Our first objective was to find a leather bag shop near the Trevi Fountain that we had visited in March. They had a couple of nice briefcases that Jackie has been talking about ever since. On the way to the Trevi Fountain, we made our obligatory stop at the Pantheon:
It is interesting to note that the entrance columns were quarried by Egyptians almost 3000 years ago from solid granite, and built into a temple complex there. The Romans, after conquering Egypt, disassembled the temple, shipped the columns, and erected them in Rome. There are 16 of them each made of a single piece of stone. That is a marvel of engineering.
We continued on to the Trevi Fountain. Along the way we came upon this 6th century BC Egyptian obelisk that Emperor Augustus stole from Egypt when he conquered Marc Antony and Cleopatra. Go figure. In Rome, it seems like you come across something extremely cool and extremely interesting around every corner.
We finally reached the Trevi Fountain and threw in our obligatory coins to ensure, as legend says, that we will one day return to Rome. Here are some more fountain photos:
We looked at the bags but Jackie wasn't ready to make a decision on the spot so we did some more shopping around. It was getting a bit chilly so we headed back to the apartment for a cup of tea (stopping on the way for our final obligation, gelato). Next we crossed the river to Trastevere to visit a Bernini statue and a pastry shop that we found there in March. The pastry shop was right where we left it but the Bernini statue was closed off while the church is undergoing re-construction. This continues an aggravating pattern of art works being loaned or closed up across Europe. Saddened, we walked back to the apartment stopping for this pic of the river and bridges:
Today we had planned to go to the Roman Forum and Colosseum. We also scheduled to meet our new Australian friends for dinner. However, we arose to the patter of rain which continued on and off the whole day. We decided to re-think our plan and not spend the day outdoors wandering the ruins of the Forum in the rain. Instead, we decided to check off the indoor things still on our to-do list, which were the Capitoline Museum and St. Peter's Basilica. We started with the Museum.
The Capitoline Museum houses a lot of Roman and Greek original sculpture as well as some Italian paintings. All in all we enjoyed the museum, though I think I am a bigger fan of sculpture than Jackie is.
As to be expected, the only work by Bernini in the museum was on loan. Maybe we can catch in San Francisco, since we will only be a 4 hour drive away in Tahoe.
From the back of the museum there is a commanding view of the Roman Forum, we are hoping the weather will improve for tomorrow.
After the museum we headed back to the apartment in a pretty heavy rain. We stayed in for a couple hours warming up and waiting it out. Once we had dried out and the rain let up we went to Vatican City. It was still threatening to rain so we decided to skip the climb up the Dome and just went straight into the Basilica.
*Shot of river crossing into Vatican City
St. Peter's was the work of a series of architects, with building structure by Michelangelo and decoration by Bernini, making it a fusion of our favourite sculptors. Below are some of the photos of the Church:
*Michelangelo's Pieta
*Tabernacle over the altar by Bernini
*The paintings in St. Peter's were being damaged by incense, so they converted them all into mosaics. This painting is actually comprised of thousands of small coloured tiles. Pretty amazing.
It was close to time to meet with the Australians, Elizabeth and James, so we headed to Piazza Navona. We had planned to meet early and walk around for a bit before dinner. Unfortunately it was lightly raining so we went to a bar for a few drinks first. After, we took them to our favourite, Alfredo e Ada's. It was a great night. We actually have a lot in common with Liz and James. They are both engineers who had a break between projects so took the time to travel Europe for a couple months. Dinner was delicious as well. The proprietor, Sergio, brought us an extra litre of wine (even though we only asked for a half) and sat with us after dinner. He only spoke Italian, but with a few common words we were able to figure out that he was born in Lucca, and his parents (Alfredo and Ada) started the restaurant, and that Ada is now living in Toronto. All in all we had a lot of fun, and we are glad that we decided to meet up with them here in Rome.
Only one more day in Europe and then we are off to Dubai. Wish us luck!
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