Ciao,
It's been a few days but the activity keeps on coming. In fact, it's been an entire week. Must be near the end of our stay because I am starting to fall behind. This last week we saw the Italian Military (yes, that's right), another soccer game, the Vatican Museum, Hadrian's Villa and Pompeii.
Italian Military
It was the Italian equivalent of "Armed Forces Day" on November 4th and they had a party through the weekend where they loaded up Circo Massimo (the big - and normally empty - space where Circo Massimo used to be) with bunches of military stuff. They had tanks, parachutists, boats, sailboats sailing in a large pool, the sottomarini (submariners), air force, Carabinieri (a strange hybrid of military police that polices civilians), and even the Guardia di Finanza - another military police (they do financial crimes and, as it turns out, drug enforcement). Almost everyone there was a local...except us. This was a BIG function - they had thousands there all day long. Yvonne noticed some differences between such a function in Italy and the U.S.
- There were ZERO bathrooms. No port-a-potties, no public restrooms, no pit toilets, nothing. People in Italy must be really good at holding it.
- There may have been 10 trash cans. And no recycling containers. Unreal. Where do you put your trash? Then again, there was probably less trash than at a U.S. event because...
- There was ONE pizza stand for food. They had quite a long line needless to say.
- Safety was kind of lax. The kids were allowed to climb all over the tanks, rappel down a tower, run across a rope bridge, do an obstacle course, sail in a boat and pretty much anything else short of igniting a flare.
Hadden went crazy. He and Clara got to sit on a Guardia di Finanza motocicli, sit in a GdF super-fast boat, sit in a helicopter (GdF again), get AMI (Aeronautica Militare Italiana - air force) posters of their planes and get in the driver's seat of a Esercito Italiano (army) armored personnel carrier. He was even wearing his Lazio shirt, which elicited some excited conversation among the AMI guys (we believe they were Lazio fans). They asked him a bunch of stuff in Italian (not believing that any tourists would be there) and he answered with "Forza Roma!" Which is the worst thing your could say. It would be like a Sox fan asking who your favorite Red Sox player is and you answer "Go Yankees!" (while wearing a Sox shirt).
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| It is so cool to be in the driver's seat! Of a boat! |
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| Hadden, the AMI pilot. |
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| Clara doing her best T. Cruise impersonation. |
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| Hadden on top of an armored personnel carrier with another Italian kid. |
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| The quite small away team cheering section for Parma at the Lazio game. It's not that far to travel from Parma. Perhaps they just don't have that many fans. At least we can say that they won't be harassed by any nearby Lazio fans. |
Later that day Yvonne and I went to a Lazio vs. Parma game while the kids stayed home with Ginny, the awesome babysitter. Lazio won 1-0 on an 84th minute goal. Yvonne had "un cafe" before the game at the one single refreshment stand that was open.
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| Yvonne sporting her Lazio scarf. |
Museo di Vaticano
On Wednesday afternoon Yvonne and I went to the Vatican Museum while the kids once again hung out with Ginny (whom they love!). It's a rather large museum with LOTS of stuff. Pretty much the spaces are jam packed. Highlights only:
- Statue of cousin Cole.
- Sistine chapel (ceiling and alter wall by Michaelangelo). They walls were painted by other famous guys of their time but compared to Michaelangelo's stuff, they sucked.
- Raphael's "School of Athens" where he painted the great Greek philosophers and math/science guys on the wall of a pope's office. He used likenesses of current artists for all the famous Greek guys (e.g., da Vinci was Plato). Even put himself in the painting.
- Serious downer Santa Claus - in a Raphael room that was actually painted by his students...it wasn't as good as his stuff.
I even had a beer in the courtyard when we were done. Gotta love the Catholic Church for that - alcohol tolerance. I don't think you can have a beer inside the LDS headquarters in Salt Lake City. At least not one they serve you.
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| Cousin Cole in the Vatican Museum. |
Villa Adriana
Went to Emperor Hadrian's villa outside of Tivoli on Thursday. He built a "modest" 120 hectare villa to pass the time. Like most Roman stuff it has been significantly plundered but lots of stuff still stands. It sucks getting there. We took a taxi to the Ponte Mammolo metro stop/bus station and then took the regional COTRAL bus to a remote stop, walked 1/2 km and finally got there. First, the Mammolo bus terminal rivals any shitty Greyhound terminal in the U.S. Why is it that intercity buses and terminals are always smelly pits? You get off at the correct stop and there are about two signs that guide you only part of the way to this UNESCO world heritage site. Then...you're on your own. Start asking locals. Anyway, the time there was pretty good (great day for it even if it was in lieu of the kids' naps). At least the tortuous flow path to get there thinned out the crowds. Took a cab all the way back for 60 Euros rather than repeat the bus nightmare.
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| Villa Adriana's Maritime Theater. It was not a theater but there was a water pool around a central island where he hung out. Hadden's highlight of the visit was the tourist here that let him feed some bread to the talapia-like fish in the pond. Yuck. |
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| What a roman bath house looks like just before its roof collapses. |
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| Cute Clara climbing on the ruins. |
Pompeii
I went to Pompeii on Friday to check it out for the Engineering Rome class I am planning. Yvonne and kids went to the zoo for the day. I think I made it all the way to Pompeii (150 miles) faster than it took us to get to Villa Adriana (15 miles). Took the 40 Express from just around the corner to Termini Station. At 6:30 am there is only one other person on the bus. During normal hours this bus is packed like a Japanese train at rush hour. Took the Frecciarossa ("fast train") to Napoli. Beautiful, clean, non-smelly (a super plus) Euro train that took on 1:07 go get to Napoli. Took the local from Napoli to Pompeii Scavi (35 minutes) and I was there. Even got 45 minutes of paper-writing for work done on the Frecciarossa. Spent 3 hours touring Pompeii. Highlights in pictures below.
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| Looking down main street in Pompeii from the Forum. The three big blocks there are traffic obstructions to keep you from driving your chariot into the forum. |
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| Some original Roman lead pipes. Only a nerd would photograph this...five times. |
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| Evidence of a really old paving job. In the background you can see deep chariot ruts but in the foreground they're gone. The interpretation by the guidebook is that this street was being repaved in 79 AD when Vesuvius blew and buried Pompeii. For the record, it appears that when the ruts get to be about 6 inches deep, it's time to repave. |
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| A fresco from the brothel in the bad part of town. You can tell your kids that these two are "wrestling". The interpretation here is a primative "menu" of services. There are two other frescos depicting different menu items. |
Yvonne's day off
Today, Yvonne "took the day off" and did he own thing all day (museum, shopping, enoteca, etc.). The rest of us went to the usual park in the former moat of Castel Sant'Angelo for 1.5 hours and then took the 116 over to Pizza Zaza for lunch. Best Pizza a Taglio (pizza by the slice, more or less) I've had. We've now been there 3 times. Then, gelato after lunch that we ate in the Piazza dei Rotonda in front of the Pantheon. Yvonne went to a museum and had lunch at an Enoteca (wine bar). Then went shopping. Get this: SHE DIDN'T BUY ANYTHING. "What?" you're saying. I know. Go figure. There are still several days to make up for this.
Ciao,
Steve
1 comment:
I find I must comment on several points:
First - the "nerdy" photograph is not the lead pipes at Pompeii but rather the parking lot at the Vatican. At least the lead pipes are archaelogical. But in the midst of arguably best museum in the WORLD, my husband is photographing pavement. I was reminded of our trip through Zion National Park where he did the same thing in lieu of photographing the natural splendor.
Second - Raphael in the School of Athens fresco is NOT the guy with the beard. It's the guy in the black beret - looking straight out at the audience. Only figure in the whole painting to do so. Balsy.
Third - apparently it's not just brothels that have the frescos with porn. At the National Museum on my day off I saw an entire set of frescos from a ritzy villa - recreated into the actual layout of the villa. Very cool. The parents bedroom was easily identified from all the others... a deep red, embellished with figures copulating. In an amorous moment, in case you get any push back, one might just say, "honey, look at the pictures if you need to get in the mood..."
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