoline
Hill and took some pictures of the Forum, before heading to the Pantheon.
On the way to the Pantheon I stopped and got some yummy gelato. I managed to find both the
gelateria and the Pantheon, but did not locate the Piazza Navona. Eventually I gave up on
that and headed back to the Residence.
One disadvantage to the Residence is that it does not have air conditioning. Rome gets pretty hot in the summer, and we did not even have fans. So we left the windows open, which meant a lot more noise, but helped reduce the temperature slightly. We did have a little kitchen and I cooked most of my meals. Usually I would go down to the store and get some boneless chicken breasts, bread, water (or iced tea later in the summer), and Green Giant corn Niblets, in single-serving cans. I would make chicken for lunch or dinner, and make a chicken sandwich if I was going to be in town around lunch.
Happy Birthday Anne! I celebrated my sister's birthday by going to the Vatican. In the
original design of the plaza (see right) it opened onto the local, winding streets. When
visitors came, they traveled through a warren of small, cramped streets before arriving at
this beautiful, open square. Mussolini did not understand this dramatic concept, and cut
a wide avenue up to the plaza, destroying the original "surprise."
There are three rows of columns on each side of the plaza. If you stand on either of the
two stones (see left) situated to either side of the center obelisk, all of the columns
on that side of the square line up. If you go to the large version of the picture above
and to the right, there is a circle of stones around the obelisk, and a square of stones
around that. If you look closely to the right of the obelisk, halfway between the circle
and the square, you will see a person standing on the right-hand stone.
I headed inside St. Peter's, and let me tell you, it is quite large. In fact, it is so
large that there are marks on the floor showing how much smaller other cathedrals are.
Not only is it huge, but it contains the remains of quite a few popes. Popes appear to
be a pretty vain lot based on the audacity of their tombs (see below-left).
I wandered around for a while and then followed a group down below the main hall. We
walked behind one of the tombs (it is at the far right side of the picture to the right)
and down a set of steps. This took us to a circular hallway that had about a dozen small
chapels off of it. Many were occupied and services were being conducted in a variety of
languages.
I headed out and over to the Vatican Museum. The museum is not particularly convenient to get to from St. Peter's, even though they are located right next to each other. You go out the front of St. Peter's to the obelisk and go left, out through the columns, and left again onto Via Ottaviano. Then you just stay to your left, following the wall of the Vatican -- it is about four blocks. I arrived at 8:25 a.m., and the museum opened at 8:45. There was a bit of a line, but it was not too bad. Sometimes the line stretches for several blocks.
As soon as I was in and paid the admission fee, I made a beeline for the Sistine Chapel.
This was not always easy as the designers A) hated tourists (see right) and B) wanted you
to go through the entire museum first. I finally made it and was rather underwhelmed.
There seemed to be a lot of white space and it just did not strike me . . . at first. I
took out my binoculars and took a closer look and it really started to grow on me. First
off, Michaelangelo was not a painter. This was his first painting. Second, the figures
and themes are really quite striking. He even threw in some extraneous nudes in a couple
of side panels to show off what a good painter he had become.
You are not allowed to take pictures of the ceiling, which is something of a shame. On
the other hand, pictures would not really do it justice. For one thing, it is difficult
to encompass the entire ceiling. Each panel tells a different story, and they are all
quite detailed and impressive. When I was finished viewing the ceiling I backtracked in
hopes of checking out some things that I breezed past on my way to the chapel.
Unfortunately, the whole place is one-way. So I sort of missed some other interesting
things. Ah well.
On the way out I stopped by the Vatican post office in the hope of getting some Vatican Euros, but apparently they have a limited mintage and sell out rather quickly. I did get some Vatican postage stamps for some of my postcards though, so it was not a complete loss. After leaving the museum I headed over to the Piazza del Populo in hopes of getting a picture of crowds watching the World Cup game, but they did not have the large screens in the square as they had for the prior game.