My first stop was Vatican City becaue it was all the way on the other side of the city, close to a metro stop, and I could walk my way back to my moderately-shitty hostel and see a bunch of stuff. As you can clearly see, the Vatican was mobbed that day. I figured it was like that all the time, but then I realized that it was late morning on a Sunday. I remember reading something that mentioned late Sunday mornings at the Vatican in one of my guide books, but I forgot what it was.
I quickly remembered what it was when Pope Benedict XVI popped out of a window and blessed the entire crowd. Now, for those of you keeping track, I (one of the most heathenistic and godless Catholics ever spawned), during my short 5 months abroad in Europe, have gone to an evening mass in Westminster Abbey on a citywide snow-day, have gone to an Easter morning Catalan mass in Barcelona around 9:30am, and have been blessed by the pope himself. I am officially set for life. Not only will I never have to step foot in a church again for the rest of my life, but I can probably stab a few infants and still have St. Peter open the pearly gates for me.
I passed Castel San Angelo as I walked along the Tiber River, trying to find the Pantheon. Popes used to go here when people tried to kill them...not so much anymore.
La Piazza Navona: I forget why this is significant. I just thought it was pretty.
Ah, the Pantheon...the most well-presevered building of antiquity.
I walk in and discover it was turned into another church. I must have developed a kind of church-radar since leaving New York.
The dome even looked like God was coming in to say hello. This dome was actually constructed out of a single solid piece of concrete, which one of the popes wanted to put on top of St. Peter's Basilica...which would have been physically impossible. Michelangelo actually came out of retirement so that he could tell the pope he was being an idiot and to design a separate dome so that they didn't destroy the Pantheon. You'll soon discover through the course of this blog entry that the Vatican was, is, and always will be utterly insane.
La Fontana de Trevi: this is by far my favorite sight in Europe...mostly because when I build my dream-house, construct a temple to Poseidon in the backyard and have an enormous pool built inside the temple, this is the statue/fountain I want overlooking the deep end...possibly with a diving board somewhere on it.
I passed Castel San Angelo as I walked along the Tiber River, trying to find the Pantheon. Popes used to go here when people tried to kill them...not so much anymore.
La Piazza Navona: I forget why this is significant. I just thought it was pretty.
Ah, the Pantheon...the most well-presevered building of antiquity.
I walk in and discover it was turned into another church. I must have developed a kind of church-radar since leaving New York.
The dome even looked like God was coming in to say hello. This dome was actually constructed out of a single solid piece of concrete, which one of the popes wanted to put on top of St. Peter's Basilica...which would have been physically impossible. Michelangelo actually came out of retirement so that he could tell the pope he was being an idiot and to design a separate dome so that they didn't destroy the Pantheon. You'll soon discover through the course of this blog entry that the Vatican was, is, and always will be utterly insane.
La Fontana de Trevi: this is by far my favorite sight in Europe...mostly because when I build my dream-house, construct a temple to Poseidon in the backyard and have an enormous pool built inside the temple, this is the statue/fountain I want overlooking the deep end...possibly with a diving board somewhere on it.
Under the many asses of tourists is the Spanish Steps...are the Spanish Steps? I don't know. Fuck grammar. Here be the Spanish Steps. No, now I just sound like a pirate. Here...Spanish Steps...too many tourists.
By the way, if you ever go to the Colosseum, don't take the metro there. It's much more impressive to walk there, seeing it towering in the distance.
I somehow managed to find a tour group to go into the Colosseum with for relatively cheap, so that was cool.
This is actually the only remaining original pavement in the Colosseum. Gladiators walked on top of this.
These are also the only remaining original ornate wall decorations, which used to be painted bright colors and covered the interior walls and ceilings. Gladiators walked under this.
I believe this was the Temple to Venus. There's no need to go inside of it, though...you can see the inside from the outside.
Roman Forum Fun-Fact #1 - Did you know that Romans had a primitive toilet brush that they used to wipe their asses which was essentially a sponge on a stick? The bathrooms were usually in the basement of the building (the one you're looking at in the picture is acutally the remnants of Caesar's Palace...yes, the casino...smartass). Because they had no form of lighting down there, it was very dark and certain uncomfortable injuries could occur. Hence the phrase: You've got the wrong end of the stick.
Roman Forum Fun-Fact #3 - Did you know that Roman soldiers used to be paid in salt? They would give their wives the salt and they would go to the stores to spend it. To indicate which stores accepted salt as a form of payment, shop-owners would put a big sign front. The Latin word for "salts"? Sales (SAH-less).
The Forum. Funny things happened on the way here.
The Arch of Titus. Interesting thing about this arch: it disproves Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Il Palazzo Venezia was rather impressive, although I have no idea what it is.
If I spoke Italian, I could guarantee that I would be coming back to the States with a full suit of centurion armor.
By the way, if you ever go to the Colosseum, don't take the metro there. It's much more impressive to walk there, seeing it towering in the distance.
I somehow managed to find a tour group to go into the Colosseum with for relatively cheap, so that was cool.
This is actually the only remaining original pavement in the Colosseum. Gladiators walked on top of this.
These are also the only remaining original ornate wall decorations, which used to be painted bright colors and covered the interior walls and ceilings. Gladiators walked under this.
And, of course, the inside. Gladiators died in this. By the way, did you know that until almost five years after the Colosseum's openning, the gladiatorial matches were rigged? They used to post who was fighting who the day before the match so that people could bet on who they wanted to win and based on the number of bets on each person, they determined who would win and who would lose. WWE at its earliest.
I believe this was the Temple to Venus. There's no need to go inside of it, though...you can see the inside from the outside.
Roman Forum Fun-Fact #1 - Did you know that Romans had a primitive toilet brush that they used to wipe their asses which was essentially a sponge on a stick? The bathrooms were usually in the basement of the building (the one you're looking at in the picture is acutally the remnants of Caesar's Palace...yes, the casino...smartass). Because they had no form of lighting down there, it was very dark and certain uncomfortable injuries could occur. Hence the phrase: You've got the wrong end of the stick.
Roman Forum Fun-Fact #2 - Did you know that the average Roman stood around 4' 6" tall, and the average Goth stood around 6' 4"? And people wondered how the Roman Empire fell to barbarians. Side note: this is the supposed hill upon which Romulus founded Rome.
Roman Forum Fun-Fact #3 - Did you know that Roman soldiers used to be paid in salt? They would give their wives the salt and they would go to the stores to spend it. To indicate which stores accepted salt as a form of payment, shop-owners would put a big sign front. The Latin word for "salts"? Sales (SAH-less).
The Forum. Funny things happened on the way here.
There's a little balcony-type thing above the forum that gives you a great view of the city. This is only a part of what I saw up there.
The Arch of Titus. Interesting thing about this arch: it disproves Raiders of the Lost Ark.
If you can see here, on the interior of the arch, it clearly shows centurions carring the ark of the covenant into Rome, so the ark in the snake-pit could not have been the real ark...just a box filled with face-melting ghosts.
The Church of San Lorenzo. The Forum, at one point, was stuffed to the brim with dirt and garbage. When they cleared all of that out many years later, they discovered this old temple. Not willing to completely dig it out, they just built a church on top and put the door where the dirt was at that point. When they dug out the rest of the temple, people stopped using the church. 10 points if you can guess why.
Yep...that's who you think it is. And yes...I stabbed the statue 23 times. It felt like a good idea at the time.
Il Palazzo Venezia was rather impressive, although I have no idea what it is.
If I spoke Italian, I could guarantee that I would be coming back to the States with a full suit of centurion armor.
On Monday, I met up with the same tour guide who led us through the Forum and took a bunch of people around the Vatican. This wall is actually a secret passageway for the pope to escape to that castle I showed you before. They stopped using it when the Vatican realized that it doesn't work so well when the enemies have guns as opposed to swords.
You see a lot of cool shit in there, like Raphael's Transfiguration.
It takes about a day to see the entire Musei Vaticani. We saw to good shit in about two hours. I liked the man's efficiency.
You see a lot of cool shit in there, like Raphael's Transfiguration.
When you see this, you're about halfway there to the Sistene Chapel.
The papal study, an elaborately decorated hall with stunningly accurate maps of Italy. This will lead you to...
I only had about 20 minutes left in Rome, but I dropped into St. Peter's Basilica for a quick few snapshots.
Michelangelo loved this statue so much, he made his own version of it. All he did was move the left foot forward and to the side a bit, put the right arm down at the person's side, and bent the left elbow and bringing the hand up around the shoulder. Do that in a mirror or in front of someone who wont laugh at you and see if you can guess what Michelangelo called his version of the statue.
Because a lot of antique statues got destroyed in some sense, sculptors tried to recreate what they looked like before the destruction, based on the artist's own perception. I won't tell you what the most famous recreation of this statue was, but I will tell you it was one of Rodin's most famous works.
The papal study, an elaborately decorated hall with stunningly accurate maps of Italy. This will lead you to...
La Capella Sistina. Note: everyone enters from the rear of the chapel. Keep your eyes down and head to the front before you look up at the paintings. It's worth it.
I only had about 20 minutes left in Rome, but I dropped into St. Peter's Basilica for a quick few snapshots.
Michelangelo's original La Pieta.
The altar of St. Peter's.
And finally, the pilgramage statue of St. Peter with the shiny foot that everyone has either touched or kissed. Because of the recent outbreak of swine flu, and the fear of me bursting into flames upon touching it, I settled for a photo.
And finally, the pilgramage statue of St. Peter with the shiny foot that everyone has either touched or kissed. Because of the recent outbreak of swine flu, and the fear of me bursting into flames upon touching it, I settled for a photo.
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There will only be a few more entries before I discontinue the blog, but I have definately saved the craziest shit for last.
You mean... Indiana Jones... isn't real??
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