Hi everyone, sorry it's taken me so long to update this. Our finals were "spread out" but they all happened in the beginning and middle of April...
Anyway, back to stories of spring break. Wednesday (14 March) was the day that we went to see the "Leaning Tower of Pisa" and afterwards, we headed back to Rome so I could show Kyle a few of the smaller things he hadn't seen yet.
After arriving back in Rome and dropping off our stuff, the first stop was to get a kebab-absolutely one of the BEST meals you can have in Rome. I absolutely love them. :) Once we had our kebabs we made our way to the Temple of Hercules Victor which was later converted into a church and the inner row of columns was filled in. It was here that Kyle had to show me his Hercules pose...
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| Temple of Hercules Victor |
Next, we went to the Circus Maximus which was one of the stadiums in the times of the emperors where chariots would race. Now, it just looks like an empty limestone track which isn't occupied much.
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| Circus Maximus |
After the Circus Maximus, we tried visiting the Baths of Caracalla, however, they were closed already.
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| Terme di Caracalla |
Even though we couldn't go inside, we could still see what a magnificent structure it was.
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| Gate closed... |
One of my professors even told me that in the summers the hold live concerts in the baths at night. The residents of Rome bring their blankets and chairs and enjoy the beautiful acoustics provided by the space.
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| Exterior of the Baths |
On our way back to the hotel we took a detour and stopped at the Pyramid of Cestius! It was built in the 1st C. BC outside of the city walls since it was illegal to bury the dead inside. Wealthy residents made a common practice of building extravagant tombs along the roads leading out of town.
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| Piramide Cestia |
In the 3rd C. AD, the Aurelian wall was built built around it and helped defend the city against attacks.
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| Aurelian Wall |
Many of the pieces of the wall were reused pieces from wherever they could find them. Here you can see a piece of granite with an inscription that was used as part of the wall.
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| "Spolia" |
Later that night, we went to one of my favorite pizza places in Rome (even though it's a chain...), Rosso Pomodoro! The pizzas are huge and the crust is so thin that you can cut a piece and roll it up and eat it!
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| Kyle stuffing his face |
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| Bresaola pizza with "rocket" (arugula) |
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| Salumi pizza with buffalo riccota |
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| My turn to stuff my face |
And then the best part-desert!
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| Molten chocolate cake with buffalo milk ice cream! |
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The next day (15 March), we got up early to stop and get due caffe macchiati e cornetti at my favorite place before heading to the Vatican museum.
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| St. Peter's dome in the distance |
Luckily, we booked our reservation ahead of time so we got to skip the two hour long line...
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| Actual size of the ball on top of the dome |
Here are only a few selections from their vast collection.
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| Sculpture gallery |
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| "Talking" statue |
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| Dramatic lighting from the sun |
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| "Laocoon and his Two Sons" |
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| Kyle's cereal bowl |
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| Just kidding-this is Kyle's actual cereal bowl |
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| and his beer mug. |
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| and don't forget the armor |
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| and the gold tiara he brings back to his princess. :) |
We might have had too much fun for a while...
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| Sculpture in the modern wing |
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| Painting of the Colosseum in the modern wing |
The last stop in the museum was the magnificent Sistine Chapel. Kyle's head is in the picture because he was trying to hide me from the guard...(pictures weren't allowed).
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| Sistine Chapel ceiling |
After vising the museum, we decided to climb the dome!
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| Intermediate roof to take a break and a few photos |
Compared to the other ones we had climbed, this one was a piece of cake.
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| Interior of the dome |
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| Mosaic around the drum |
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| Mosaic detail |
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| Almost there!...... |
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| Tiled walkway with nice stairs? What a luxury! |
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| Can definitely tell we're getting closer to the top! |
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| View from the top! (Pantheon and Vittorio Emanuele) |
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| View of the castle! |
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| Famous view down the piazza |
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| We made it! |
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Structure of the dome before the
remodeling and tiling |
When we descended the dome, we ended up in the basilica. Kyle couldn't believe all of the decoration and marble that covered the surfaces.
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| Nave of St. Peter's |
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| Bronze of St. Peter |
I used Kyle as a scaley so you can tell how big the piers are that hold up the dome.
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| (he's the tiny little green dot at the bottom...) |
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| An organ in a side chapel that Kyle found |
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| In front of Maderno's facade |
After leaving the Vatican, we made our way across the row of vendors to the Castle Sant'Angelo.
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| "Angel" Bridge (Ponte Sant'Angelo) |
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| Looking back at St. Peter's |
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| Ponte Sant'Angelo |
The interior has paving back to the time of Hadrian or Adriana.
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| "Stamps" up the main passage |
"Stamps" definition: stairs that are ramped; abbreviated to "stamps".
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| Outer terrace |
Along one of the top levels is a terrace where they remodeled and added a cafe.
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| Gun Kyle likes... |
Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures inside the papal apartments but we did manage to sneak a few of some of the exhibits.
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| More guns Kyle likes... |
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| Treasure chests? Maybe not... |
On the roof, we noticed that there was metal in between the stones as a filler. An older gentleman saw us looking and tried his best to explain it in simple Italian. He said it was called "piombo" which means lead and this process was done by melting the metal and pouring it between the cracks and scraping off the extra.
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| Piombo |
The castle is constructed with larger tufa stones at the base and smaller bricks toward the top.
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| Castle materials |
Some of the existing holes for archers still exist as well.
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| Archer hole |
In the middle ages, structures were built wherever they could find a place. If a wall was already existing somewhere, that made it even easier!
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| Medieval "addition" |
They even had a display of the old stone cannon balls.
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| Cannon balls |
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| Small guy in a little hole... |
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| Kyle on the "Angel Bridge" in front of the castle! |
After leaving the castle, we headed off to some of the other famous landmarks in Rome!
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| Spanish Steps! (Yes, I made him go up!) |
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| Trevi Fountain! |
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| And again... |
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| And again! |
Later that night we went out to SAID Chocolate Factory. It was absolutely amazing!!
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| Main Courses! |
Kyle had the chocolate tortellini and I had the ox tail with chocolate sauce. I've tried it once, I can mark it off my list...
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| Red wine :) |
For dessert, I had the chocolate molten cake and Kyle had the cheesecake.
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| Each with our own... |
Unfortunately, he wanted to share...
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| Mmmmmm, much better! |
However, I did insist on getting the last spoonful of chocolate-totally worth it!
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| Pure, melted chocolate from an actual chocolate factory! |
What could have been better? Honestly, I have absolutely no idea!
