Leaving Rome, sad to throw away my broken suitcase
A church that Bernini's pupil built across from a fountain that Bernini designed shortly after. The practical joke in the piece is the statue facing the church with his hand shielding his eyes as if to say "how horrible a thing to look at"
The Plaza Venezia
The oculus in the Pantheon, letting in unfiltered daylight and fresh air
The inside of the Pantheon
The outside of the Pantheon, under rennovation
We then went to see the column, which has many carvings along the side telling the story of a famous battle. We went through the ruins, and it took a significant amount of imagination to htink of what these buildings could have looked like about two thousand years ago.
The column, depicting a battle
The Roman Forum
After this, we toured Capitoline and Palatine hill. There was a museum on Capitoline hill that had many sculptures in it, and enclosed the foundation of a temple to Zeus that dated from centuries in BC.
A sculpture depicting Romulus and Remus (the founders of Rome) suckled by the "she-wolf"
The original sculpture of Marcus Aurelius, originally showcased in St. Peter's plaza dating from 2 AD
A statue of Neptune
"heeey"
A painting depicting Alexander the Great defeating Darius
It took me a long time to wonder why there were pieces from the 9/11 attacks here, but I realized that since it was the WORLD Trade Centers hit, there were Italians inside.
Me, driving an old Popemobile
Last, we explored the Colosseum, and took a guided tour that explained the history of the building as well as its previous state (pre-ruin). Much of the structure has been "recycled" for the marble on the Trevi fountain, Piazza Venezia, etc. It makes me sad, because the Colosseum has obviously suffered, but in a way it also makes sense and I am glad that these other structures exist today in their current form.
A daytime view of the Colosseum
Us, inside the Colosseum
The interior of the Colosseum
We then went to the airport only to find that Krysti and I were on different flights by the same airliner going to the same city only one hour apart. This only made sense to me when I saw that Krysti's flight was extremely full, and I was apparently on the overflow flight to Frankfurt. My flight (an hour after Krysti's) flew in so early, that there was no gate ready for it to travel to, and a shuttle came out to pick us up on the tarmac.
My view on the tarmac
As awesome as this was, I was nervous because Krysti and I were supposed to meet up at my arrival gate and now since I didn't have one, it meant that I needed to turn on my cell phone, which meant loads of fees. Turns out Krysti could not secure her next boarding pass until the staff from Air India came in at 5:30 AM the next morning anyway, so I needed to meet her outside the gates and terminal anyway. After a drink at the restaurant bar, we set up camp at another airport bar and waited until the Air India counter opened so hat we could get a boarding pass to enter the airport.
On the flight here, I managed to get my ears plugged (sinuses) to the point where my ears could not pop and I was left mostly deaf with a searing headache. The headache left me, once landed, but the ears remained plugged. I walked into a pharmacy that recommended a nose spray that I've been borderline abusing. I think. Although I do know a bit of German, I can't make out enough of the directions to determine the maximum use per day. It looks great sitting next to my Italian cough drops...
I'm on a plane!
Our table at the beginning of the layover
Our table at the end of the layover... 8 hours later.
My attempts at clearing my head with alcohol and international cough medicine
No comments:
Post a Comment