First up, a fertility goddess in the Capital Museum. I saw a scuplture of her in the Vatican, but this one was much bigger and I got to be closer to it.
Here Tiff stands next to the reason for coming to the museum, the statue of Romulus and Remus, suckling from the she-wolf. Legend has it Rome's first leader, Romulus and his brother Remus were raised by a wolf, before some nasty fratricide that came later. On a side note, this is the WORST designed museum in the world. Trying to get anywhere in this place was a headache. Las Vegas architects could definately take a page out of their book. This was our last stop of the day. We were pretty frustrated and tired by then too, so that just added to the unpleasantness of the museum. After the museum, we went back to the hotel and rested...
But the day started with us viewing one of Michaelangelo's works in a small church near the Colosseum. This is his statue of Moses. Moses has horns to depict the ferocity and anger that he has as he came down with the ten commandments seeing all the sinners. In the same church...
Are the chains of St. Peter. They were actually two chains, one that held him in Jerusalem and the other in the mamertine prison, which miraculously fused together. See wikipedia for more info.
The fresco on the ceiling of the church depicts St. Peter being freed from the chains by an angel.
Strangely, I found this to be the most interesting thing in the church (Yes more interestesting than a statue by Michaelangelo). I just didn't expect such a macabre statue inside a church. I could find any info on it, but it really is fantastic in its detail.
From the church, we made our way to the Colosseum. We were pretty startled at how close the metro stopped to the Colosseum, since we took the stop before it to see the church. Here is one of the many oil lamps that were found in the excavating of the colosseum.
The view of the Colosseum from the "Emperor's Box" where supposedly the emperor would sit to watch the games (I say supposedly because there really is no evidence that this was the spot, they just guessed). The christians put a cross in this spot to commemorate the slain gladiators within the colosseum. The day the Colosseum opened, 2000 people died in the inaugural games.
After the colosseum, we made our way to the forum, the ruins of the ancient Roman Capital. Here I stand near the senate building. The forum isn't very picture-esque, its mostly a bunch of rubble.
If it isn't rubble, its just empty space. This tree marks the spot where Caesar made his home on Palatine Hill (I liked calling it Palpatine Hill.) Apparently the ancient Romans weren't big on walls or ceilings. ;)
This is Circus Maximus. If you couldn't make it to the Colosseum, then you would go to Circus Maximus to watch the chariots race along a course that was the size of 6 football fields (I think I overheard that correctly). Bleachers would have been erected on that sloping hill that would hold thousands of fans.
When Caesar entertained people, he would entertain people here, in his banquet hall. You can see some stairs leading into the ground. Underneathe the hall was a hollow space where workers would light fires to warm the floor and hall. The floor was actually raised off the ground to insulate it which you can see on the left. It is here that people gorged themselves and tickled their throats with peacock feathers to eat more. Back then it was what the rich did. Today its called Bulimia.... something that still mostly only rich people do. I guess some things don't change.
After the forums and the Colosseum and the museum, we were beat. It was a long walk, up some steep steps, and very uneven ground, and it was the hottest day of our stay (somewhere in the 90s, the rest have been in the mid 80s). On the way back we saw a significant fire in the distance. Rome was burning. Where's a fiddle when you need one? The next day was spent mostly in the train station waiting for the our train to take us from Rome to Paris. It was my first major train ride, and it was a lot of fun. Probably the most shocking part of the trip was that there is quite literally a hole for a toilet. You could look down the toilet and see the track beneathe you. Yuck! We fell asleep pretty easily and when we woke up we were in France.Now leaving the train station I must tell you about two things. First, while we were standing in line for a taxi, a French woman came up to us and asked me if I was the Hero of Navona. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. I blinked at her and didn't understand at first, then I realized that she must have seen me at the Piazza Navona street performer's show. I'm not known for my deep philosophical treatises on vampires or cyborgs taking over the world, (which I am internally cited 5 times mind you), but I am INTERNATIONALLY known for being part of a human bench. Ah well, I'll take my fame any way it comes.
So the second thing I must mention, is that when we arrived in Paris, they pulled out all the welcoming wagon for us.
There were jet fighters and planes and helicopters flying over head in formation! Welcome to Paris! Its Bastille Day!
There were jet fighters and planes and helicopters flying over head in formation! Welcome to Paris! Its Bastille Day!
Everyone is dressed in their best, and the military is out showing their stuff!
The roads were closed for the military parade, and so we had to hike from one side of the Louvre to the other, where our hotel was. We dropped off our bags, and watched the parade pass by in a parisian cafe.
Its a pretty big deal for the parisians to close off some of the biggest thoroughfares of the city. They were waving shouting and taking pictures of the soldiers that drove by. We weren't on the main parade route, but one of the parts where all the paraders would be leaving the parade. So we saw about half an hour of the parade, and it was mostly vehicles trying to get out of the city and back to where they're supposed to be I imagine.
Just around the corner from our hotel, and right next to the parisian cafe that we were at, was a guilded statue of Joan of Arc. There were fresh roses placed on the pedestal of the statue when we walked by.
So with the parade over, and check-in time far off, we took a walk around the River Siene, then plopped ourselves down on the lawn in front of the entrance to the Louvre. I took a few pictures to give you the idea of the atmosphere of it. It was really laid back and quite lovely. The weather was perfect. Mid 70s I would guess.
We spied a cute pigeon while we were sitting down. We fed it some Italian bread that we had with us. First it was Pompey the Pompeii Pooch, now its Pierre the Parisian Pigeon.
The City of Lights is the city of love. We saw a number of couples being very happy around Paris, including one lesbian couple, and two gay couples! I love it!
It being Bastille day, and it being in front of the Louvre, its natural to expect student demonstrations. We heard drums and shouting and chanting for awhile, and when we finally got curious enough to investigate, we saw that the police had already began rounding up the protestors, many of whom were dressed up as clowns. Its Les Miserables! Raise the barricades!
Here's I think the head clown, sadly looking nothing like The Joker. You can see the police encircling the protestors and pushing them slowly into the paddywagons in the background.
What were they protesting? I have no idea. But I saw a few clowns who escaped with their signs and were changing clothes. My french is terrible. With some Bablefish help, I think the sign says something to the effect that capitalism makes you crazy. Maybe someone else can do a better job translating?
The roads were closed for the military parade, and so we had to hike from one side of the Louvre to the other, where our hotel was. We dropped off our bags, and watched the parade pass by in a parisian cafe.
Its a pretty big deal for the parisians to close off some of the biggest thoroughfares of the city. They were waving shouting and taking pictures of the soldiers that drove by. We weren't on the main parade route, but one of the parts where all the paraders would be leaving the parade. So we saw about half an hour of the parade, and it was mostly vehicles trying to get out of the city and back to where they're supposed to be I imagine.
Just around the corner from our hotel, and right next to the parisian cafe that we were at, was a guilded statue of Joan of Arc. There were fresh roses placed on the pedestal of the statue when we walked by.
So with the parade over, and check-in time far off, we took a walk around the River Siene, then plopped ourselves down on the lawn in front of the entrance to the Louvre. I took a few pictures to give you the idea of the atmosphere of it. It was really laid back and quite lovely. The weather was perfect. Mid 70s I would guess.
We spied a cute pigeon while we were sitting down. We fed it some Italian bread that we had with us. First it was Pompey the Pompeii Pooch, now its Pierre the Parisian Pigeon.
The City of Lights is the city of love. We saw a number of couples being very happy around Paris, including one lesbian couple, and two gay couples! I love it!
It being Bastille day, and it being in front of the Louvre, its natural to expect student demonstrations. We heard drums and shouting and chanting for awhile, and when we finally got curious enough to investigate, we saw that the police had already began rounding up the protestors, many of whom were dressed up as clowns. Its Les Miserables! Raise the barricades!
Here's I think the head clown, sadly looking nothing like The Joker. You can see the police encircling the protestors and pushing them slowly into the paddywagons in the background.
What were they protesting? I have no idea. But I saw a few clowns who escaped with their signs and were changing clothes. My french is terrible. With some Bablefish help, I think the sign says something to the effect that capitalism makes you crazy. Maybe someone else can do a better job translating? So it's 4:42pm right now (7:43am pacific). We're in our hotel just finished with showering (we were on a train last night!!) and in a bit we're going to go out to find some food, and make our way to the Eiffel Tower to enjoy fireworks! I'll try to take some pictures of the fireworks, but I've never taken pictures of fireworks before so I have no idea how they'll turn out. Hopefully the tiny little tripod I brought (that helped me take the picture at Trevi fountain in Rome) will be enough.
Au revoir from Paris, France!
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