Venice – Day 2.
Breakfast was interesting. There are 64 of us and a group from France of about 40. The breakfast room seats 15 at a time. We had been given shifts to eat but people still wound up waiting in line for a seat. We are going to skip breakfast tomorrow.
We head for the waterbus and after a false start in which we got on a bus that did not go all the way to our stop; we managed to get the right bus that took us to the island of Murano. Murano is home to several glass blowing factories and about 200 glass-selling shops. We had a great and very relaxing day. The weather was great and the shops were very uncrowded. There just are not enough tourists this time of year to go around. We found a very nice place to eat lunch and were the only non-Italian people in the place. We made our way back to the hotel, dropped our loot, and then headed out on foot to “get lost.” Rick Steves writes that you are going to get lost but not to worry you are on an island and so you can’t get hopelessly lost.
We ran into several groups of our students as we wondered around, including one girl who was not far from our hotel. She had gone out on her own to get some food and the waiter was trying to pick her up and was insisting that she have a drink with him at 11:00. She spotted us, ran out, and asked if we would pretend to be her parents so she could say no without appearing too rude. I did not quite understand the logic but we played along.
We are back at the hotel and trying to figure out how to repack our suitcases. It will be even more fun tomorrow in London as we rearrange our luggage so that we can get things under 50 pounds. We hope.
Leaving Italy,
The trip to London had a bit of a hiccough in it. It seems there was a strike of the luggage handlers in Venice and thus our flight was diverted to Verona. British Airways provided bus service from Venice to Verona (all the way across the north of Italy). The trip took nearly 2 hours and it was actually very enjoyable. So now, I get to stick a pin in Verona on my wall map. While in Verona we did check and Romeo and Juliet are still dead.
We got to the hotel with some struggle after being picked up at Gatwick and being taken to Heathrow by the Harlaxton crew. We struggled with 7 pieces of luggage from Heathrow to our hotel and I kept explaining to folks that we had been living here for 4 months and were now moving back to the US. That was why all the luggage. We were not here for a long weekend with all the luggage.
Tomorrow we head to the US.
Friday, December 14, 2007
38 Venice Day 1
Venice, the city where you dare not try to hop off the city bus between official stops. If you did, you might very well drown.
We arrived about 1:00 and the 64 of us made our way from the bus stop across three bridges (steps up and steps down). People were warned about this procession but still some people had far too much luggage along with bears and packages, etc. We did arrive at the Hotel Atlantide, a fine 2 star hotel. The rooms, like most hotels in Europe that are more than a few years old, are a hodge-podge of sizes, features and decor. Some student groups have suites, with lots of space and great balconies, others have cramped space with a nice view of a brick wall. We have a nice rope clothesline on pulleys right outside the window and a courtyard that at one time was probably a lovely garden. It is now a place to store building materials.
Venice is a great city. On our first afternoon, we managed to figure out the vaporetti (the city waterbuses). The entire island part of the city of Venice is a pedestrian zone. There are no cars or motorcycles in the city (although I did see one 2 year old driving a red electric four-wheeler down the sidewalk). This was such a nice relief from the noisy streets of Rome and Florence. The most dangerous thing you can do while walking in Venice is to run over a 70 something year old nun as you round one of the blind corners in the very narrow streets that crisscross the city. I guess it would also be possible to be taking photos while you walk and then step into the Grand Canal. (No, it did not happen to me!)
We got on the city bus and it took us down the beautiful Grand Canal to San Marco Square. The church there houses the bones of St. Mark (so the story goes). Next door to the church is the Doge’s Palace (Doge is Italian for Duke). Venice was the major power in Europe for over 400 years. Being a port there was a lot of economic influence. The Palace was evidently glorious in its day. The Doge was elected for life but the power really fell on the nobility of the Venetian State. All 2600 of them met to pass laws and the Grand Council room held them all. There is the world’s largest oil painting located in this hall. It is by Tintoretto and is a painting of Christ and Mary surrounded by 500 saints.
After walking around San Marco square, we decided not to inquire about the prices of the stuff in the windows. Most of the shops were designer names and the kind of place where there is a large showroom with one item per shelf stylishly displayed. It was either way outside our price range or it was Moscow during the cold war.
We got back on the waterbus and were going to travel the long way around the island to watch as the sun went down. We got on the boat and when the sun went down very quickly, we discovered that there are not many lights you can see from the water. We got off at the next stop and then caught the next boat going the other direction. We got back to our hotel area and spent a so-so night on a hard bed (not too bad) but with a very flat pillow.
We arrived about 1:00 and the 64 of us made our way from the bus stop across three bridges (steps up and steps down). People were warned about this procession but still some people had far too much luggage along with bears and packages, etc. We did arrive at the Hotel Atlantide, a fine 2 star hotel. The rooms, like most hotels in Europe that are more than a few years old, are a hodge-podge of sizes, features and decor. Some student groups have suites, with lots of space and great balconies, others have cramped space with a nice view of a brick wall. We have a nice rope clothesline on pulleys right outside the window and a courtyard that at one time was probably a lovely garden. It is now a place to store building materials.
Venice is a great city. On our first afternoon, we managed to figure out the vaporetti (the city waterbuses). The entire island part of the city of Venice is a pedestrian zone. There are no cars or motorcycles in the city (although I did see one 2 year old driving a red electric four-wheeler down the sidewalk). This was such a nice relief from the noisy streets of Rome and Florence. The most dangerous thing you can do while walking in Venice is to run over a 70 something year old nun as you round one of the blind corners in the very narrow streets that crisscross the city. I guess it would also be possible to be taking photos while you walk and then step into the Grand Canal. (No, it did not happen to me!)
We got on the city bus and it took us down the beautiful Grand Canal to San Marco Square. The church there houses the bones of St. Mark (so the story goes). Next door to the church is the Doge’s Palace (Doge is Italian for Duke). Venice was the major power in Europe for over 400 years. Being a port there was a lot of economic influence. The Palace was evidently glorious in its day. The Doge was elected for life but the power really fell on the nobility of the Venetian State. All 2600 of them met to pass laws and the Grand Council room held them all. There is the world’s largest oil painting located in this hall. It is by Tintoretto and is a painting of Christ and Mary surrounded by 500 saints.
After walking around San Marco square, we decided not to inquire about the prices of the stuff in the windows. Most of the shops were designer names and the kind of place where there is a large showroom with one item per shelf stylishly displayed. It was either way outside our price range or it was Moscow during the cold war.
We got back on the waterbus and were going to travel the long way around the island to watch as the sun went down. We got on the boat and when the sun went down very quickly, we discovered that there are not many lights you can see from the water. We got off at the next stop and then caught the next boat going the other direction. We got back to our hotel area and spent a so-so night on a hard bed (not too bad) but with a very flat pillow.
37 Florence Day 2
Florence day 2
We are old. We cannot walk 10 miles a day on cobblestone streets as we used to. My feet hurt! Eight of those miles were inside museums and churches.
Adding to this aerobic workout is the side stepping to avoid all the people to whom, I swear, we are invisible. They come four abreast on a two person wide sidewalk. I have tried playing chicken with them. I always chicken out and step into the street or pretend I am a piece of spaghetti thrown against the wall to test for doneness.
Do you recall that I was saying that Michelangelo did not create plaster models of his statues before sculpting? The genius of his God given talent became poignant as we saw four unfinished sculptures that he began (evidently he was working on all four at the same time) for a grave monument for a dude who died before they were finished. The important dude’s family apparently did not agree with his own estimate of his importance and they canceled the order.
There is not a better way to describe his work than to say that he took hammer and chisel and chipped away everything that did not look like the figure trapped inside the stone.
I had a very odd memory as I stood staring at these stone men emerging from their marble prisons. I recalled an episode of the TV show superman from the early 60's. In the episode the bad guy had walled himself inside of a room that was made of something that was so thick or of some substance that made it impossible for Superman to break it down. Not to be defeated, Superman used his super power of mind over matter, by willpower he was able to make the molecules of his body less dense, and he could then melt into the wall and flow through the wall. The crude visual effects of early TV showed a stone wall out of which Superman slowly emerged.
Michelangelo’s statues appeared to have been frozen in time as they were caught in the act of emergingng from the marble.
The Academia museum, where we saw the unfinished works, is also home to perhaps Michelangelo's greatest sculpture: "David".
Fourteen years ago, when we were in the Louvre museum in Paris I remember my first impression of Michelangelo's painting of "Mona Lisa" was that it is much smaller than I had envisioned.
My experience of "David" was just the opposite. This statue is ever so much larger than I had imagined. My expectations had been shaped by the hundreds of statues that we had seen over the last few days in Rome and in Florence. Virtually all of them from ancient times to contemporaries of Michelangelo created statues of near life size. There were obviously some that were much bigger, but most were near life size.
David is huge - standing over 13.5 feet tall. Every inch of this work is a wonder of detail. Veins and muscles are clearly visible in the stone. Michelangelo sculpted David's right hand bigger than his left. The pose of this right hand is reminiscent of The Hand of God that Michelangelo painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican depicting the spark of life in the creation of Adam.
We visited Santa Cruze Church, which is the final resting place for a rather distinguished group of former citizens of Florence: Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, Gentile and Rossini.
Florence is a great walking town at least in the old part where all the tourists are relegated. There are lots of pedestrian areas and all are well lit.
We are old. We cannot walk 10 miles a day on cobblestone streets as we used to. My feet hurt! Eight of those miles were inside museums and churches.
Adding to this aerobic workout is the side stepping to avoid all the people to whom, I swear, we are invisible. They come four abreast on a two person wide sidewalk. I have tried playing chicken with them. I always chicken out and step into the street or pretend I am a piece of spaghetti thrown against the wall to test for doneness.
Do you recall that I was saying that Michelangelo did not create plaster models of his statues before sculpting? The genius of his God given talent became poignant as we saw four unfinished sculptures that he began (evidently he was working on all four at the same time) for a grave monument for a dude who died before they were finished. The important dude’s family apparently did not agree with his own estimate of his importance and they canceled the order.
There is not a better way to describe his work than to say that he took hammer and chisel and chipped away everything that did not look like the figure trapped inside the stone.
I had a very odd memory as I stood staring at these stone men emerging from their marble prisons. I recalled an episode of the TV show superman from the early 60's. In the episode the bad guy had walled himself inside of a room that was made of something that was so thick or of some substance that made it impossible for Superman to break it down. Not to be defeated, Superman used his super power of mind over matter, by willpower he was able to make the molecules of his body less dense, and he could then melt into the wall and flow through the wall. The crude visual effects of early TV showed a stone wall out of which Superman slowly emerged.
Michelangelo’s statues appeared to have been frozen in time as they were caught in the act of emergingng from the marble.
The Academia museum, where we saw the unfinished works, is also home to perhaps Michelangelo's greatest sculpture: "David".
Fourteen years ago, when we were in the Louvre museum in Paris I remember my first impression of Michelangelo's painting of "Mona Lisa" was that it is much smaller than I had envisioned.
My experience of "David" was just the opposite. This statue is ever so much larger than I had imagined. My expectations had been shaped by the hundreds of statues that we had seen over the last few days in Rome and in Florence. Virtually all of them from ancient times to contemporaries of Michelangelo created statues of near life size. There were obviously some that were much bigger, but most were near life size.
David is huge - standing over 13.5 feet tall. Every inch of this work is a wonder of detail. Veins and muscles are clearly visible in the stone. Michelangelo sculpted David's right hand bigger than his left. The pose of this right hand is reminiscent of The Hand of God that Michelangelo painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican depicting the spark of life in the creation of Adam.
We visited Santa Cruze Church, which is the final resting place for a rather distinguished group of former citizens of Florence: Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, Gentile and Rossini.
Florence is a great walking town at least in the old part where all the tourists are relegated. There are lots of pedestrian areas and all are well lit.
36 Florence Day 1
Florence
Florence is a very lovely city. Our bus driver, who had never been to Florence, insisted that our hotel was just a block to the south. Dr. Kingsely who had been there several times tried to tell him it was the other direction. We walked 3 blocks to our hotel and then in shifts we packed the tiny lift with our luggage and carried it up to the third floor.
We ventured out with several students to “Tratoria Za-Za” for dinner. It was a Rick Steves recommended place and was very nice with good food.
The next day we sat out to explore the city of Florence. The area that we wanted to see (the older part of town) is very compact and not too far to walk. We made our way to the Duomo which is the central cathedral of Florence. During the time Florence was at its peak politically and monetarily they did not do anything in a small way. The buildings are “ornate.” The multicolored marble is very eye catching.
The Cathedral Museum was a great time. The church was remodeled inside and out several hundred years ago. However, they were foresighted enough to create a museum of some of the great works of art from the old church by some great artists including Michelangelo and Donatello. Many of the art works were once niche statues that were on the front of the Church. They were in most cases very high up and thus if they were still there you would not be able to see them well. Now you can look at them closely.
The other things that were abundant in the museum were relics of lots of long dead people.
Later that afternoon we went to the Science museum. That was way cool. We saw Galileo’s original telescopes. One was made of paper and the other was leather. What I found interesting was that these telescopes were made either by him or to order and they are very ornate. I guess they had more time back then.
One of the other pieces of Galileo’s equipment was a piece of experimental apparatus that he used to test and demonstrate that falling bodies accelerate as they fall. The piece of equipment consisted of a wooden incline to roll balls down. Bells were spaced at greater distances as it is farther from top. The bells ring at steady time spaces. Thus, falling bodies accelerate.
Also in the museum is Galileo’s middle finger in a glass jar display case. It was removed after his death. I think this was when he was reburied when the church finally forgave him for saying that the earth revolves around the sun.
A good day.
Florence is a very lovely city. Our bus driver, who had never been to Florence, insisted that our hotel was just a block to the south. Dr. Kingsely who had been there several times tried to tell him it was the other direction. We walked 3 blocks to our hotel and then in shifts we packed the tiny lift with our luggage and carried it up to the third floor.
We ventured out with several students to “Tratoria Za-Za” for dinner. It was a Rick Steves recommended place and was very nice with good food.
The next day we sat out to explore the city of Florence. The area that we wanted to see (the older part of town) is very compact and not too far to walk. We made our way to the Duomo which is the central cathedral of Florence. During the time Florence was at its peak politically and monetarily they did not do anything in a small way. The buildings are “ornate.” The multicolored marble is very eye catching.
The Cathedral Museum was a great time. The church was remodeled inside and out several hundred years ago. However, they were foresighted enough to create a museum of some of the great works of art from the old church by some great artists including Michelangelo and Donatello. Many of the art works were once niche statues that were on the front of the Church. They were in most cases very high up and thus if they were still there you would not be able to see them well. Now you can look at them closely.
The other things that were abundant in the museum were relics of lots of long dead people.
Later that afternoon we went to the Science museum. That was way cool. We saw Galileo’s original telescopes. One was made of paper and the other was leather. What I found interesting was that these telescopes were made either by him or to order and they are very ornate. I guess they had more time back then.
One of the other pieces of Galileo’s equipment was a piece of experimental apparatus that he used to test and demonstrate that falling bodies accelerate as they fall. The piece of equipment consisted of a wooden incline to roll balls down. Bells were spaced at greater distances as it is farther from top. The bells ring at steady time spaces. Thus, falling bodies accelerate.
Also in the museum is Galileo’s middle finger in a glass jar display case. It was removed after his death. I think this was when he was reburied when the church finally forgave him for saying that the earth revolves around the sun.
A good day.
35 Arriverderci Roma
Arriverderci Roma
Blue skies to begin the day but alas, when it came time to load the bus, it was raining. However, I get ahead of the story.
Although we had seen the Pantheon on Friday night, it was very late and the church was closed. We set out on the now open metro to see this ancient building.
The Pantheon was built by the Romans and used as a church to all the gods. After the fall of Rome, the building became a Catholic (a real rarity here in Rome) church dedicated to martyrs.
When we arrived the choir was practicing. About 10 people filled the circular and domed building with music. The bronze doors are original. Much of the building has been rebuilt over the years. This is obvious from the outside as you can see the old and new materials blending together.
Another thing made clear is that over the centuries the city has been built higher and higher by building the new city on the ashes of the old. There is a10 foot (I am guessing here and could be off by30 feet or so) trench dug down to the bottom of the wall. There were evidently more stairs leading up to the main floor entrance than there are now.
The dome is wider than the one in St Peter’s designed by Michaelangelo. During the Renaissance, they marveled at the Pantheon dome and cut into the dome (leaving a square hole) to see what it was made of. It turns out it is thinner and lighter as it gets higher with the top part made of volcanic pumice.
We stopped again at the Trevi fountain. I forgot to tell you that the other night when we were at the Trevi a young man in running shoes came and asked if we would like for him to take a picture of Penny and I using my $900 camera. I am sure that would have been the last I would have seen of my camera. I did not fall for that one.
Today there were two police watching the crowd. Their main job seems to have been to talk on the cell phone and chat with the lady with the broom. Occasionally they would blow a whistle in my ear and say in Italian "everybody out of the pool!" and pointing at the kids venturing out on to the rocks leading toward the giant figure of Ocean standing in the midst of the water gushing from 24 spouts. This fountain and virtually all other Rome fountains are supplied with water from the aqueducts bringing an abundant supply of water from the surrounding hills to the city. These aqueducts have been repaired but are still the original system that gave Rome its power. Roads and water is what made Rome. Well, roads, water and over whelming military power is what made Rome. OK, it was roads, water, over whelming military power, and Gina Gina Lollobrigida that made Rome.
Speaking of police, I must say they are snappy dressers here in Italy. I wonder about their efficiency. We walked by a car accident that the police were investigating and an hour later they were still investigating.
Other things that make me question the competence of the Italian security system or people: At passport control, the person stamped passports without checking anything including checking to see if I was the guy in the passport photo.
The Vatican Museum and St Peters Church made people stand in a long line and send their bags and coats though an x-ray machine. While on the surface this sounds like good security system, but I am pretty sure this only is a deterrent if the operators of the machines actually look at the monitors. These guys were chatting and visiting and not looking at the screen. In one case he had his back to the screen.
We also visited 3 churches:
1. Santa Maria Sopra Minerva is the only Gothic church in Rome. (Twenty bonus points to the person who explains the difference between Gothic and Baroque style in 50 words or less.) The highlight of the church is a Michelangelo's statue of "Christ carrying the cross”. Mike was a great sculptor. I was told or read that Michelangelo was the only great sculptor who did not make plaster models of a sculpture before sculpting in stone. His answer to "how do you sculpt a statue of Moses?" Answer:"get a big block of marble and chip away everything that doesn’t look like Moses."
2. Church of St. Ignazio. This church epitomizes the Baroque solution to the problem of how to build a beautiful dome into a church with a flat roof. The solution is to place a masterful fresco (paint mixed with plaster and then "painted" on the surface so that the color is part of the wall or ceiling and does not peel off or fade for at least several hundred years) on the ceiling so that you swear that you are looking at a three dimensional domed roof.
3. Gesu Church is another very ornate baroque church which is also the headquarters of the Jesuits in Rome. So we sat quietly in the back and did not disturb anyone (aren't the Jesuits the really strict ones?)
We said Arriverderci Roma and pulled out in the rain and headed for Florence. The scenery on the trip was largely obscured by the haze from the rain and clouds, that and the fact that at 4:45 it is nearly dark.
We did stop at a rest stop and there we learned the Italian recipe for hot chocolate:
3 Hershey milk chocolate bars melted
2 teaspoons of warm milk
stir all ingredients together and pour in a cup. (If it is still too thick to pour, add a few more drops of milk.)
It was very thick.
Observations in Rome:
1. Italian men do talk with their hands.
2. Italian men do talk: on the streets, in restaurants, and in shops.
3. Italian women talk just as much as men but use their hands less. This is mainly because if they are less than 25 it is required that young women lock arms as they walk. The reasons may be social but I strongly suspect that it is a blocking strategy so they can walk down the narrow sidewalks made even narrower by the omnipresent street venders with their wares spread on blankets and folding display stands.
4. The reason for this method of display is the necessity to periodically grab the corners of the blanket and run. This dash happens when they spot (easily spotted) a police officer coming. This is just a game with well-choreographed dance steps. If the police were serious about stopping this merchandizing practice they could easily hire a few undercover cops and issue them street maps and cameras so they blend in seamlessly to the throngs of tourist. They could bust them all in a matter of minutes. I am also convinced that the Mafia is behind these street venders. There are always a line of people along the sidewalk by every place tourist go. Each has one item to sell but the pattern repeats as you go down the street: purses, watches, pens, scarves, camera tripods, and then the pattern repeats. There are identical items from each watch seller and each pen seller, etc. I imagine Marlin Brando sending these folks out with orders to not return until they have ripped off at least 20 tourists. Oh, I forgot. It doesn't rain cats and dogs in Rome. When it starts to sprinkle umbrella venders magically appear everywhere. This was handy for me as on Saturday as we left the hotel I found my umbrella had broken. It was sprinkling. Before going three blocks there was a guy selling umbrellas. I bought one just like (although not broken) the one i had for €5.00 or $7.50. Penny said I should have bargained but I figured the godfather might put a horse head in this poor guy's bed if he did not come back with enough money at the end of his shift.
5. Everyone over the age of 12 in Italy smokes. I suspect that the tobacco company's lobbied to pass the law that all tobacco shops (one per block) must sell bus/metro tickets. The system requires that 90% of the population visit a tobacco store on at least a weekly basis.
6. Pizza is the national food. Most of the take away fast food pizza is not round but the shape of a football field track. All the pizza I saw was thin crust. They cut you off a chunk starting at the 20 yard line, fold it in half and wrap it in paper: off you go with a relatively drip free lunch.
7. Sunday morning is take-your-kids-on-a-walk day. I did not notice until today how few kids I had seen. Today the stroller brigade was out in force. The strollers here, as in the rest of Europe, have many more models than we do. Some are plain, most are convertible models with clear plastic covers so that rain does not slow them down. I confess that every time I saw one of these plastic bubbles I felt the urge to warn then about the dangers of asphyxiation. Evidently, they have enough ventilation, as I did not see any parent administering CPR.
Blue skies to begin the day but alas, when it came time to load the bus, it was raining. However, I get ahead of the story.
Although we had seen the Pantheon on Friday night, it was very late and the church was closed. We set out on the now open metro to see this ancient building.
The Pantheon was built by the Romans and used as a church to all the gods. After the fall of Rome, the building became a Catholic (a real rarity here in Rome) church dedicated to martyrs.
When we arrived the choir was practicing. About 10 people filled the circular and domed building with music. The bronze doors are original. Much of the building has been rebuilt over the years. This is obvious from the outside as you can see the old and new materials blending together.
Another thing made clear is that over the centuries the city has been built higher and higher by building the new city on the ashes of the old. There is a10 foot (I am guessing here and could be off by30 feet or so) trench dug down to the bottom of the wall. There were evidently more stairs leading up to the main floor entrance than there are now.
The dome is wider than the one in St Peter’s designed by Michaelangelo. During the Renaissance, they marveled at the Pantheon dome and cut into the dome (leaving a square hole) to see what it was made of. It turns out it is thinner and lighter as it gets higher with the top part made of volcanic pumice.
We stopped again at the Trevi fountain. I forgot to tell you that the other night when we were at the Trevi a young man in running shoes came and asked if we would like for him to take a picture of Penny and I using my $900 camera. I am sure that would have been the last I would have seen of my camera. I did not fall for that one.
Today there were two police watching the crowd. Their main job seems to have been to talk on the cell phone and chat with the lady with the broom. Occasionally they would blow a whistle in my ear and say in Italian "everybody out of the pool!" and pointing at the kids venturing out on to the rocks leading toward the giant figure of Ocean standing in the midst of the water gushing from 24 spouts. This fountain and virtually all other Rome fountains are supplied with water from the aqueducts bringing an abundant supply of water from the surrounding hills to the city. These aqueducts have been repaired but are still the original system that gave Rome its power. Roads and water is what made Rome. Well, roads, water and over whelming military power is what made Rome. OK, it was roads, water, over whelming military power, and Gina Gina Lollobrigida that made Rome.
Speaking of police, I must say they are snappy dressers here in Italy. I wonder about their efficiency. We walked by a car accident that the police were investigating and an hour later they were still investigating.
Other things that make me question the competence of the Italian security system or people: At passport control, the person stamped passports without checking anything including checking to see if I was the guy in the passport photo.
The Vatican Museum and St Peters Church made people stand in a long line and send their bags and coats though an x-ray machine. While on the surface this sounds like good security system, but I am pretty sure this only is a deterrent if the operators of the machines actually look at the monitors. These guys were chatting and visiting and not looking at the screen. In one case he had his back to the screen.
We also visited 3 churches:
1. Santa Maria Sopra Minerva is the only Gothic church in Rome. (Twenty bonus points to the person who explains the difference between Gothic and Baroque style in 50 words or less.) The highlight of the church is a Michelangelo's statue of "Christ carrying the cross”. Mike was a great sculptor. I was told or read that Michelangelo was the only great sculptor who did not make plaster models of a sculpture before sculpting in stone. His answer to "how do you sculpt a statue of Moses?" Answer:"get a big block of marble and chip away everything that doesn’t look like Moses."
2. Church of St. Ignazio. This church epitomizes the Baroque solution to the problem of how to build a beautiful dome into a church with a flat roof. The solution is to place a masterful fresco (paint mixed with plaster and then "painted" on the surface so that the color is part of the wall or ceiling and does not peel off or fade for at least several hundred years) on the ceiling so that you swear that you are looking at a three dimensional domed roof.
3. Gesu Church is another very ornate baroque church which is also the headquarters of the Jesuits in Rome. So we sat quietly in the back and did not disturb anyone (aren't the Jesuits the really strict ones?)
We said Arriverderci Roma and pulled out in the rain and headed for Florence. The scenery on the trip was largely obscured by the haze from the rain and clouds, that and the fact that at 4:45 it is nearly dark.
We did stop at a rest stop and there we learned the Italian recipe for hot chocolate:
3 Hershey milk chocolate bars melted
2 teaspoons of warm milk
stir all ingredients together and pour in a cup. (If it is still too thick to pour, add a few more drops of milk.)
It was very thick.
Observations in Rome:
1. Italian men do talk with their hands.
2. Italian men do talk: on the streets, in restaurants, and in shops.
3. Italian women talk just as much as men but use their hands less. This is mainly because if they are less than 25 it is required that young women lock arms as they walk. The reasons may be social but I strongly suspect that it is a blocking strategy so they can walk down the narrow sidewalks made even narrower by the omnipresent street venders with their wares spread on blankets and folding display stands.
4. The reason for this method of display is the necessity to periodically grab the corners of the blanket and run. This dash happens when they spot (easily spotted) a police officer coming. This is just a game with well-choreographed dance steps. If the police were serious about stopping this merchandizing practice they could easily hire a few undercover cops and issue them street maps and cameras so they blend in seamlessly to the throngs of tourist. They could bust them all in a matter of minutes. I am also convinced that the Mafia is behind these street venders. There are always a line of people along the sidewalk by every place tourist go. Each has one item to sell but the pattern repeats as you go down the street: purses, watches, pens, scarves, camera tripods, and then the pattern repeats. There are identical items from each watch seller and each pen seller, etc. I imagine Marlin Brando sending these folks out with orders to not return until they have ripped off at least 20 tourists. Oh, I forgot. It doesn't rain cats and dogs in Rome. When it starts to sprinkle umbrella venders magically appear everywhere. This was handy for me as on Saturday as we left the hotel I found my umbrella had broken. It was sprinkling. Before going three blocks there was a guy selling umbrellas. I bought one just like (although not broken) the one i had for €5.00 or $7.50. Penny said I should have bargained but I figured the godfather might put a horse head in this poor guy's bed if he did not come back with enough money at the end of his shift.
5. Everyone over the age of 12 in Italy smokes. I suspect that the tobacco company's lobbied to pass the law that all tobacco shops (one per block) must sell bus/metro tickets. The system requires that 90% of the population visit a tobacco store on at least a weekly basis.
6. Pizza is the national food. Most of the take away fast food pizza is not round but the shape of a football field track. All the pizza I saw was thin crust. They cut you off a chunk starting at the 20 yard line, fold it in half and wrap it in paper: off you go with a relatively drip free lunch.
7. Sunday morning is take-your-kids-on-a-walk day. I did not notice until today how few kids I had seen. Today the stroller brigade was out in force. The strollers here, as in the rest of Europe, have many more models than we do. Some are plain, most are convertible models with clear plastic covers so that rain does not slow them down. I confess that every time I saw one of these plastic bubbles I felt the urge to warn then about the dangers of asphyxiation. Evidently, they have enough ventilation, as I did not see any parent administering CPR.
34 Rome Day 2
Day 2 in Roma
The breakfast in the hotel with students was very nice. We had red orange juice, bread, cereal, cheese and coffee.
Today the Vatican museum was open but not tomorrow, as it is the religious holiday called the Immaculate Conception. Therefore, we put a trip to the museum on our agenda for today. We got to the museum about 8:30 for an 8:45 opening. The line was 26 miles long (OK, it was a good 3 city blocks). The line did not move until after 10:00 and then it went very quickly. That gave me an opportunity to take some pictures of the tourists and the Romans as they passed by our non-progressing line. By the time the line started to move the line behind us was at least 3 more blocks. It went around a corner and I could not see the end.
We rented audio guides. The content of the museum is pretty much the history of the world. There are on display (like the Smithsonian the majority of the museum’s collection is not on public display) many statues (from all over the world), ancient maps, Egyptian mummies (at least one was a daddy), and of course paintings.
Interestingly, or perhaps not, due to the changing mores about nudity in art over the centuries most of the male statues either have the penis broken off (don’t ask me by whom, but I suspect some 14 year old Roman from the 3rd century) or they have had a stone fig leave glued over the private parts.
The tour through the Vatican museum is a forced one-way route that winds up in the Sistine Chapel, which was painted by Michelangelo. The room is not small but it was packed and people were literally standing shoulder to shoulder. Men stood at the font yelling “NO PHOTOs” in several languages at all the people who ignored them and snapped pictures. They also kept yelling “silence” and “SHHHHHHHH.” With 1000+ people in this room, these instructions were ignored.
We then went back to hotel for a nap. After regaining our strength, we sat out on Rick Steve’s night walk across Rome. The starting point was a long walk across the river and by the castle where I took pictures of a nice family of Italian tourists.
We ate at 7:00 (too early for Italian folks) at a nice restaurant over an ancient theatre. We had the restaurant to ourselves until 8:00 then the crowds came pouring in and the place got very noisy in a friendly family way. We ordered fish for our main course. The waiter took me to the display case with ice at the front door and there we picked our sea bass. The fish and the waiter emerged from the kitchen a bit later with the fish, head and all, on a lovely platter. He showed it to us and after we approved he took it to a table and filleted it. I am a great picker outer of dead fish because it was delicious.
We then walked to St Peters, The Pantheon, the Trevi fountain, and the Spanish Steps. All of this was very nice at night when there were almost no tourists around.
Our trip to the Spanish Steps was by a circuitous route but we made it. The Spanish Steps were less than impressive with an orange construction barrier at the bottom and a giant car ad at the top.
Then our mandatory daily transportation fiasco began. We found the Metro but could not read all the signs. We walked in a tunnel thinking we were going to the train. It was a long walk. We got to the end and found no train. After wondering around a bit (OK a lot) we asked someone and found that the trains were not running and that there was a replacement bus service. A very nice man helped us find the bus stop and he told us the number of the bus but the bus did not, would not stop for us. We waited and asked another bus driver and were told a bus number to take but that bus never came. We took a taxi.
Back at the hotel, it is midnight and I am going to bed.
The breakfast in the hotel with students was very nice. We had red orange juice, bread, cereal, cheese and coffee.
Today the Vatican museum was open but not tomorrow, as it is the religious holiday called the Immaculate Conception. Therefore, we put a trip to the museum on our agenda for today. We got to the museum about 8:30 for an 8:45 opening. The line was 26 miles long (OK, it was a good 3 city blocks). The line did not move until after 10:00 and then it went very quickly. That gave me an opportunity to take some pictures of the tourists and the Romans as they passed by our non-progressing line. By the time the line started to move the line behind us was at least 3 more blocks. It went around a corner and I could not see the end.
We rented audio guides. The content of the museum is pretty much the history of the world. There are on display (like the Smithsonian the majority of the museum’s collection is not on public display) many statues (from all over the world), ancient maps, Egyptian mummies (at least one was a daddy), and of course paintings.
Interestingly, or perhaps not, due to the changing mores about nudity in art over the centuries most of the male statues either have the penis broken off (don’t ask me by whom, but I suspect some 14 year old Roman from the 3rd century) or they have had a stone fig leave glued over the private parts.
The tour through the Vatican museum is a forced one-way route that winds up in the Sistine Chapel, which was painted by Michelangelo. The room is not small but it was packed and people were literally standing shoulder to shoulder. Men stood at the font yelling “NO PHOTOs” in several languages at all the people who ignored them and snapped pictures. They also kept yelling “silence” and “SHHHHHHHH.” With 1000+ people in this room, these instructions were ignored.
We then went back to hotel for a nap. After regaining our strength, we sat out on Rick Steve’s night walk across Rome. The starting point was a long walk across the river and by the castle where I took pictures of a nice family of Italian tourists.
We ate at 7:00 (too early for Italian folks) at a nice restaurant over an ancient theatre. We had the restaurant to ourselves until 8:00 then the crowds came pouring in and the place got very noisy in a friendly family way. We ordered fish for our main course. The waiter took me to the display case with ice at the front door and there we picked our sea bass. The fish and the waiter emerged from the kitchen a bit later with the fish, head and all, on a lovely platter. He showed it to us and after we approved he took it to a table and filleted it. I am a great picker outer of dead fish because it was delicious.
We then walked to St Peters, The Pantheon, the Trevi fountain, and the Spanish Steps. All of this was very nice at night when there were almost no tourists around.
Our trip to the Spanish Steps was by a circuitous route but we made it. The Spanish Steps were less than impressive with an orange construction barrier at the bottom and a giant car ad at the top.
Then our mandatory daily transportation fiasco began. We found the Metro but could not read all the signs. We walked in a tunnel thinking we were going to the train. It was a long walk. We got to the end and found no train. After wondering around a bit (OK a lot) we asked someone and found that the trains were not running and that there was a replacement bus service. A very nice man helped us find the bus stop and he told us the number of the bus but the bus did not, would not stop for us. We waited and asked another bus driver and were told a bus number to take but that bus never came. We took a taxi.
Back at the hotel, it is midnight and I am going to bed.
33 Rome Day 1
Leaving Harlaxton:
The Coach taking folks who were heading directly back to the US left at 12:30 PM. Some of those folk had a considerable wait at the airports. But for the 64 of us going on the Italy trip we left at 2:30 AM. Our flight for Rome left about 7:30 so we did not wait very long.
I was able to sleep some on the way to the airport. However, it was fitful. Our driver had a few idiosyncrasies. The trip was like riding with a 16-year-old learning to drive a stick shift. There were a lot of sudden stops and quick starts. The flight to Roma was a bit rough but still much smoother than the bus ride.
Dr. Kingsley went ahead of our group when we left the luggage pickup and he found the bus that would take us to the hotel. When our group all had their luggage, we headed out to the arrival hall and there was Dr Kingsley standing in the midst of a sea of limo and bus drivers holding large signs with the names of the people and groups they were meeting. Dr. Kingsley was holding up a business card with the word “Harlaxton” printed in tiny letters across the back.
The double-decker bus that had been sent did not have quite enough room for all the luggage that we Americans had brought. It did fit in the storage area and in the floor at the back of the bus.
Hotel Pacifica is OK. We have a room with a balcony facing the busy street. The streets of Roma are not quiet until at least 1:00 AM and then the solitude is frequently interrupted by honking and sirens. Rome drivers do not toot their horns they hoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooonk their horns.
Our room’s radiator was stuck on and it was very warm. We resorted to opening and closing the window to regulate the temperature. Of course, when the window was open the noise was exacerbated.
In the afternoon of the first day we walked (25 minutes) to St. Peters in the Vatican. We had been there before and I recognized and remembered most of the stuff but it is still so very impressive.
The walls have huge reproductions of some of the great painting in the word. They appear to be paintings until you look very closely and you see they are mosaics.
The audio guide was a treatise on catholic doctrine. St. Peter supposedly is buried in the church – can’t see his grave.
For dinner we had pizza take away that you buy by the gram. You tell them how big a piece you want and they weigh it.
We were in bed by 8:00 and slept until 7:00
The Coach taking folks who were heading directly back to the US left at 12:30 PM. Some of those folk had a considerable wait at the airports. But for the 64 of us going on the Italy trip we left at 2:30 AM. Our flight for Rome left about 7:30 so we did not wait very long.
I was able to sleep some on the way to the airport. However, it was fitful. Our driver had a few idiosyncrasies. The trip was like riding with a 16-year-old learning to drive a stick shift. There were a lot of sudden stops and quick starts. The flight to Roma was a bit rough but still much smoother than the bus ride.
Dr. Kingsley went ahead of our group when we left the luggage pickup and he found the bus that would take us to the hotel. When our group all had their luggage, we headed out to the arrival hall and there was Dr Kingsley standing in the midst of a sea of limo and bus drivers holding large signs with the names of the people and groups they were meeting. Dr. Kingsley was holding up a business card with the word “Harlaxton” printed in tiny letters across the back.
The double-decker bus that had been sent did not have quite enough room for all the luggage that we Americans had brought. It did fit in the storage area and in the floor at the back of the bus.
Hotel Pacifica is OK. We have a room with a balcony facing the busy street. The streets of Roma are not quiet until at least 1:00 AM and then the solitude is frequently interrupted by honking and sirens. Rome drivers do not toot their horns they hoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooonk their horns.
Our room’s radiator was stuck on and it was very warm. We resorted to opening and closing the window to regulate the temperature. Of course, when the window was open the noise was exacerbated.
In the afternoon of the first day we walked (25 minutes) to St. Peters in the Vatican. We had been there before and I recognized and remembered most of the stuff but it is still so very impressive.
The walls have huge reproductions of some of the great painting in the word. They appear to be paintings until you look very closely and you see they are mosaics.
The audio guide was a treatise on catholic doctrine. St. Peter supposedly is buried in the church – can’t see his grave.
For dinner we had pizza take away that you buy by the gram. You tell them how big a piece you want and they weigh it.
We were in bed by 8:00 and slept until 7:00
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