Month: April 2012

  • Capitoline Museum

    We were almost the last people in line before they closed the doors one hour before admission. So we had one hour to do three entire multi-storied buildings of museums. 

     

    Wave the flag…

    GO!

    Outside in the courtyard, we have a statue of Marcus Aurelius on a horse.  Inside, they also have this same statue. One’s the original.


     

    They also had this incredibly famous statue of Romulus and Remus with their Wolf-mom. It was just sitting out, which made me think that it was a copy, too, and the original was somewhere else in the museum.  (Interesting side note, the word for “prostitute” is very similar to the word for “wolf” in the language of Romulus and Remus’s day. It’s possible that the shepherd found them in a cave being cared for not by a wolf but with a different creature of the night.) 

     

    Prick your finger on a pokey thing?

     

    Sleeping beauty!

     

    Creepy Marble Baby is creepy. And creeping.

     

    Math is everywhere! Sierpinski’s Gasket anyone?

     

    Ancient Roman Halloween Costume

     

    Cupid looking purposeful. 

    They had a lot of these gorgeous boxes. I loved them!

     

    Hmmm. I think we should look at some sculptures now.

     

    I’ve got something in my eye. Sort of feels like marble.

     

    Um, hey. What are you?

     

    Oh, you’re a poisonous snake. No biggie. I’m Hercules!

     

    I found a foot bigger than Michael’s!

     

    Let me ‘splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

     

    Ah-ah-ah-ah, Flayin’ alive, flayin’ alive.

     

    Heads? Yup. We got ‘em.

     

    We got ‘em wearing fancy clothes, even.

     

       

    We got ‘em smiling.

     

    And we even got ‘em with hair.

     

    A six-pack that is the envy of all. Legs that are the envy of none. 

     

    Venus without clothes.

    Venus with clothes (and playing tennis)

     

    The Dying Gaul is dying. 

     

    Dear Goddess, You gave us a safe trip there and back. So my wife and I would like to dedicate this marble carving of our feet to you. 

     

    It’s no fun being a Sabine woman. 

     

    Aw, look at the tiger playing with that white bull. 

     

    This doesn’t even need a caption. 

     

    Uh, this is getting boring. How many pictures can this woman take in an hour?

     

    A lot. She can take A LOT.

     

    Oh! I think I’m going to faint!

     

    No need. We’re done! Let’s get some gelato. 

  • Ostia Antica

    I enjoyed a lot of things in Rome. 

    Free water from the fountains.

     

    The gorgeous blue skies

     

    And Ostia Antica.  Huh?  What’s that? Well, I’ll tell you!

    When we were planning our trip to Rome, a number of us wanted to go to Pompeii and walk through a preserved ancient Roman city. Pompeii is near Naples, which means it would be three hours by train from  Rome (and three hours back). Plus, we’d want to have lots of time to explore the site. It just didn’t seem very wise. The more I looked into Pompeii, the more another name kept coming up–Ostia Antica.  Almost every site I visited said that it was just as nice as Pompeii and only a 25 minute Metro train ride out of Rome.  My decision was made. Ostia Antica it was!

     

    I was not disappointed. 

        

    Ostia Antica was a harbor city on the Tiber River.  The word “ostia” means “mouth,” as in “the mouth of a river,” and that is where it was located. (The river has shifted course since then and is now about 2 miles away.)  There is speculation that this city was one of the earliest in Rome, founded in the 7th century BC, but the earliest archaeological remains are from the 4th century BC. Either way, it’s old. 

    Ostia had all the things a city of that time would have had, including a Jewish synagogue. In 200 AD times, Ostia probably had a population of 75,000. (That’s like State College in the summer.) It fell into decline in the 400′s and was totally abandoned by the 800′s.  The river silted over a lot of the city which helped to preserve it, but like most of the other ancient ruins in Rome, the marble and statues and things were scavenged by others.  

    But what remains is a whole city–falling down, yes–but a whole city!  It’s over a mile to walk from the entrance to the baths which are the outer edge of the city. 

    Michael was delighted! He climbed and jumped and ran and had a grand time!

         

    Rachel enjoyed it as well. 

    And what was not to love? It was a museum you could climb on! No one cared if you touched the mosaics or climbed on the roof of an apartment building.

            

    As you can see in the picture of the kids, they do have metal fences to help you not to kill yourself, and if something really was unsafe, it was chained off. But very little was.

    It was lovely weather, too, and the site had wildflowers growing all around and a sense of peace, despite all the people who surely were there. 

        

    It was amazing to see the remains of frescoes on the walls, unprotected from weather or graffiti. 

            

    Here was a curious thing. There were several windows with glass in them. The Romans did use glass, but it seemed odd that it would have lasted so long without being broken. Yet why would anyone put glass in unprotected ruins?

     

    There were plenty of mosaic floors, mostly in black and white. 

              

     

    There were some places that still had marble on them.

     

    This building was probably my favorite of all. It was called the Domus del Ninfeo. I don’t know what it was, but it was lovely. 

               

     

    The theater was well-preserved, so much so that they still have concerts there. They were setting up for one while we visited. 

              

     

    I’m on stage! (What a tragedy.)

     

    The original drainage systems were still there!

     

    I don’t know what this field of buried jars was. I couldn’t find any information there or on Google. The jars were pretty big, too. The internet said they were six feet high.

     

    Just enjoy some pictures and imagine you are there.

                                                                    

     

    We took this picture of graffiti for 

    And the koi picture for her, too!

     

    I

    Ostia Antica! 

  • Trevi Fountain

    While you read this, listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuLI2G9HNtM (For Frank Sinatra) 

    or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvI09n9hMgg&feature=related (For Doris Day)

     

    This is Trevi Fountain. 

     

    It’s the largest Baroque fountain in Rome. Legend says that if you throw a coin in the fountain, you are sure to return to Rome. Michael wanted to throw in American money, and thankfully from the recesses of suitcases and change purses, we were able to find some. 

      

    I figured a kiss for luck wouldn’t hurt!   

        

    After you are done throwing in your coin, you can just sit and people-watch and enjoy the sound of the water. 

     

    Wikipedia said that about 3,000 euros ($4000) is thrown into the fountain every day.  They use the money to subsidize a supermarket for needy people in Rome. So, even if the wish doesn’t come true, the coin toss was worth it!

  • Museo Nazionale Romano

    Other than the Vatican Museums, there were only two other museums in Rome I planned to drag the family to visit. Why? this is the prevailing view on museums.

     

      

    I chose the Roman National Museum for two reasons. First, my guidebook gave it three stars (which is the highest). Second, it had a bunch of ancient Roman stuff, and that’s my favorite sort of thing to look at in museums. 

    When you look at a museum of Roman things, you would expect to see frescoes, mosaics, jewelry, marble statues, and coins. And we were not disappointed!  They had entire houses preserved to show us what the frescoes would have looked like in each room. (A fresco is a painting on wet plaster. It was like Roman wallpaper.)

    The reddsih-brown picture is one room in a house. I didn’t realize they covered their whole walls like that.

       

     

    Roman “carpet” was a mosaic. Many mosaic floors were black and white because those were the cheapest two colors of tiles. The mosaics we saw here were amazing! The more detailed the picture, the more colors, and the tinier the tiles, the more expensive a mosaic floor would be. The tiles in these mosaics were probably a centimeter square. So tiny!

                   

     

    I am not sure what you would call this piece. It was made of different colored marble and gorgeous, but it wasn’t made of little square tiles. It was all different shaped pieces for the bodies and capes and the border. You can’t really see it, but the background was a deep green, and the colors were vibrant.

     

    I saw this random, bronze arm. It was probably twice life-size. The information about it said that Romans often used hands and arms at the edges of decorative wall borders to fill in space at the ends. I guess it came in handy. HAHAHAHA. 

     

    What they did with marble was simply amazing. They could make a solid block of stone look like a flowing, transparent gown.

     

    And they could capture expression and motion so well. (Although many statues were listed as being “Roman copies of Greek originals.)

      

     

    They also did neat things with bronze. This is a famous statue called “The Boxer at Rest.” And it’s a Roman copy of a Greek original. That used to annoy me that these statues were just copies until I realized that a 2000 year old statue is still a 2000 year old statue, whether they copied someone else’s or not. 

       

     

    I enjoyed seeing all the different hairstyles on the busts. I imagined an ancient Roman beauty salon with all these heads in it and fashionable Roman women coming in to choose hairstyles. (This is just my imagination. I don’t know that this happened!)

     

                   

     

    Ancient Roman Barbie dolls? 

       

     

    They had some pretty jewelry, too. A lot of times when I see old jewelry in museums, I think, “Hmmm. Hope it looked a lot better when the person was wearing it.” But these pieces were still wearable today!

     

     

    There was a whole room full of coins. These were scales with weights. 

        

     

    James was excited to see a coin he had talked about in Sunday school. 

     

    Romans liked to use their coins not only to highlight the current emperor, but to show laws. This one shows the law of “Provoco” which meant that a Roman citizen could appeal punishments and rulings. It’s really neat when you see something in person you’ve only read about or seen pictures of.

  • Castel Sant’Angelo

    This round, stone building is known as the Castel Sant’Angleo. It was originally a mausoleum for the Emperor Hadrian, then was a fortress and castle used by the popes, and it’s now a museum. 

     

    The reason it got its present name is due to the legend that the Archangel Michael appeared on top of the mausoleum, sheathing his sword as a sign that The Plague of 590 was over.That is probably why there is a statue of Michael putting a sword away on top of the castle.

    We went there too late for admission one night, but we got some neat outside pictures. 

     

       

     

    The next day, we went back and waited in a long line to get inside. 

    These guys were hanging around outside.

    And it was FREE! Hooray for Culture Week in Rome finally scoring us a free ticket!

     

    There were gloomy bits.

     

    And pretty bits.

       

    Short places

     

    And high up places

            

     

    The view from the top was great!

                     

    While we up there, Michael tried to photobomb every picture he could get into. We had some good laughs. (This isn’t even a photobomb!)

     

    Then he climbed into an archer window with an arrow slit, and he got some funny looks. 

  • Santa Maria Della Vittoria

    I tried not to drag the family to too many museums and churches. And if we did go to one, I tried to make it a short stop. One place I did want to go was to the church that housed The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa. I am not sure if it was reading in the guide books or Rick Steves’ DVD or just my own wondering made me want to go.  So, we found the church and went in.

     

    It was a standard church, not very big, with lots of gold, paintings on the ceiling, and such.

       

     

    There was another sculpture there I liked. It’s not often you see sculptors combine marble and Christmas lights. 

    Still, I liked it. 

    We spent a lot of time doing this in every church we went to.

     

    Now, for what I came to see. First, a bit about St. Teresa of Avila. (There is a well-written and quirky biography of her at http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=208.) She’s the patron saint of headache sufferers and Spanish Catholic writers. (Grammarian wonders if there should be a comma there. Writers who are Spanish and Catholic? Or writers who are “Spanish Catholic”? The website I found was comma-less.)   She was born in Spain in 1515. Like the rest of us, she struggled with worldly temptation and longed to be closer to God. After a long while (like 20 plus years!), she began to have “delights” from God. Her friends and fellow workers thought this was from the devil. But as she said,  ”If these effects [peace, inspiration, and encouragement] are not present I would greatly doubt that the raptures come from God; on the contrary I would fear lest they be caused by rabies.” She had one vision of an angel repeatedly driving a golden spear into her heart. She said of it, “I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart, and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to leave me all on fire wth a great love of God. The pain was so great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it…”

    And that is what Bernini sculpted.

               

    There was a lot of criticism of this work because her expression seems rather sexual.  But then again, Saint Teresa herself had a heap of criticism over her visions and “delights,” so it only seems fitting that a sculpture in her honor should as well. I think Bernini expected this, as to the right of the statue, he sculpted these guys. 

    Marble men do not approve of Saint Teresa’s ecstasy. 

    The construction of this was interesting. Bernini put yellow glass in the skylight to make the light seem more golden. The statue is of a single piece of marble, and the gold rays are stucco that was gilded.

     

     

     

     

  • The Spanish Steps

    I like to utilize my guide book. And one of the top-rated things to see were the Spanish Steps. So, I dutifully walked the family to them. And guess what? They were a set of steps. 

        

    The steps were finished in 1725 and were made to link the Bourbon Spanish Embassy and the Trinità dei Monti Church. It’s a place where people sit and hang out. 

    Rachel and I walked up the 138 steps, and they were pretty with azaleas and other flowers. 

     

    There was a church at the top, which is not surprising, since there are about 900 churches in Rome. No joke. 

     

    The view was supposed to be incredible. And it was nice.

        

     

    But the addition of sunset improved the view significantly. 

        

     

     

     

  • Around Rome

    We did a lot of walking in Rome. Libby even walked the heels off a pair of half boots. It seems every street has something delightful to see, every corner has a monument, every square has a fountain.  These are just a few of the things we saw while wandering around. 

    This is the Pulcino della Minerva. It was designed by Bernini and made by one of his students. I thought it was cute. 

       

     

    There were a lot of Egyptian obelisks scattered about. Cleopatra and all that, I suppose. 

    Here’s a garbage truck. Hey, someone’s got to dump the trash!

     

    This building is called the National Monument of Victor Emmanuel. Romans don’t like it and contemptuously call it the “Wedding Cake.”

     

    This is us standing around figuring out which street to take. 

     

    Fountain!

     

    This is a close up of one of the columns we saw. 

     

    I wondered what this was. Realized it was a palm tree without any fronds.

     

    This church reminded me of Cambridge.

        

     

    Just stumbled across a carousel!

     

    Just some random

                      

     

  • Hard Rock Cafe

    I did not mention one dining experience we had.  Our new friends, the Moores, said they try to find a Hard Rock Cafe when they travel. We don’t usually eat at them, but wandering from one location to another in Rome, we stumbled across it.

     

    They kept the Hard Rock theme of loud music videos. But being Rome, they also had a local touch. These cherubic rockers were painted on the ceiling. 

       

     

    We were glad to sit down, skip the candy bars for real food, and rest our feet. Then we saw the menu–AMERICA!!!

    And… they had sodas with FREE REFILLS!

    To illustrate what a big deal this was, once the waitress took our drink order, we all looked at each other and simultaneously said, “Free refills!” 

     

    I have pictures of the food, but to you Americans who see this stuff on a regular basis, it will mean little.  A mushroom swiss burger!! Yum.

     

    Libby’s favorite food is mac and cheese. She said she almost cried when she saw it on the menu. 

     

    Strangely enough, I wanted to cry, too. I teared up a little bit. I guess I am homesick. I’m never going to make it dry-eyed through airport security if they show that Welcome to America video of little kids eating watermelon on the Fourth of July and families playing football in the backyard and soldiers saluting and all that. Nope. I’ll need tissues for sure. 

     

     

  • Dining in Rome

    Italy is known for having amazing food.  We Sellers are known for eating incredibly bland food. How did we get along? 

    Well, you already know we went to Burger King for lunch on Michael’s birthday. And we also ate gelato.  And we didn’t want to spend loads of money. A bottle of soda is almost 4 euros there!  We developed a good system.  We had a buffet breakfast at our hotel (which was supposed to be 10 euros a person a day, but I emailed and asked for a cheaper rate and got it for 6 euros a person). It was typical European: lots of breads, cereal, yogurt, fruit, lunchmeat, cheese. Sadly, there were no eggs and bacon for Michael. Anyhow, we’d stuff ourselves at a late breakfast, eat a snack of pretzels/candy bar around 4:00, and then have supper.

    In Rome, restaurants don’t open until 8:00 pm. By that time, we had gone back to our hotel. So, we mostly ate supper at the two restaurants near our hotel.

    Our first night, we went to an osteria.

     

    I believe this is the Italian equivalent of a diner. It had low prices and was full of Italians after work and hanging with friends.  James and the kids got pasta. 

    They didn’t really like it.

    Libby got roast beef.

    It was almost still-mooing rare.

    I got meatballs. 

    They were delicious.

    The next night we tried a different restaurant down the street. It also had low prices. And it had the most incredible bruschetta I have ever had.

    The family tried fried mozzarella. They didn’t like it. (It tasted like motz. cheese. They were used to more breading.)  

    I also had a fried rice ball. We watched a Rick Steves DVD before we traveled, and he mentioned these fried rice balls. I got one with tomato and cheese mixed with the rice.  It’s that brown thing I cut in half in this picture. 

    It was DELICIOUS! 

    Rachel tried a salad. The salt dispenser was fun. It was battery-operated and ground the big salt crystals. Then, the bottom of it just fell off into her salad. Good laughs, so-so salad. 

     

    Mostly, though, we just ate pizza. 

       

     

    Although, Rome McDonald’s knows how to be classy! A kiwi on a stick?