Coming Home

Well, I hope you've enjoyed this photoblog. We leave tomorrow morning from Rome, back to Seattle via Amsterdam. I won't have another opportunity to post photos before then.

We've had a great time. The weather has been a little crazy everywhere - rain alternating with brilliant blue skies and sun. Go figure.

But as much as we've enjoyed Italy, we're looking forward to getting back home.

Wish us luck on our flights.

Arrivederci!

A few of Rome's hidden treasures

It's raining this morning in Rome, so I've got time to post a few more photos. These are of three places in Rome that aren't high on the tourist radar, partly because there's so much competition.

This first one is a combination of kitsch and amazing: The church of San Crisogono, just a few blocks from where we're staying in Trastevere:

The view from the back of the church toward the altar.
Variations on a theme found among the 900 or so churches of Rome.
(That's a real number.)

Cool mosaic of a dragon on the church floor, down the center aisle.

Some sort of frightened chicken or something.  

Here's where the kitsch starts. There's a side chapel to the left of the main altar, with very recent art.
Here Jesus has very blond hair and is apparently wearing an orange caftan.

All the paintings, and I mean ALL the paintings have a recurring visual theme, often in the background.
See if you can figure out what it is. 

You can't spell "absolve" without "abs," right?

And you can't spell "Latin" without "LAT"

Are you figuring it out?

Let's see.. I count one woman.

I think I see a few women in the background here.
Must be warm where they are.

Is there a Gold's Gym in heaven?

And for a little arch support, we've got this guy...

And his friend.

 I have to say that this is one of the most unusual side chapels I've seen in a Roman Catholic church. Heck, in any church outside of West Hollywood.

But then you start downstairs and see this:

This was discovered in 1907 by the Ministry of National Heritage and culture.

These are the ruins of a church that may have been the first parish church in Rome,
dating back possibly to the late 4th century but no later than 499
when it is mentioned in some sources.
Up to this point, the early church communities had met in people's homes.
This could have been the first building built as a church in Rome.

The area resembles a semi-abandoned archaeological dig.
They're limited in what they can dig out because it risks undermining the church above.

Here in this 8th or 9th century fresco you can see some saints doing something saintly.

  

This incredibly well-preserved sarcophagus dates to the 2nd century.

It's an amazingly large area that has been dug out.

This is the oddest looking skull I've seen. Looks like a chimp with big ears.

 So that's it for San Crisogono.

Now let's look at another hidden treasure of Rome - hidden in plain sight along the banks of the Tiber.

This is the Villa Farnesina.

This is part of the ceiling of the porch. What does your porch look like?

And another part. This is all portraying the myth of Cupid/Eros and Psyche.
Venus was jealous of Psyche's beauty so decides to punish the mortal by sending her son Cupid to do her dirty work.
But Cupid falls in love with Psyche and hides her away. Hilarity ensues.

This is the Hall of Perspectives. (What does that mean to you?)
That's a completely flat wall at the far end, painted to look as if the room
continues out onto an open air deck. Painted around the year 1500.

In 1527, not long after this villa was finished came the infamous Sack of Rome,
when German Lutheran mercenaries swept through the streets, raiding, looting and worse.
One of those Germans took the time to scratch this graffiti into the walls.
Apparently it says something along the lines of
"Why shouldn't I laugh since I know that we made the Pope flee the city?"

Raphael oversaw the painting of this bedroom.

Check out the little angel playing with the sheets.

And that's it for now. Off to explore more Rome.

Rome again, naturally

The train ride from Verona to Rome was pretty uneventful. We arrived into The Eternal City around 3 pm, bought our transit passes and hopped on a (packed) bus to our apartment in the Trastevere neighborhood. It's just across the Tiber from the main historic center of Rome. (That's literally what tras-tevere means - across the Tiber.) We stayed in this neighborhood before, in 2008, so knew we'd enjoy it.

Here's our apartment that we rented:

Big living room (tiny kitchen not in view here)

Big bedroom

View of Piazza San Cosimato from our window.
But those Vespas ended up being rather pesky at night. Boy, are they LOUD!

Trastevere is loaded with charming restaurants on the cobblestone streets.
Here's the one we went to on our first night. 

Here's the "all'aperto" section (in the open air.)
Note: Al Fresco is some guy from Jersey; It's NOT how you ask for a table outside.

While at that restaurant, we met a local resident.
She looks a lot like one of our own, so I had to give her some chicken.
That made me her very best friend for about 20 minutes until our plates were taken away.

One of the gorgeous buildings on the main piazza in this neighborhood, Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere.

Another building on PSMT.

Beautiful old gate/door found in a lot of movies set in Rome.

A modified Zamboni street sweeper, for these narrow cobblestone roads.
They actually seem cleaner this year than previous years.

When he stopped, I turned to take a picture and discovered this wonderful little shrine to Mary.
You'll find these at lots of places where streets intersect.
Apparently that concept of a shrine at an intersection dates back to pre-Christian days. 

When work needs to be done under the streets, they come in and pull up the pavers,
which are often set only in sand - no mortar. 

It's amazing to think that they've been doing it this way for century after century.
With the exception of the bobcat. I'm pretty sure that's more recent.

That night we went to our favorite restaurant in Rome - Taverna Edoardo Second (Edward II).
It also happens to be one of the few restaurants in Rome that's LGBT owned.
Mario, the owner, has become a friend over the years.
Romans are very affectionate.  :-)   

Some friends of Mario's were also there and one agreed to take these photos.
Because I wanted to speak Italian instead of English, Mario decided that
we were pretending to be Americans and were actually Sicilian mobsters. 

One of the things we love about this place is that we don't look at a menu.
Mario just asks us "Carne o pesce?" (Meat or fish?)
He then brings us a bottle of wine and starts bringing the food.
This first one (il primo) was a handmade ravioli with sausage, ricotta and basil. Yummm.
Mario made sure we understood that he made the pasta dough with his own hands.

The "secondo" was chicken that was falling off the bone, it was so tender.
Arugula and roast potatoes as well.

The dessert was actually two halves of two different desserts.
Half a chocolate cannoli and half of some marzipan treat.
We were there for almost three hours. Thoroughly delightful.
We're going back on Friday.

On our way to the Capitoline Museums. 

Parts of Constantine. That head is about seven feet tall. Maybe more. It was once part of a complete statue that must have been at least 40 feet tall. That's one of his hands behind the "Caution" sign.

And he decided to have a similar statue cast of himself in bronze, but maybe a little smaller.

Ancient statue of a boy pulling a thorn out of his foot,
while John poses for a statue of a tourist getting a crick in his neck.

This statue will be used as inspiration for an episode of Project Runway.
In case you can't tell what's going on with it, let's just say that the sculptor took the concept
of "double-breasted" and ran with it.

Micro-mosaic of Orestes and his sister Iphigenia.
Caption probably read:
"I told you to knock before coming into my room! I'm gonna tell Mom!"

View of the Forum from the Capitoline Museum.

Amazing fully restored fountain of Oceanus, just recently finished.
Look at the scale compared to John.

This is one of the museum's most famous pieces - The Dying Gaul.
Unfortunately, it was being photographed for something,
leading it to look like some beefcake calendar shoot with an artfully draped piece of velvet.

Another mosaic, but what you can't see here is how tiny some of the pieces are.

Some of the pieces are about the size of grains of kosher salt, maybe smaller.
Unbelievable. Ancient Roman, from the floor at Hadrian's villa.

This 17th century statue shows that somebody learned where to buy hair product.

Two nuns and a priest are waiting for a cab. Have you heard this one?

More photos tomorrow.