Originally posted on July 28, 2011 by Canicus

Today I decided to revisit the Museo Nazionale Romano which is a short walk from my hotel. The plan was first to go a block or so further to the post office to see if I could get a box to mail some of my stuff back home–travel guides, maps and maybe some clothes for filler. Then I would go back and visit the museum.

The plan worked out quite well. This morning it was really overcast and there were even a few drops of rain as I walked to the post office and then back to the museum. There were even a few drops of rain–not enough to get wet. That was good because I had left my rain jacket and umbrella back in the hotel. The museum is built around a court yard. It was obvious looking out onto the courtyard that it was raining hard while I was in the museum.

Getting into the museum was something of a problem. It seems that their computer at the ticket window went down just after I had paid for the ticket, but before they printed it. The ticket lady couldn’t get it started and went to get her supervisor. They rebooted Windows (XP, I think) but still couldn’t get into their program. Pretty soon they were on the phone talking to support (in India?). They made some moves that suggested to me that there was a network problem of some sort. Eventually they apparently got to the point where they had a login to their software. Then the ticket lady had to go get that secret piece of paper with the login and password. And finally I got in.

I noticed one thing I had never noticed about Discobolos (The Discus Thrower). The museum has two of them–one is ancient (I assume) and the other a reconstructed copy that we usually see. There are a number of things missing from the ancient–the head, the discus and a few other bits and pieces. (Scholars say that the head on the reproductions is screwed on wrong.) But what I noticed is that the toes of the right foot of the athlete are oddly positioned with the tops of the toes dragging on the ground. Much of the right foot of the original are missing, so I don’t know whether it had that feature or not.

I also missed a lot of the Roman rooms from a villa on the other side of the Tiber that had been partly reconstructed on the top floor. This was the home of someone who was very, very rich. The floors are mosaics, the walls frescos and the ceiling bas relief. Many of the frescos show scenes, people and animals. Birds seem to be a favorite. All very delicately done. They often appear to be pastels–although that may be the consequence of a couple of millennia. Other colors are often quite vivid though. The Romans were not adverse to bright colors.

One of the larger rooms on the top floor contains frescos which adorned Livia’s dining room. These are all pastoral. But they are also done in such a way as the colors change with the changing light of day. The Museum has attempted lighting to recreate the effect.

Today I tried a Roman pizza. I must say, I was not impressed. I much prefer Alfredo’s in Dallas.

I spent more time in the museum than I had the first time and saw some parts I had missed.

Originally posted on July 28, 2011 by Canicus

Today I visited the Vatican Museum. There is too much to see there in one day. While they obviously allow photography in much of the museum–even areas where Renaissance frescos could be harmed by thousands of flash cameras (and some were using flash cameras). But photography is apparently not allowed in the Sistine Chapel. It is too dark to take pictures in there anyway without a tripod.

The museum was quite crowded. Most of the people I have encountered have been courteous. The first day in Rome a lady tried to help me find my hotel (even though she was clueless). And a gentleman offered to carry my suitcase up some stairs. There seems to be a universal courtesy that when someone sees someone else trying to take a picture to step away or not walk in front of the camera. Today I met the first couple who were totally out of it. I was trying to take a picture of a statute in the museum and they were standing directly in front of it discussing what their tour guide book said. They were not looking at the statute at all. Both looked directly at me standing there with my camera poised to take a picture. But they went on discussing whatever (obviously not the statute). After several minutes of this waiting for them to move, I finally had to ask them to move to the side so I could take the picture.

Before visiting the museum I did spend some time in the plaza in front of St. Peter’s. I had lugged a couple of special camera lenses that I thought would be fun. One is called a “horizontal fisheye.” The fisheye lenses have a 180° field of view. There are two types: 1) circular which appears on the “film” as a circular image which is essentially a “hemisphere view” and 2) horizontal which fills the entire “film” with an image which is a little less distorted and less than a full hemisphere view–particularly the vertical axis. Because of the layout of the plaza I thought using that lens would be fun. It was. The other lens is an extreme wide angle lens (10 mm to be exact) which produces a less distorted image which is not a full 180° field of view.

I am having a great deal of difficulty getting the slide shows done with Photoshop on the laptop. It seems to want to search everything–even though I have narrowed down what I want to put into the album. I think I finally managed to get the few good shots from yesterday done and up on the website. But I think I wait to put up the today and the rest of my stay until I return to Dallas. If nothing else, I will be able to work on them at a desk instead of my suitcase on the only chair as I sit on the bed.

It doesn’t look like I am going to make it to Naples and points south or the Venice. Rome has kept me pretty busy. I think I may return when finances permit, but make Naples the base. Trying to deal with the reservations (not the trains, but the reservations) here in Rome is too much.

Originally posted on July 21, 2011 by Canicus

Today was a bit curious. I took the Archeobus that goes through the Via Appia with the intention of visiting the catacombs. When I got there I discovered that you had to go through in groups with a guide, could not leave the group and could not take photographs. Since they are on levels I’m sure there is a good deal of descending and subsequent climbing. I wasn’t sure I wanted to try to keep up with a group in those conditions so I skipped the catacombs.

I went back to the area known as the Bocca della Verita — the Mouth of Truth. It refers to a bas relief in the wall of church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin. Supposedly it will bite off the hand of liars who dare put their hands into it. The church is one of the earliest in Rome and is Eastern Rite Catholic.

From there I walked a few blocks to the Theater of Marcellus which goes back to the days of Augustus Caesar. There is some resemblance to the Coliseum remembering that it makes more sense to say the Coliseum resembles the theater as the theater is roughly a century older. It is still in use for performances.

Then back to Termini for lunch. I returned to the hotel apparently just at the change of shift. One of the ladies at the desk was departing and another arriving. I picked up my key and then when to the entrance way. The lobby is separate from this entrance. You go back out to the street and then through another entrance which is locked and controlled by the lobby desk. I went up to my floor where you have to press a buzzer and the person on the lobby desk unlocks it. But the door isn’t being unlocked. So I returned to the street only to find that now the door to the lobby is also locked. Apparently the afternoon person had checked in and immediately left. Ringing the bell, banging on the door produced nothing. After about 10 minutes she showed up and opened up. This time I was able to get through all the security to my room.

Somehow or other, I managed to switch my camera to black and white mode. So today’s pictures are black and white. Zipped up backups of my pictures now occupy 4 DVDs. There are well over 1,000 pictures so far. Photoshop elements didn’t cooperate again, so I wasn’t able to get captions on today’s pictures.

Originally posted on July 20, 2011 by Canicus

I’ve come to the realization that the on/off tour busses may be the best way to get around to many sites of interest, particularly if I am going to keep walking to a minimum. The Metro will take you close to the Coliseum, Forum and Palatine area. If I were younger and hadn’t developed blisters on my feet I probably could have managed much of this via Metro and walking. Rome does have an extensive bus and trolley system in addition to the Metro if you can ever figure it out. I also find that the Metro and buses are extremely crowded.

The tour busses do get fairly close to a number of the sites of interest to me. Yesterday I bought a combo ticket to something called 100+ and Archeobus. The former runs a fairly standard route from Termini to the Coliseum, Forum, Palatine area to the Vatican and back to Termini by way of the Campus Martius area and the American Embassy (now that I know where that is). The latter runs from Termini to the Coliseum, Forum, and Palatine but then takes off toward the Via Appia the ancient highway south out of Rome built in the heyday of the Roman Republic, primarily to expedite movement of legions. It may have worked well for legions, carts and the like 2,000+ years ago; it isn’t designed for the buses, cars, motorcycles and pedestrians today.

Today I got off at the Baths of Caracalla, built in the early 2nd century A.D. The place was huge; it could accommodate 1,600 people in the baths proper. In addition there were exercise rooms, changing rooms rather like our exercise clubs only on a much larger and grander scale. It also included playing fields, gardens, performance area and Greek and Latin libraries — something I’ve not seen at any modern “baths.” The barbarians cut off the water supply brought by aqueducts so the thing has fallen into ruins, although hardly as badly as many other sites. What you see today are huge towering walls stripped of their ancient decorations. There is a modern stage and seating in the central part where summer opera is performed.

Most of the decorations have been raided over the centuries as is the case for most of the ancient Roman sites here. Walls have been stripped of marble, travertine, sculptures, mosaics, and frescos leaving only exposed brick for the most part. There is quite a bit of mosaic flooring that remains and has been exposed. I was amazed they even let us modern tourists walk on some of it. There are also some big chunks of mosaics that the diggers have leaned up against the walls. I’m not sure whether these came from flooring or wall decorations. I suspect the latter because the exposed floor mosaics seem to be mostly patterns, while the “chunks” are more pictorial.

Cloudy and cooler today. Delightful.

Originally posted on July 20, 2011 by Canicus

Today I finally made it inside of the Coliseum. Having carried a ticket for several days entitling me to enter without standing in the horrendous line to get a ticket, I finally found the entrance permitting individual ticket holders carefully hidden where groups enter. I stayed on the first level at 74 with blisters on my feet, I’m not about to climb up to the second or third levels of that thing.

From the Coliseum I made my way to the Plaza de Bocco d. Verite. The most striking feature of this plaza is the Temple of Portunus which was once mistaken for the Temple of Vesta, where the Vestal Virgins kept the eternal flame of Rome burning. It is, perhaps an easy mistake, as it is a circular colonnaded temple similar to what the Temple of Vesta (actually located hard by the oldest part of the Forum) looked like. Nearby is the Forum Borium the ancient cattle market of Rome. There is a four way arch there not triumphal like those of Titus or Constantine, but practical. It marked the crossroads used by the drovers and provided shelter in inclement weather.

From there I went back to what once was the Campus Martius (Field of Mars) which was the army’s training grounds for centuries well into the imperial period. Very little evidence of what was once an open field anymore. But it is where Augustus’ tomb is located and the Altar of Augustus’ Peace. This time I was able to get inside the enclosure and view the enormous structure up close. Unfortunately the layout of the enclosing museum (undoubtedly dictated by the streets on either side) make it difficult to view the scenes high up on the enclosing walls of the ancient structure.

I was interrupted in my hotel room by a plumber that apparently the maid had summoned to work on the toilet.

It was nearly overcast this morning. “Mostly cloudy,” I guess you’d call it but most of the clouds had dissipated by mid-day.

Originally posted on July 18, 2011 by Canicus

For the first time since I have been here, there were some clouds in the Roman sky. Until today it was totally cloudless, blue, sunny skies. Today a few white fluffy clouds appeared on the horizon which increased until mid-day. Not overcast or threatening rain.

On today’s explorations, I first visited Trajan’s Forum. The Roman Forum grew over the centuries. But beginning with Julius Caesar, various leaders expanded it considerably. Trajan’s Forum is at the opposite end of the Forum from the Coliseum and somewhat of to the north.

One famous feature of the Forum is Trajan’s tower which graphically details the exploits of Trajan spiraling up the entire length of the tower. You can’t really get close enough today to see much detail at the lower level the upper level would be impossible without some sort of “cherry picker.” It also appears that, after nearly 2,000 years, much of the carving has faded.

Another interesting feature of Trajan’s forum arises from the fact that in order to build it, the architect carved out a huge chunk of a hill to make a flat space for the forum proper. To prevent the remaining hill from collapsing he erected a curved building which acts as a horizontal arch against the hill. The building proper is a couple of stories high and contains rooms which served as shops a veritable Roman shopping mall. It is quite well preserved unlike most of the ruins of Rome, although I was not able to get close to it as they are doing some restoration and archeological work in the Forum at this time.

The next quest was to find the Pantheon. The building is quite well hidden, although obviously hundreds of us tourists found it. At least from the direction I approached it, you cannot see it until you are immediately on it and I obviously approached from the rear. It was originally built by Marcus Agrippa Caesar Augustus’ brilliant general and architect as the inscription over the entrance states. I was not able to get far enough away to see the dome from the outside, nor the rather curious fact that the portico roof does not actually match up with the building itself. The building was restored sometime after Agrippa built it and later converted into a church. Inside was quite crowded. It is impossible to get a decent picture of the dome because of the contrast in light between the dome and the oculus an opening at the very top which admits the sun. The dome is constructed of concrete. To lighten the dome the concrete was mixed with hollow amphorae. Also the “paneled” patterns of the dome are not purely decorative, but lighten the weight of the dome.

Finally I visited the tomb of Caesar Augustus. It is not as large as Hadrian’s tomb (aka Castel d’Angelo) but somewhat along the same line. There is major restoration and archeological work going on at the site, so the views are generally through heavy fences and barricades.

Near Augustus’ tomb is the Altar of the Peace of Augustus. The structure is enclosed in a building which, unfortunately, is closed on Mondays so I guess I’ll try again.

Originally posted on July 18, 2011 by Canicus

Today’s quest via the Metro to St. Peter’s was more successful. The plaza in front is most impressive.

The big thing in Rome these days seems to be the Beatification of John Paul II. Since the line to get into the church went more than halfway around the plaza, I attempted to enter on the side away from the line. That took me through a display detailing the Pope’s life along with many artifacts (which I assume will become relics). Elaborate copes and skis were on exhibit. I assume that he did not wear both at the same time.

But the exhibit led back out to the plaza. So I got in line. The whole point of the line was simply to get through security scanners and metal detectors. After you got through security there was another checkpoint at which those who did not meet the dress code women with bare shoulders were shunted aside and (I suppose) if they could not remedy the problem, shown the nearby exit.

I had worn a pair of convertible pants with the long legs installed, so I experienced no difficulty. But it seemed to me that men wearing shorts were allowed in. I didn’t see any guys with tank tops. When I actually entered the basilica, one of the guards (not the Swiss variety) stopped the kid in front of me who was wearing shorts; but his misdemeanor seems to have been talking on his cell phone.

I guess in many ways I am a gothic northern European. The great Gothic cathedrals impress me, but the baroque flowering of the Renaissance is too much for my taste. Yes, St. Peter’s is big. But it seems bigger on television on Christmas Eve.

I am really, really coming to hate Photoshop Elements 9. It’s stupid “Organizer” wants to “organize” everything on my hard disk. There are now nearly 1,000 pictures. It will not let me confine its searches to a specific folder. It will not forget what it has seen in the past. It will not let me choose what I want to go into an album or delete what I don’t want. It makes it impossible to add captions to just those particular picture I want in my album which is why there are no captions for today’s pictures.

The last picture really does need a comment. I shot myself in the foot. John Carter, that is a sinister foot!

Originally posted on July 18, 2011 by Canicus

Today is the Sabbath, so I rested. Not quite correct Jewish observance. I decided to rest and see if I could get one of the blisters to begin to heal. I did walk over to Termini for a late breakfast and picked up yesterday’s London Times. Spent a good part of the day reading virtually all of it.

The world seems to still be out there. Syrians are a missile threat to the Middle East. Murdoch is in trouble with the British Parliament and the American FBI. The Brits don’t want to give the crews of the planes refueling the fighters in Lybia hazardous duty pay too expensive for the cash strapped government. The Republicans in Washington are acting more like jackasses than elephants. President Obama is showing some backbone.

And Thomas Voeckler is wearing the Yellow Jersey in the Tour de France. If I recall, he’s the kid who got the Yellow in the Alps nearly an hour up on Armstrong when Armstrong was dominating the Tour. And the kid held on until the end of the Pyrenees stages before Armstrong closed the gap. This year he has the Schleck brothers, Evans and Basso on his tail. Contador is 7th, 4 minutes back.

I had dinner at one of the sidewalk restaurants near Termini. Good food. But I had someone try to sell me a watch. “No” didn’t work so I pointed at mine and said I already have one. Another guy came by selling carved wooden animals. Nice, but no way I could bring them back. Yet another guy with an accordian wanted to serenade me. And a woman came by begging but one of the waitresses gave her “the look” and she took off.

Update on McDonald’s. I mentioned earlier that there was a McDonald’s inside Termini and another “a stone’s throw away.” (Well maybe if you were a major league outfielder.) I then discovered there was another on the lower level of Termini almost directly under the first one I discovered. Since then I noticed three more over by the Plaza of the Republic. That makes 6 within walking distance of each other!

No photos today.

Originally posted on July 16, 2011 by Canicus

For some reason I tossed and turned all last night. .So I “woke up,” if you can call it that, sleepy. I laid in bed reading until mid-morning. Then I decided I had to get out of the room for a while so the maid could come in and do her thing. I was a bit hungry, so I decided to take the Metro in to Colosseo. There’s a good place to eat just outside. I tried their seafood platter which features octopus. Like the poor guy in the cartoon whose wife keeps serving tough octopus, the seafood on this platter was tough.

Since I have a ticket to get into the Coliseum, I thought I would try that. But the only line I could find was people wanting to buy tickets. I asked one of the “permanent” people and was told to go into Palatine and from there get into the Coliseum (as tickets to the Palatine and the Forum include the Coliseum). I knew from my time in both that there were signs pointing to the Coliseum. So I tried that and ended up again in the area outside the Coliseum looking for an entrance that didn’t involve a line halfway around it. The Coliseum, I might note was designed in the 1st century to empty a capacity crowd in 7-15 minutes. I suppose that back in Titus’ day, when it opened it may have taken a bit longer to get it. But then politicians and emperor’s men handed out thousands of free tickets.

Having failed that I went searching for the Musei Capitolini. It is, in theory, at the opposite end of the Forum from the Coliseum. I must say it is well hidden. I got to see Marcus Aurelius and his horse. Both the outside copy and the original indoors. I also got to see the Spinario (Boy with Thorn in His Foot). That’s one of my favorites maybe because as that age in West Texas I used to go barefoot and get stickers in my feet. (We did, however, wear short pants!) Apparently, the section of the museum that houses the pieces of the enormous statue of Constantine and the Dying Gaul were closed. There were peices of a smaller bronze of Constantine (still bigger than life); from it I learned that he had an enormous hole in the back of his head.

I think rather than sorting through the hundreds of pictures I took of statuary in the museums, I’ll put up just a few of my favorites. Discobolos, Spinario and a few others. They’ll be in yesterday’s and today’s journal.

Blisters are getting to be a major problem. I have three. One on the left foot and two on the right. I’ve not experienced this much trouble before with these shoes. Tonight I stopped by a pharmacy for some blister ointments. I have some alcohol pads to clean, and now some gauze and tape. I looked for a needle to lance one that hasn’t broken, but needles, pins or sewing kits seem not to be stocked around here.

I think there was some kind of change in the weather. This evening when I went out for supper it seemed quite a bit cooler than it has been.

Originally posted on July 14, 2011 by Canicus

Today went much better than yesterday. In the morning I visited Palazzo Massimo and Terme di Diocleziano. These are two of the four Roman National Museums. Massimo is given over to statuary, mosaics and frescos. In the basement there is a collection of Roman coins some going back when “money” was simply lumps of bronze. Diocleziano is mostly inscriptions and burial stones.

If you should go to Rome, it turns out that where I am is an ideal location. Termini is the main train station in Rome and both Metro lines meet at Termini. The two museums I visited today are within easy walking distance from Termini. I probably should have visited the two museums the first or second day. There is virtually no lines at the ticket booth, and the tickets sold there are good for seven days and include the Coliseum, Palatine Hill and the Forum so you avoid the lines at those locations. There are four other sites where you can use the tickets.

I may use the tickets to get into the Coliseum tomorrow. If I manage to get into town early I may attack the Palatine Hill again in hopes of locating the house of Caesar Augustus and maybe his wife’s larger house. (It’s not easy for a 74-year-old to climb and there are no elevators or escalators.) And then I’ll try to do the Capitoline Museums which are located at the opposite end of the Forum from the Coliseum.

I took over 250 pictures today, so it is going to take a while to sort through them to add to the photo journal.