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tuftearsAre you all ready? It's time for the last installment of the Italy trip report! Huzzah!
June 15th began with us waking up at the Hotel Majestic, where we made our way downstairs to the breakfast buffet bright and early-- the tour groups would leave at 8, so we were up bright and early around 6 and had breakfast around 7:30, after our showers.
Behold! Scrambled eggs, a pork sausage (linguica, I want to say, but am not sure), a 'savory croissant', and some roasted tomatoes. Also, a bonus picture of me in my Derpcat T-shirt, obscured by my Hawaiian shirt.
In short order we are on the tour bus and away to see the sights! These pictures were snapped on the bus. Rome is full of sights, practically around every corner! Sadly, their passing nature means all I got were pictures, not names.
More sights seen as we drove through Rome to our first stop, St. Peter's Basilica!
The bus stopped here long enough for me to get a nice close-up of this statue at least!
We drove down into a large underground garage. This turned out to be because they had changed procedures so all tour buses needed to drop off their passengers, who would then take a set of tunnels to the area in front of St. Peter's Basilica, which was off limits to vehicles.
Looks straight out of science fiction, doesn't it? Sadly it emerged into a rather... unsanitary-smelling alley, but when we came back later, the area had been washed by street cleaners. I suspect homeless people were using it as a bathroom at night.
St. Peter's Basilica, at the opposite end of a rather wide traffic circle, St. Peter's Square... Sans traffic at the moment, mind you. This is supposedly where the apostle Peter, later acclaimed the first Pope, was buried.
Despite it looking like we were approaching on the left side, we actually went to the right, where we went through a security checkpoint and removed our bags so that a scanner could verify that we were not packing anything untoward. I seem to recall Dracosphynx liked the bin system that was in use, so that people could deposit their belongings in individual bins and they would be returned to the front on a separate conveyor belt for immediate reuse.
My memory is fuzzy but I think this was a side view, since we wind up outside just a minute later, on approach to the Basilica. I just have a hard time passing up nicely framed architecture.
I think that's an electronic sign of some sort in front of that statue, but it wasn't in use at the time. There were lots of stadium seats out front though, so perhaps they were anticipating some sort of event later in the day.
Welcome to St. Peter's Basilica! No hats, camera tripods, strollers, pets, large backpacks, use of cellphones, smoking, or eating inside please, grazie.
There's a map which shows the general layout of the cathedral. We went in on the right side, looped around counter-clockwise, and came back out on the left-- a U-shaped route.
At the entrance, looking to the side.
Pretty sure this was the front of the church, but no, we didn't push the doors open to go in, we went through an already open entrance to the side.
This cathedral is big! As in, 40-man raid big, if you were a World of Warcraft raider.
This was almost certainly the first ... what do they call them in cathedrals? "Niche" and "alcove" seem entirely too small for a room this big, housing its own altar. Did I mention St. Peter's is huge? I'm not positive this qualifies as a "transept", which would be an arm of a cross-shaped cathedral floorplan.
Statues in the columns. These are big columns, but they have to be.
More... architecture! That's it. Architecture. I love all the elaborate details. You can catch a glimpse of the domed ceiling/cupola above. No expense was spared!
They must have needed an awful lot of inner scaffolds and probably a lot of swearing to build these things.
I'm pretty sure this is toward the front of the cathedral.
Eek. This one came out a bit out of focus. The colors are nice at least. Warm golds.
A closer look at this... Wikipedia informs me it is a "baldacchino", a pavilion-like structure 28.74 metres (94.3 ft) tall and claimed to be the largest piece of bronze in the world, which stands beneath the dome and above the altar.
According to a friend, "You know that great big altar? Most of the bronzes statues that hard survived up to that point went into that. The roof of the Pantheon as well."
Oops, another blurry picture of what might have been great art! How annoying.
An elaborately detailed statue! Notice the demonic-looking creature lurking just above the base. I think this was intended to be a depiction of Pope Gregorio XII, Pontificus Maximus.
Pretty sure we were looping back toward the front of the cathedral at this point. Much nicer to take pictures when we're ahead of the crowd.
Another examination of a cupola from beneath!
I'll be honest with you, this looks like it's all ready to be a stage for a high fantasy movie, complete with crowd of angry peasants storming the dark overlord.
Another view of the baldacchino. The fact it's a gazebo makes me wonder, "what, is this church so big cloud systems form inside it?"
I wouldn't be that surprised, actually.
I like the light pouring in through the windows at this end.
Another statue! What, are the popes one-upping one another to ensure they get more post-humous notice?
Blurriness ruins what would otherwise have been a nice arch-ception sort of picture.
Most of the floor was fairly normal decoration, so this floor mosaic stood out.
I had to peer closely at the picture to make out the inscription. INNOCENTIO XI.
This sign describes the next set of pictures. It wasn't obviously open to tourists as you can see from the security guards out front, so I took three pictures. I'll attach the relevant descriptions below.
CAPPELLA DEL CORO (CHOIR CHAPEL)
AT THE CENTER
Altar: the altar table surmounds a Roman basin of gray granite stone containing the relics of St. John Chrysostom, Doctor of the Church (+407 A.D.). On August 24, 2004, Pope John Paul II authorized the donation of some of these relics to the Patriarch of Constantinople, His Holiness Bartholomew I.
Mosaic: decorative cycle representing The Immaculate Virgin with St. Francis of Assisi, St. Anthony of Padua, and St. John Chrysostom, was completed in 1740. It was modeled after an original painting by Piero Bianchi. Beneath the pavement lies the sepulchre of Pope Clement XI (1700-1721).
TO THE LEFT AND RIGHT
Wooden choir of three row of stalls, designed by Giovan Battista Soria and Bartolomeo de'Rossi, is decorated with Old and New Testament Scenes; figures of the Evangelists, Bishops and Prophets. It is still used for prayer services by the Vatican Chapter.
VAULT AND WALL DECORATION
Decorative cycle, executed in gilt stucco and representing scenes from the Old and New Testament, was designed and executed by Giovan Battista Ricci of Novara and his pupils in 1626.
DOME OF THE VESTIBULE
Mosaic decorative cycle representing God the Father with the twenty-four elders was designed by Marcantonio Franceschini in 1716.
"Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you" (Luke 1, 28)
Back to admiring more... Decorative niches! I love the way the light pours down atop the gorgeous reddish marble.
Fairly subdued lighting, in comparison. Still pretty luxurious, I wouldn't kick that out of my home. Except if I needed the space.
And a straight-up overhead view of a domed ceiling! Maybe not the best way to admire the art but honestly, you'd have to be an angel and thus capable of flying around to be able to examine everything properly. Or a remote-controlled drone, but I'm pretty sure St. Peter's security would have come down rather heavily on us for trying to fly one around.
We perused the souvenir ships on the way out but there was a significant dearth of good books; the wares on sale were more devotional, like these.
Dracosphynx and I made it back to the agreed upon rendezvous point and we waited for the rest of the tour group, then returned to the bus, where we were whisked off to our next stop. It's time for more random Rome sights!
Apparently a modern Italian city... Then you have this really old-looking tower sticking out over a billboard.
Many pixels died to bring you this information. I sighted some ancient-looking buildings across the way; this is the zoomed-in bit of the picture.
We were dropped off here, opposite what looked like another architectural sight-- unfortunately, with as many sights as there were to see in Rome, we didn't have the time to peek in.
Here we are, approaching the Colosseum! Who could go see Rome without seeing that place where gladiators fought and chariots raced thousands of years ago?
Wikipedia informs me this is the Arch of Constantine, a triumphal arch built for Emperor Constantine I's victory over Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge, in 312 AD.
To the right, you can see part of the Colosseum's structure, showing a balcony where people could look down upon the city.
Yep, that sure is a big... round... Ruin? Technically the structure isn't fully intact, and it's certainly not being used for its historical purpose, but a lot of effort goes into preserving it as one of Rome's premier sights.
A glance to the side. A brief Google search suggests this might be Palatine Hill.
We circumnavigate the Colosseum, going around to a back entrance where we can skip the throng. We still need to pass a relatively lightweight security point, but we manage to avoid a lot of traffic, at least.
It is hot. There are enthusiastic and probably unlicensed men holding out bottles of chilled-looking water to tourists for Euros.
Soon we will get to go in and get out of the brutal sun!
Huzzah! Admire the arched ceiling that has loomed overhead for centuries. Gladiators probably didn't go in this way; to either side we could see into the labyrinth of tunnels that honeycombed the Colosseum beneath.
From inside the Colosseum, there was a floor covering not quite half the inner circle. This seems like a good representative view of what it would have been like on the floor of the Colosseum back in the days.
Beneath the floor-- a veritable maze! One presumes this is where slaves and prisoners and beasts were held prior to the fights. A lot of behind-the-scene organizing would have gone into each spectacle.
Climbing up to the seating levels of the Colosseum!
Can you imagine being in the bleachers when the Colosseum was in action?... Come to think of it, this reminds me of a sport stadium, so the answer is probably 'yes'.
There was a longish pause by a broken horse statue on the inside, some more traipsing around, but nothing that struck me as photo-worthy. Rather than climb up to the overlook-- the balcony I saw earlier-- we opted to go back out and wait for the tour bus.
Did I mention it was hot? This is me wilting.
Rather than be taken directly back to the hotel, Dracosphynx decided to see some more sights and dragged me along. We were dropped off near Piazza Navona, a popular shopping/sightseeing/eating destination within eleven blocks or so away.
One interesting thing I noticed was that on some stretches, while most cars were parked parallel to the curb, there were very small "SmartCars" that were parked nose-in to the curb. They were so small that they didn't stick out more than the other cars that way, and thus afforded more parking space for everyone. It still seemed rather... dangerous.
I... have no idea what this was; it was adjacent to the route we took to get to Piazza Navona, following our tour guide who was heading that way herself. Close inspection of the picture suggests the sign reads "Lo Stadio di Domiziano."
Piazza Navona!
Who doesn't love a good fountain? This was probably "La Fontana del Moro."
One of the obelisks that dotted Rome. Many of these were pilfered from Egypt, and served as waypoints for pilgrims in ancient times making a trip to see St. Peter's Basilica among other touchstones of the Christian faith.
A rather elaborate base for an obelisk! This is evidently "Fontana dei Quattro Fium".
A few views of the most impressive-looking building facing into the Piazza. This was probably the "Palazzo Pamphili", the family palace of Pope Innocent X.
From there, Dracosphynx led the way to the Pantheon.
Impressive looking from the side, where we came in!
Goodness gracious, look at that crowd. I implored of Dracosphynx that we desist on trying to get into that mob scene; he reluctantly agreed.
This is the view opposite the Parthenon: the Fontana del Pantheon.
Another obelisk, at the Piazza del Montecitorio.
This isn't an obelisk: it's Trajan's Column. There's apparently an inner staircase one could use to get to a viewing platform at the top, but I'm pretty sure they don't allow people in there anymore.
From Wikipedia: The relief portrays Trajan's two victorious military campaigns against the Dacians; the lower half illustrating the first (101–102), and the top half illustrating the second (105–106). These campaigns were contemporary to the time of the Column's building. Throughout, the frieze repeats standardized scenes of imperial address (adlocutio), sacrifice (lustratio), and the army setting out on campaign (profectio).[9] Scenes of battle are very much a minority on the column, instead it emphasizes images of orderly soldiers carrying out ceremony and construction.
This is Trevi Fountain, a Baroque-era fountain, "one of the most famous fountains in the world." I can certainly believe that!
I... have no idea what building this is. Sorry!
I was seriously wilting so we stopped to get a gelato. I opted for this "Frutti di bosco" in order to cool off, rather than something heavy like chocolate. Dracosphynx, of course, got chocolate because, Dracosphynx.
A sign in the gelateria read, "Please do not tap the glass-- it scares the gelato."
Refreshed, we pushed on to see more sights!
This sign explains the courtyard we were in: THE SPANISH STEPS
The Spanish Steps (Scalinata di Trinita dei Monti) were designed by the architect Francesco De Sanctis (1693-1740) and built between 1723 and 1726. They were constructed in order to theatrically link the Pincio hill, dominated by the church of Trinita dei Monti, with Piazza di Spagna, located below, at the foot of the steep slope of the hill. The square had been ornamented between 1623-1626 with the fountain Barcaccia, built by Pietro Bernini with the help of his young son Gian Lorenzo. ...
The aforementioned fountain Barcaccia!
Steps leading up the hill, on the way toward the hotel.
Another obelisk! Not all of these were actually Egyptian; many were replicas or imitations.
We made it safely back to the hotel room where, reminded that I hadn't had lunch, I cracked open this bag of snack bites.
It wasn't bad. At least it didn't list high fructose corn syrup as an ingredient!
I... have forgotten where this came from, but it looks tasty. I don't remember us stopping at a bakery though.
We rested until dinnertime, then changed clothes and set off to see what was available!
Dracosphynx humorously titled this picture "Lynx Suffering For The Last Time" - since we would be returning home the following day.
Possibly the only pizza I've had the whole trip: a miniature margherita pizza bite, and a potato croquette.
The menu!
Zucchini parmigiana with mozzarella cheese. Pretty good.
Lemon sea bass with "caponata" vegetables.
Meatballs and mashed potatoes! How... down home. They were good.
This did not resemble the puff pastry I was expecting, but that's what the menu says: puff pastry with lemon custard cream and wild berries. I liked the layered cake aspect.
We went to sleep for a few hours... Our flight left very early the next morning, so we had to be up at oh-god-o-clock! (3 AM) From there, we caught our commuter airbus to Frankfurt.
We had a bit of a layover in Frankfurt: long enough for us to browse around and for me to pick up this. I kind of had to. I still have it in my refrigerator.
The plane that would wing us back home!
Breakfast was served on the long flight back! Some kind of omelette/scrambled eggs, I think, with a custard for dessert.
A mid-flight intermission snack of "Marble Cake."
Lunch! Some sort of beef stew with polenta and mixed veggies.
I have sadly entirely forgotten what movies we watched on the return. -_-
Custom was easier getting back than I'd expected, even without being able to use my Mobile Passport; they pretty much just waved me through with a minimum of security theater. My brother picked me up, and then it was back home, where I could ensconce myself in my own bed and rest and recover!
Phew! Hope you've all enjoyed reading my trip reports. It was a great trip, apart from the sleeplessness... Hopefully I don't catch ill on another trip, this sort of thing gets old.
But Italy was truly full of amazing sights, and seeing it with Tauck taking care of all the details made it much more relaxing than it would have been otherwise. Seeing the Parthenon utterly mobbed reminded me how nice it was to have a tour group that could skip the longest lines. Thanks for having me along, Dracosphynx!
June 15th began with us waking up at the Hotel Majestic, where we made our way downstairs to the breakfast buffet bright and early-- the tour groups would leave at 8, so we were up bright and early around 6 and had breakfast around 7:30, after our showers.
Behold! Scrambled eggs, a pork sausage (linguica, I want to say, but am not sure), a 'savory croissant', and some roasted tomatoes. Also, a bonus picture of me in my Derpcat T-shirt, obscured by my Hawaiian shirt.
In short order we are on the tour bus and away to see the sights! These pictures were snapped on the bus. Rome is full of sights, practically around every corner! Sadly, their passing nature means all I got were pictures, not names.
More sights seen as we drove through Rome to our first stop, St. Peter's Basilica!
The bus stopped here long enough for me to get a nice close-up of this statue at least!
We drove down into a large underground garage. This turned out to be because they had changed procedures so all tour buses needed to drop off their passengers, who would then take a set of tunnels to the area in front of St. Peter's Basilica, which was off limits to vehicles.
Looks straight out of science fiction, doesn't it? Sadly it emerged into a rather... unsanitary-smelling alley, but when we came back later, the area had been washed by street cleaners. I suspect homeless people were using it as a bathroom at night.
St. Peter's Basilica, at the opposite end of a rather wide traffic circle, St. Peter's Square... Sans traffic at the moment, mind you. This is supposedly where the apostle Peter, later acclaimed the first Pope, was buried.
Despite it looking like we were approaching on the left side, we actually went to the right, where we went through a security checkpoint and removed our bags so that a scanner could verify that we were not packing anything untoward. I seem to recall Dracosphynx liked the bin system that was in use, so that people could deposit their belongings in individual bins and they would be returned to the front on a separate conveyor belt for immediate reuse.
My memory is fuzzy but I think this was a side view, since we wind up outside just a minute later, on approach to the Basilica. I just have a hard time passing up nicely framed architecture.
I think that's an electronic sign of some sort in front of that statue, but it wasn't in use at the time. There were lots of stadium seats out front though, so perhaps they were anticipating some sort of event later in the day.
Welcome to St. Peter's Basilica! No hats, camera tripods, strollers, pets, large backpacks, use of cellphones, smoking, or eating inside please, grazie.
There's a map which shows the general layout of the cathedral. We went in on the right side, looped around counter-clockwise, and came back out on the left-- a U-shaped route.
At the entrance, looking to the side.
Pretty sure this was the front of the church, but no, we didn't push the doors open to go in, we went through an already open entrance to the side.
This cathedral is big! As in, 40-man raid big, if you were a World of Warcraft raider.
This was almost certainly the first ... what do they call them in cathedrals? "Niche" and "alcove" seem entirely too small for a room this big, housing its own altar. Did I mention St. Peter's is huge? I'm not positive this qualifies as a "transept", which would be an arm of a cross-shaped cathedral floorplan.
Statues in the columns. These are big columns, but they have to be.
More... architecture! That's it. Architecture. I love all the elaborate details. You can catch a glimpse of the domed ceiling/cupola above. No expense was spared!
They must have needed an awful lot of inner scaffolds and probably a lot of swearing to build these things.
I'm pretty sure this is toward the front of the cathedral.
Eek. This one came out a bit out of focus. The colors are nice at least. Warm golds.
A closer look at this... Wikipedia informs me it is a "baldacchino", a pavilion-like structure 28.74 metres (94.3 ft) tall and claimed to be the largest piece of bronze in the world, which stands beneath the dome and above the altar.
According to a friend, "You know that great big altar? Most of the bronzes statues that hard survived up to that point went into that. The roof of the Pantheon as well."
Oops, another blurry picture of what might have been great art! How annoying.
An elaborately detailed statue! Notice the demonic-looking creature lurking just above the base. I think this was intended to be a depiction of Pope Gregorio XII, Pontificus Maximus.
Pretty sure we were looping back toward the front of the cathedral at this point. Much nicer to take pictures when we're ahead of the crowd.
Another examination of a cupola from beneath!
I'll be honest with you, this looks like it's all ready to be a stage for a high fantasy movie, complete with crowd of angry peasants storming the dark overlord.
Another view of the baldacchino. The fact it's a gazebo makes me wonder, "what, is this church so big cloud systems form inside it?"
I wouldn't be that surprised, actually.
I like the light pouring in through the windows at this end.
Another statue! What, are the popes one-upping one another to ensure they get more post-humous notice?
Blurriness ruins what would otherwise have been a nice arch-ception sort of picture.
Most of the floor was fairly normal decoration, so this floor mosaic stood out.
I had to peer closely at the picture to make out the inscription. INNOCENTIO XI.
This sign describes the next set of pictures. It wasn't obviously open to tourists as you can see from the security guards out front, so I took three pictures. I'll attach the relevant descriptions below.
CAPPELLA DEL CORO (CHOIR CHAPEL)
AT THE CENTER
Altar: the altar table surmounds a Roman basin of gray granite stone containing the relics of St. John Chrysostom, Doctor of the Church (+407 A.D.). On August 24, 2004, Pope John Paul II authorized the donation of some of these relics to the Patriarch of Constantinople, His Holiness Bartholomew I.
Mosaic: decorative cycle representing The Immaculate Virgin with St. Francis of Assisi, St. Anthony of Padua, and St. John Chrysostom, was completed in 1740. It was modeled after an original painting by Piero Bianchi. Beneath the pavement lies the sepulchre of Pope Clement XI (1700-1721).
TO THE LEFT AND RIGHT
Wooden choir of three row of stalls, designed by Giovan Battista Soria and Bartolomeo de'Rossi, is decorated with Old and New Testament Scenes; figures of the Evangelists, Bishops and Prophets. It is still used for prayer services by the Vatican Chapter.
VAULT AND WALL DECORATION
Decorative cycle, executed in gilt stucco and representing scenes from the Old and New Testament, was designed and executed by Giovan Battista Ricci of Novara and his pupils in 1626.
DOME OF THE VESTIBULE
Mosaic decorative cycle representing God the Father with the twenty-four elders was designed by Marcantonio Franceschini in 1716.
"Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you" (Luke 1, 28)
Back to admiring more... Decorative niches! I love the way the light pours down atop the gorgeous reddish marble.
Fairly subdued lighting, in comparison. Still pretty luxurious, I wouldn't kick that out of my home. Except if I needed the space.
And a straight-up overhead view of a domed ceiling! Maybe not the best way to admire the art but honestly, you'd have to be an angel and thus capable of flying around to be able to examine everything properly. Or a remote-controlled drone, but I'm pretty sure St. Peter's security would have come down rather heavily on us for trying to fly one around.
We perused the souvenir ships on the way out but there was a significant dearth of good books; the wares on sale were more devotional, like these.
Dracosphynx and I made it back to the agreed upon rendezvous point and we waited for the rest of the tour group, then returned to the bus, where we were whisked off to our next stop. It's time for more random Rome sights!
Apparently a modern Italian city... Then you have this really old-looking tower sticking out over a billboard.
Many pixels died to bring you this information. I sighted some ancient-looking buildings across the way; this is the zoomed-in bit of the picture.
We were dropped off here, opposite what looked like another architectural sight-- unfortunately, with as many sights as there were to see in Rome, we didn't have the time to peek in.
Here we are, approaching the Colosseum! Who could go see Rome without seeing that place where gladiators fought and chariots raced thousands of years ago?
Wikipedia informs me this is the Arch of Constantine, a triumphal arch built for Emperor Constantine I's victory over Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge, in 312 AD.
To the right, you can see part of the Colosseum's structure, showing a balcony where people could look down upon the city.
Yep, that sure is a big... round... Ruin? Technically the structure isn't fully intact, and it's certainly not being used for its historical purpose, but a lot of effort goes into preserving it as one of Rome's premier sights.
A glance to the side. A brief Google search suggests this might be Palatine Hill.
We circumnavigate the Colosseum, going around to a back entrance where we can skip the throng. We still need to pass a relatively lightweight security point, but we manage to avoid a lot of traffic, at least.
It is hot. There are enthusiastic and probably unlicensed men holding out bottles of chilled-looking water to tourists for Euros.
Soon we will get to go in and get out of the brutal sun!
Huzzah! Admire the arched ceiling that has loomed overhead for centuries. Gladiators probably didn't go in this way; to either side we could see into the labyrinth of tunnels that honeycombed the Colosseum beneath.
From inside the Colosseum, there was a floor covering not quite half the inner circle. This seems like a good representative view of what it would have been like on the floor of the Colosseum back in the days.
Beneath the floor-- a veritable maze! One presumes this is where slaves and prisoners and beasts were held prior to the fights. A lot of behind-the-scene organizing would have gone into each spectacle.
Climbing up to the seating levels of the Colosseum!
Can you imagine being in the bleachers when the Colosseum was in action?... Come to think of it, this reminds me of a sport stadium, so the answer is probably 'yes'.
There was a longish pause by a broken horse statue on the inside, some more traipsing around, but nothing that struck me as photo-worthy. Rather than climb up to the overlook-- the balcony I saw earlier-- we opted to go back out and wait for the tour bus.
Did I mention it was hot? This is me wilting.
Rather than be taken directly back to the hotel, Dracosphynx decided to see some more sights and dragged me along. We were dropped off near Piazza Navona, a popular shopping/sightseeing/eating destination within eleven blocks or so away.
One interesting thing I noticed was that on some stretches, while most cars were parked parallel to the curb, there were very small "SmartCars" that were parked nose-in to the curb. They were so small that they didn't stick out more than the other cars that way, and thus afforded more parking space for everyone. It still seemed rather... dangerous.
I... have no idea what this was; it was adjacent to the route we took to get to Piazza Navona, following our tour guide who was heading that way herself. Close inspection of the picture suggests the sign reads "Lo Stadio di Domiziano."
Piazza Navona!
Who doesn't love a good fountain? This was probably "La Fontana del Moro."
One of the obelisks that dotted Rome. Many of these were pilfered from Egypt, and served as waypoints for pilgrims in ancient times making a trip to see St. Peter's Basilica among other touchstones of the Christian faith.
A rather elaborate base for an obelisk! This is evidently "Fontana dei Quattro Fium".
A few views of the most impressive-looking building facing into the Piazza. This was probably the "Palazzo Pamphili", the family palace of Pope Innocent X.
From there, Dracosphynx led the way to the Pantheon.
Impressive looking from the side, where we came in!
Goodness gracious, look at that crowd. I implored of Dracosphynx that we desist on trying to get into that mob scene; he reluctantly agreed.
This is the view opposite the Parthenon: the Fontana del Pantheon.
Another obelisk, at the Piazza del Montecitorio.
This isn't an obelisk: it's Trajan's Column. There's apparently an inner staircase one could use to get to a viewing platform at the top, but I'm pretty sure they don't allow people in there anymore.
From Wikipedia: The relief portrays Trajan's two victorious military campaigns against the Dacians; the lower half illustrating the first (101–102), and the top half illustrating the second (105–106). These campaigns were contemporary to the time of the Column's building. Throughout, the frieze repeats standardized scenes of imperial address (adlocutio), sacrifice (lustratio), and the army setting out on campaign (profectio).[9] Scenes of battle are very much a minority on the column, instead it emphasizes images of orderly soldiers carrying out ceremony and construction.
This is Trevi Fountain, a Baroque-era fountain, "one of the most famous fountains in the world." I can certainly believe that!
I... have no idea what building this is. Sorry!
I was seriously wilting so we stopped to get a gelato. I opted for this "Frutti di bosco" in order to cool off, rather than something heavy like chocolate. Dracosphynx, of course, got chocolate because, Dracosphynx.
A sign in the gelateria read, "Please do not tap the glass-- it scares the gelato."
Refreshed, we pushed on to see more sights!
This sign explains the courtyard we were in: THE SPANISH STEPS
The Spanish Steps (Scalinata di Trinita dei Monti) were designed by the architect Francesco De Sanctis (1693-1740) and built between 1723 and 1726. They were constructed in order to theatrically link the Pincio hill, dominated by the church of Trinita dei Monti, with Piazza di Spagna, located below, at the foot of the steep slope of the hill. The square had been ornamented between 1623-1626 with the fountain Barcaccia, built by Pietro Bernini with the help of his young son Gian Lorenzo. ...
The aforementioned fountain Barcaccia!
Steps leading up the hill, on the way toward the hotel.
Another obelisk! Not all of these were actually Egyptian; many were replicas or imitations.
We made it safely back to the hotel room where, reminded that I hadn't had lunch, I cracked open this bag of snack bites.
It wasn't bad. At least it didn't list high fructose corn syrup as an ingredient!
I... have forgotten where this came from, but it looks tasty. I don't remember us stopping at a bakery though.
We rested until dinnertime, then changed clothes and set off to see what was available!
Dracosphynx humorously titled this picture "Lynx Suffering For The Last Time" - since we would be returning home the following day.
Possibly the only pizza I've had the whole trip: a miniature margherita pizza bite, and a potato croquette.
The menu!
Zucchini parmigiana with mozzarella cheese. Pretty good.
Lemon sea bass with "caponata" vegetables.
Meatballs and mashed potatoes! How... down home. They were good.
This did not resemble the puff pastry I was expecting, but that's what the menu says: puff pastry with lemon custard cream and wild berries. I liked the layered cake aspect.
We went to sleep for a few hours... Our flight left very early the next morning, so we had to be up at oh-god-o-clock! (3 AM) From there, we caught our commuter airbus to Frankfurt.
We had a bit of a layover in Frankfurt: long enough for us to browse around and for me to pick up this. I kind of had to. I still have it in my refrigerator.
The plane that would wing us back home!
Breakfast was served on the long flight back! Some kind of omelette/scrambled eggs, I think, with a custard for dessert.
A mid-flight intermission snack of "Marble Cake."
Lunch! Some sort of beef stew with polenta and mixed veggies.
I have sadly entirely forgotten what movies we watched on the return. -_-
Custom was easier getting back than I'd expected, even without being able to use my Mobile Passport; they pretty much just waved me through with a minimum of security theater. My brother picked me up, and then it was back home, where I could ensconce myself in my own bed and rest and recover!
Phew! Hope you've all enjoyed reading my trip reports. It was a great trip, apart from the sleeplessness... Hopefully I don't catch ill on another trip, this sort of thing gets old.
But Italy was truly full of amazing sights, and seeing it with Tauck taking care of all the details made it much more relaxing than it would have been otherwise. Seeing the Parthenon utterly mobbed reminded me how nice it was to have a tour group that could skip the longest lines. Thanks for having me along, Dracosphynx!
