Not sure if I ever mentioned the Castel Sant'Angelo. Which of course would be a crime. So here's me not committing a crime: it was originally Emperor Hadrian's tomb, later became a papal fortress and prison blah blah blah and here's a picture:
While we're at it I guess now is as good a time as any to throw in some ruins, since we wandered past them at several points and it's all one big brain soup up there, so enjoy:
Sometime shortly before or after that (I have trouble remembering what I did two minutes ago let alone two months ago) we headed over to the Pantheon.On the way, we saw Bernini's cute chubbly elephant.
Compared with our puny French town that only dates back to the Renaissance, stuff like the Pantheon is just unbelievable. Caesar walked here! The street level has risen around this building throughout the centuries! And I don't know if you caught the fact that OMG Caesar walked here! It's......really OLD!!!
Stunning. Anyways, now because the Pantheon is...what was my technical term for it again...oh yes, really OLD, it was under restoration when we visited. 2000 years of crud getting scraped off the side or getting re-attached to the side or some such enterprise.Why they couldn't have done it a week earlier or later, I'll never know--all I know is that we're fated to run into scaffolding wherever we go. And it's an-noy-ing.
No segue from that comes to mind, but here's me gaping at the Oculus:
The Pantheon was neat. I liked how there are benches inside so you can sit down. That always improves my opinion of any historical monument. Never underestimate the laziness factor.But if I have to get up and walk around, the Vatican Museums are a pretty good place to do it in. Here's the entrance:
No way can one blog page, let alone my brain, handle all the stuff inside the Vatican Museum. But here's the Apollo Bellevedere being a generally gorgeous man-statue:
And here's Laocoon having a not-so-good time:
And because pictures are prohibited in the Sistine Chapel (along with breathing too loudly and making eye contact) enjoy the School of Athens instead:
And I just found this fun picture of Nero's giant purple marble bath tub...more like an oversized bird bath really, but just try picturing crazy Emperor Nero in there. I guess you'll have to do so in your head.When you picture it in your head you could maybe put Nero in a swimsuit if you wanted to, I know I would--but it's your head, so ultimately it's your party.
After the Sistine we reeled out of the Vatican Museums in a fuzz of joy (well I did) and headed over to St. Peter's.
Many thanks to Debbie for the excellent and in-focus picture of Michelangelo's Pieta, since my photo of it was...well...none of those things. Dustin and I remember very little of St. Peter's apart from the floor, since that's what we looked at while scampering after Henry for a good hour while he roamed around eating crackers, grinning ear to ear, and getting personal with some nuns.Oh and then, lest I forget, some guy in a red sweeping robe pops out of a small door in the wall and just about knocks Henry over. How many cardinals does the Catholic church have? Cause one of 'em has gone wild in St. Peter's and he enjoys toddler-bowling.
Whew! There it is, that's the end of Rome. Wow. I was wondering if I could get all that into two blog posts. To be fair, I probably skimmed over/forgot a lot of details. But it still took almost more time to write about all those things than it took to actually visit them.
Rome was fantastic and I'm glad we got the chance to go. We crammed a lot of stuff into less than two days of sightseeing but ultimately got around to everything we wanted to see, so pat on the back for us. We left St. Peter's in the late afternoon, walked back to the car and headed off to Naples.
I bet you can't guess what the next post will be about. Possibly the Cenatiempos' Italian heritage and how they visited the island where it all began?
Like I'd ever drop such an obvious hint.
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