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Ancient Rome

On Tuesday, the first thing we saw as we left the subway was the Colosseum.  Visions of Christians being fed to the lions and battles of the gladiators came to mind.  What a history, and what famous people during the glorious day of the Roman Empire sat and were entertained in this famous building.  A place I never thought I would ever see.  Seeing such places sparks my interest in learning more about that period of time.

I didn't realize there was such a large and elaborate underground world here.  Someone said it was always dark there.  Even the torches were insufficient to light it.

Most of the building of this period appears to be of a narrow brick and then covered with beautiful marble, granite or travertine(?).  You can see some of the cover stone that Joey is standing on.

There is not much to tell what the great forum looked like.  There are ruins absolutely everywhere in Rome.  After the LDS Church purchased land here, the  property was searched to see if there were any ruins on it.  If there were even the smallest amount, they could not build.  Although there were no ruins found, just over the property line some was discovered.  So the temple  was approved to be built.

Some Roman temples that were part of the Forum.  

The detail of the stone work including the sculpturing is amazing.

This is a monument to Victor Emanuel, who must have been a hero during WWI.  When it was built in the 1900s some time after the war, it became controversial because it is right next to the forum where there are so many important ruins of ancient Rome that were as important as a monument to a modern hero.

At the base of the monument is the tomb of the unknown soldier.  The remains that were chosen for burial in the tomb was chosen by a mother of a soldier who was killed and never recovered in the war, and was one of several that she had to choose from.

One thing for sure, is that it includes some impressive sculpturing.

These are of Victor himself.

I love the narrow streets in most of the cities of Europe.

This is a side street.

Unfortunately the Pantheon was under construction for renovations.

Tera, Joey and TJ in front of a shop on one of the narrow streets with a big nutcracker.

This is the side of the Parliament building

The changing of the guard at the Parliament building.

Back of the Parliament building.

Front of the Parliament building.

Trevi Fountain was the terminus of the water system of water that was brought from a source by viaduct eight miles away as the crow flies or thirteen miles in length.

I think nowhere in Rome is there more beautiful impressive sculpturing than here at Trevi Fountain.

View from the front.

Tera in front of the Trevi Fountain.  They average about 3500 coins per day being thrown into the fountain.  If you throw three coins over your left shoulder with your right hand into the fountain behind you, it will bring you good luck.  We didn't try it.

Look at the wonderful detail of this foot and hand.

We stopped near Trevi Fountain for a Panini.

Some of my favorite pictures.  This is back in the St. Peter's Basilicas.

This one Tera took inside the Colosseum.

Same place.

Here Grandpa and TJ turned their caps backward.

A wonderful generous family in front of Trevi Fountain

A castle on our way back to Weiden.

This boy is my hero.  He was a better traveler than all of us.  He has a good name too. (David)

The Vatican

We started early on Monday morning so we could get in as much site seeing as possible, and what a day it was.  We took the bus to the subway and arrived, after a short walk, to the wall around Vatican City.  Here Joey is standing right across the street from it.

Along the wall, as we were trying to find how to get in, we came across this exit from the Vatican Museum.  Just a little way to our right, just out of the picture, was an entrance to the museum but it cost.  We asked someone how to get in and were told to follow the wall and we would come to it.

 Just inside the entrance to the city we came upon these pillars that surround St. Peter's Square.

This is looking back at the pillars from the square.

In the middle of the square they were setting up some kind of a display by this Christmas tree.

Looking at St. Peter's Basilicas from the square.

A closer look at the wall beside the Basilicas rich in sculptures.

Same wall including a sculpture on the square.

These are on the roof over the center of the Basilicas.

 This is the beautiful roof of the portico leading into the Basilicas.

Inside and in the main hall of the Basilicas.

One of the awesome domes in the roof of the Basilicas.

Another of many.

 One of several confession booths scattered throughout the Basilicas.

Along the sides of the main hall of the Basilicas are side chapels or grottos.  This one is obscured by this curtain behind which was being constructed an elaborate nativity scene.  There is a fence around the area giving room for the workmen to do their jobs.

As we were watching the removal of this statue to add to the nativity, the workmen in the light colored sweater noticed Joey and Bailey, who were with Viv and me, and waved to them.  Although there were a lot of people watching, he singled out these two, came over to where we were standing looking over the protective fence, and moved back the fence and invited us in.

He pulled back the curtain and showed us the scene they were building.  It was much more elaborate than photos can do justice to.

While we were looking, he brought over one of the lambs and had each of the girls in turn, hold it while we took pictures of them.  The surrounding people looked pleased but a little jealous.

All over the Vatican there are these guards.  Here in St. Peter's Square they are dressed in these unique costumes.  I struck up a conversation with this one.  I asked a lot of questions of him.  I have read books that referred to them, and I was curious.  Among the things I learned was that they were all from Switzerland, they have to have served in the Swiss Military, they had to be within a certain range of height and weight, and they had to be Catholic.  Joey and I had a long conversion with him.  He was very kind and he spoke Italian and German as well as English.

After leaving the Vatican we stopped at one of the little shops in the narrow Rome streets and had an Italian Ice.

After we took the subway to this bus stop it was dark and we had to wait a while for our bus back to our home in Rome.