Hi everybody,
In a couple of hours I’ll be flying back to
Sydney, so I thought I’d put in another blog update about my adventures in
Italy. The first few nights I was
in Rome, I stayed in the lovely Trastavere neighborhood, which has the oldest
church in the world dedicated to Mary.
Here is a picture of my first meal in
Italy, which was at a nice little restaurant nearby:
My first day in Italy I didn’t have much
energy to do more than explore Trastavere a bit and then go to sleep. But the next day early in the morning I
went on an epic trip to the Vatican City.
On my way, I was delighted to see a store selling the latest in
ecclesiastical fashions:
Here's St. Peter's Square:
The first thing I checked out in the
Vatican was St. Peter’s Basilica.
It is very difficult for a photograph to convey how amazing and
beautiful it is. I tried, but all
the photos I took with that intention came out looking lame. So instead, here is a picture of me
with some of the Basilica in the background. (Note the halo.)
The next thing on the itinerary was the
Vatican Museum, which is HUGE, and has the Sistine Chapel inside it. But we weren’t allowed to take pictures
there. Nevertheless, I did get a
few pictures of some lesser but still amazing masterpieces. I took the liberty, for example, of
inserting myself into the School of Athens:
and posing in front of the Laocoön:
At one point I glanced out a window from
the Vatican Museum and was charmed to see a tennis court and a little
playground for children in the Vatican’s grounds. I didn’t know the Pope went in for tennis:
And speaking of the Pope, attached to the
Vatican Museum there was a little-known exhibit of Popemobiles through the
ages. I took a picture of one of
the swankier old Popemobiles:
A few more things I saw in the Vatican
before I left were this charming picture of the previous Pope holding a Koala,
and a painting of the Magi coming to visit Jesus, which I photographed because
Jasper’s name derives from Gaspar, the name (according to tradition) of the
Magus who brought Jesus frankincense.
I did a bit more walking around Rome that
day, including a visit to the ancient temple of Ariadne, which I expected to
have that library-esque vibe that more or less like every other Very Old Thing
has, but which instead seemed to have a panel discussion going on inside, with
lots of Italian politicians and the media and enthusiastically clapping
constituents.
Before I left Rome I also checked out the
Colosseum, which was astounding, and the Palatine, which is the (now
uninhabited) neighborhood nearby where all the old Roman aristocrats used to
live:
Then a few days of philosophical
conferring, and on to Florence!
Which I have to say I liked much better than Rome. My first meal in Florence was a German
sausage and some German beer, which was being served out in front of the
Cathedral of Santa Croce because of some German market/street fair.
Florence is a very beautiful city. The skyline is dominated by the Duomo,
the central cathedral, which is humungous.
Florence also boasts the Ponte Vecchio,
which is a famous bridge that connects the two parts of the city. Mostly it has lots of jewelry shops on
it. You can see it in the distance
here.
And that’s about all, folks! I saw a lot more in Florence (e.g.
Michelangelo’s David, Boticelli’s Birth of Venus, etc.) but photos were
forbidden, so I don’t have as much from Florence to post.
So that’s the report on my trip to
Italy. I’ll be getting home late
Thursday night, and am soooooo much looking forward to being with Rachael and
Jasper again.
Lots of love from the Eternal City,
Throckmorton.
