Petra Treasury. Jordan
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Jerusalem
Luxor, Egypt
Friday, October 1, 2010
Rome day five - Sept 26, 2010
Having only one full day left, we arose early and returned to some of the more popular spots in Rome to get some better photos at the Trevi Fountain, and Spanish Steps.
Then we took a bus to the Palatine Hill, the area next to the forum where the wealthier Romans lived in extensive homes. This isn't as popular as the Colosseum and Forum, but we really liked it's labyrinth of rooms, stairs, gardens and tunnels.
The views over the Forum from the Palatine Hill were extraordinary.
The large building across the way is only one side of a massive 312AD building, the Basilica of Constantine, which housed courts, and was the largest building in the world at the time. 
In the lower right is the temple of the vestal virgins. Eight year old girls were selected to tend the flame in the temple and perform other temple ceremonies for 30 years, after which time they could marry. In return they lived in luxury, and had good seats at the Colosseum.
The views over the Forum from the Palatine Hill were extraordinary.The large building across the way is only one side of a massive 312AD building, the Basilica of Constantine, which housed courts, and was the largest building in the world at the time. In the lower right is the temple of the vestal virgins. Eight year old girls were selected to tend the flame in the temple and perform other temple ceremonies for 30 years, after which time they could marry. In return they lived in luxury, and had good seats at the Colosseum.After lunch, we walked to some more our favorite spots one last time.
The next morning, we took a last walk through to the Turtle Fountain and Tiber Island, then rode the tram, then train to the airport (moving pretty quickly through the train station, and ready for a rumble). Since we actually did toss coins into the Trevi fountains (over our backs, the proper way, not like all the other tourists we saw), we look forward to returning to Rome in a few years, hopefully to the same apartment view we love so much.
This is a pretty nice Italy Guides website on Rome, with virtual panoramic views. That website has free audio guides, as does Rick Steves, including London.
This is a pretty nice Italy Guides website on Rome, with virtual panoramic views. That website has free audio guides, as does Rick Steves, including London.So that concludes our Great Britain and Rome trip. The is the first big vacation we've had with no children along, and in part, was to reward Debbie for taking such good care of my mother while she lived out her last six months in our home. I will be eternally grateful, as will my family, to her for her loving service, not only to mom, but to us. While we've loved our vacations with the kids more than anything, it's nice to know that we still get along so well when it's just us.
Rome day four - Sept 25
We started off this day with an MP3 tour of the Trastevere neighborhood on the other side of the Tiber River.
One of the best parts of Rome is simply walking through the endless narrow lanes, listening to people speaking Italian, and people watching at Piazzas. Looking out our windows, I noticed that all of the buildings and roofs were flawed in one way or another. Plaster is cracked, paint is faded, roof tiles don't follow any kind of straight lines, many roofs didn't seem very flat at all, and one wall might have five different types of construction. But it is so beautiful, so Italian, the perfection of imperfection.
One of the stops was a small church run by nuns called Saint Cecilia, which grew out of a home-based Christian meeting place in about 300AD. People were preparing the church with flowers for a wedding while the nuns were conducting some sort of service up front. The singing was beautiful. We found another church, also preparing for a wedding, and a small Saturday market.
One of the best parts of Rome is simply walking through the endless narrow lanes, listening to people speaking Italian, and people watching at Piazzas. Looking out our windows, I noticed that all of the buildings and roofs were flawed in one way or another. Plaster is cracked, paint is faded, roof tiles don't follow any kind of straight lines, many roofs didn't seem very flat at all, and one wall might have five different types of construction. But it is so beautiful, so Italian, the perfection of imperfection.After lunch back at our apartment, we went to a nearby museum with a Da Vinci inventions exhibit, and a small exhibit on Mother Teresa, depicting her life, and staffed by two of the sisters of Calcutta. We were really impressed with her life work among the poor of Calcutta.
In the evening Debbie rested while I made the Capitol, Colosseum, Circus Maximus circle on foot for some night photos.
In the evening Debbie rested while I made the Capitol, Colosseum, Circus Maximus circle on foot for some night photos.Rome day three - Sept 24, 2010
We got up early and caught a bus to St Peters Bacillica, when very few people were there. I think it opened about 7AM.
The architecture and art inside is impressive, to say the least, for a building completed in 1626. We listened to an MP3 tour, and learned a lot. But, like everything in Rome, learning a lot still means you've barely scratched the surface.
There were all sorts of side-chapel places where people were holding small services of some purpose with priests, but I don't generally take photos of that sort of personal proceedings. They have several Popes under other altars, with glass on the front so you can see into their coffin, but I didn't think I should photograph those either.
They say Peter is buried under the central alter. One alcove has a monument which is said to be directly over the spot in a Roman circus where Peter was crucified (upside down).
Some of the Swiss Guard. They let the dude in jeans through, but were still checking out the nun.
Then we went over to the Castel SantAngelo, built in 139AD, which has served many functions throughout history, like a mausoleum for Roman emperors, a prison, and a fortress. There's a huge wall with a tunnel in it between the Vatican and the castle which could be used by the Pope if Rome came under attack. It was the residence of Pope Clement VII during the 1527 sack of Rome.
One of the best parts of any Italian city is to watch how everyday life unfolds.
In the evening, we took a small electric bus over to the Spanish Steps (too crowded, will return for photos), walked by Gregory Peck's Roman Holiday address on Via Margutta 51, up to Piazza del Popolo, then took the tube to an evening opening of the Vatican Museum we had purchased tickets for online ahead of time.
The Vatican Museum was impressive to the extreme. I'm sure that in only a few hours we saw only a fraction of it.
It looked like they, like the British Museum, had "found" or "borrowed" a lot of Egyptian and Greek artifacts. 
We liked the ceiling in the map corridor. 
There was a large section devoted to the art of Rafael which recounted a lot of history and stories. We also went inside the Sistine chapel, with our MP3 tour, but no photos allowed there. LINK to online photos It really is amazing that Michaelangelo was able to paint that ceiling with so much detail and depth. It's a patina, which we found out means that it had to be painted on fresh wet mortar, so if he was dissatisfied with it, the whole days section came off to be redone. 
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Rome day two - Sept 23
Did the open-top double deck sightseeing bus again (ticket lasted 24 hours).
Then we toured the Colosseum and Roman Forum. We had purchased a Roma 3-day pass, which allows unlimited transportation, entry into the first two museums free, with discounts after, and lets you bypass lines at big sites like the Colosseum.
The Colosseum is massive! It was completed in 80AD, and seated 50,000. There was a wooden floor over the center part, with like 40 elevators beneath to bring men and animals to the surface. In the inaugural games, which lasted 100 days, 9,000 wild animals were killed. The exits were called the vomitorium, we didn't find out why. I guess what I realized was that with both the Colosseum and the Circus Maximus just across the Palatine Hill, movies like Ben Hur and Gladiator, which I previously thought were surely exaggerated, are in fact pretty accurate. 
It was kind of cool to think we were walking on the exact same stones where the Emperors had walked. Most of the buildings were made from brick, with cement or marble faces. You can see pock marks in the brick walls where the faces was held on. Some of the columns are brick with cement exterior, but some are solid stone, not sure how they possibly could have made these by hand.
The Colosseum is massive! It was completed in 80AD, and seated 50,000. There was a wooden floor over the center part, with like 40 elevators beneath to bring men and animals to the surface. In the inaugural games, which lasted 100 days, 9,000 wild animals were killed. The exits were called the vomitorium, we didn't find out why. I guess what I realized was that with both the Colosseum and the Circus Maximus just across the Palatine Hill, movies like Ben Hur and Gladiator, which I previously thought were surely exaggerated, are in fact pretty accurate. The forum is very extensive, as you can tell by the photos. There are many temples, arches, courts, and monuments, with a central stone path, the sacred way going up the middle. They had a god for everything, even a god of fertilizer they could pray to, and were very superstitious. In posts-Roman Empire years, an earthquake partially destroyed some of the buildings, but mainly later Rome inhabitants stripped the buildings of exterior marble and stone to build their own buildings. Thankfully, they usually left a few columns standing. We were told that only a quarter of ancient Rome has been excavated. If a building was impressive enough, like the Pantheon (Temple of all the gods), it got turned into a Catholic church as is during the Christian era, with the replacement of Roman gods with statues of Saints and Popes.
It was kind of cool to think we were walking on the exact same stones where the Emperors had walked. Most of the buildings were made from brick, with cement or marble faces. You can see pock marks in the brick walls where the faces was held on. Some of the columns are brick with cement exterior, but some are solid stone, not sure how they possibly could have made these by hand.
We had internet access in the apartment, and watched a couple youtube episodes of a BBC docudrama called "Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire" (click for link, you have to find all six parts of the episode, but it's worth it). The episode on Constantine in about 300AD was particularly interesting on how the empire suddenly switched from the ancient Roman religion to Christianity. We also thought it was interesting how some of the old Roman ideas seemed to be kind of adopted into the new church.
After the forum, we went back home to rest a bit, then went out in the evening to visit the Pantheon, only a couple blocks away, and on to the Trevi Fountain, but it was very crowded. We decided that there were some things we should be seeing early in the morning.
The dome is the amazing structure on the Pantheon. It is a one-pour concrete structure, 20 feet thick at the base, and 7.5 feet thick at the top, using progressively lighter stone like pumice in the concrete as you go higher up. There's an 8-meter diameter hole in the top for light, so when it rains the floor has drains. Pretty good for 126AD.
The last photo is of the Victor Emmanuel Monument, honoring the first King of a unified Italy, completed in 1935, destroying a large area of Roman Forum ruins. I'm not sure why the later Italians couldn't just build their stuff somewhere else.
The dome is the amazing structure on the Pantheon. It is a one-pour concrete structure, 20 feet thick at the base, and 7.5 feet thick at the top, using progressively lighter stone like pumice in the concrete as you go higher up. There's an 8-meter diameter hole in the top for light, so when it rains the floor has drains. Pretty good for 126AD.
Rome day one - Sept 22
On our first full day in Rome, we went over to the nearby Piazza Campo di Fiori morning market.
We caught a hop-on-hop-off bus and toured the whole city to get oriented, which took us by all of the major sites with an audio tour.
Rome traffic can get really nasty, and driving very creative. I think it's faster to walk many times. The major Rome attractions, from the Colosseum to the Vatican, are within about a 2-mile diameter circle, and our apartment was near the center.
We walked over to the Capitol area, about 10 minutes walk, to look over the Roman Forum.
We did an MP3 tour of the Jewish Ghetto area, which included the Theatre of Marcellus, completed in 13BC, which the Colosseum was patterned after. The Rome Jewish community had been through a lot over the ages, and even today the synagogue has a lot of police and barriers around it all the time.
The mouth of truth in the entrance to a small church, from Roman Holiday, which we had watched on our laptop on the flight from London. The line to get in was too long, so I took a photo through the bars. Anyone know how to photoshop?
In the evening, we walked to Piazza Navano, which had many street musicians, some good and some not so, and bought a small watercolor painting which reminds us of the views from the apartment. We saw a lot of couples walking hand in hand, and stopping to kiss, and we did likewise. One of our favorite stops is a small piazza with a turtle fountain very close to the apartment.
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