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London/Rome 2008 Photo Album
We wanted to go to Rome and visited London on the way out and back.
This was our "freebie" vacation. Mike has travalled
so much for Boeing and saved up 6 years worth of hotel points so all of the stays-- Waldorf Hilton in London and Hilton Cavalieri
in Rome-- were free. The flights to/from London were also free using American frequent flier miles. We only had
to pay for the BA flight from London to Rome.
The picture layout is same old drill as previous trips.
The pictures should all be clickable and will load in a new window at (a larger) 1280 x 960. Mike tried to be a little
more verbose with the descriptions this time. This will probably be our last vacation for a while with the baby's due
date in May/June. Look for Disney 2009 (ha ha).
The first place we visited after arriving in London was the Imperial War Museum. Here is Mike in front of a Sherman
Tank. You've got to love a name like Willie Pusher II. The museum was pretty cool. One of the more
depressing things was the exhibit for the 25th anniversary of the Falkland Islands conflict-- 25 years ago, we both remembered
it. We're old!
After visiting the IWM, we headed back to our hotel in the West End and then saw Monty Python's Spamalot. Mike
is not a big Python fan, but the play was awesome and we both thought it was the best of the 3 that we saw (all 3 were very
good this time).
On Jan 2nd, we visited St. Paul's Cathedral. We both climbed up into the Whispering Gallery but then Cathy was
pretty much done. Mike went up to the Stone Gallery and Golden Gallery. After touring the entire cathedral floor,
we went down into the crypt and got lunch in the cafe at the crypt.
Mike and the view of London from the highest point you can get to at St Paul's. The Golden Gallery is 280 ft in
the air. You can see many of the buildings from The City in the background including the Gherkin.
Here we are during our first night in Rome. We took a walking tour that Mike put together. Here we are at
the Trevi Fountain. We made a special effort to make sure to get pictures TOGETHER since we only got 2 of us together
during our 2006 visit to London (neither good).
This is the inside of the Pantheon. We were both totally blown away by the size (and condition) of a building that
is 2000 years old. The other truly impressive thing about the Pantheon is you see it from the Piazza and then just walk
in. No waiting like at many of the other sites. Just go on in and visit a piece of ancient history.
Cathy's tartufo from the Tre Scalini. We definitely enjoyed the food of Rome including this death-by-chocolate
treat and picking up street pizza at the little shops lining the streets. Piazza Novana was the end of our first
night trek and we were pretty full after each eating a tartufo; Cathy was smart enough to not eat the cherry inside (that
dilutes the yummy chocolate taste). The only bummer on the walking tour was the 4 Rivers fountain was shut down and
mostly obscured for cleaning/maintenance.
Sunrise over Rome from our room at the Hilton Cavalieri hotel. OMG, if you ever get the chance to stay at this
hotel, do it! We've stayed at some nice hotels in the past (like Four Seasons Sydney) but this one was the best of the
best. The only bummer was the location (although there is a shuttle that takes you down to Piazza Barberini) but
the view from the room is excellent and the food was soooo outstanding. We didn't visit La Pergola (no room to pack
a suit and tie) but the breakfasts and other daily snacks were outstanding. Fresh juices, chocolate mousses, and other
fantastic foods. You can't pass up thinly sliced meats for breakfast-- tasty swordfish, the best prosciutto Mike's ever
eaten (plus there was dry cured beef and lamb during the Monday breakfast)-- or the cheeses. Anyhow, after enjoying
the great shower pressure and breakfast, we caught a cab to visit the Vatican Museum, Sistene Chapel, and St Peter's.
OK, here is the line waiting to get into the Vatican Museums. The great news for visitors is the new director really
improved the museum hours for 2008. We got there right at the opening time of 8:30 and probably only waited 45 minutes
to get in (and the line really didn't start moving until just before 9). It was Italy so of course there are queue jumpers.
"I'm not afraid of you or your cat-like gods". Mike in the Egyptian section.
The Octagonal courtyard is just filled with awesome marbles. We took pictures of the Apollo Belvedere (with his
oversized hand) copy and many others. Mike loved the beard detail here.
The famous Laocoon with all of its activity and baroque torsion. There is a cool story behind this statue.
The Cliffs notes version is it was lost from the first century until January 14, 1506 when it was discovered by a farmer
digging in his vineyard on Esquiline Hill. Pope Julius acquired it in March 1506 and they paraded it through the city,
had it serenaded by the Sistine Chapel choir and placed it in the courtyard. Now we are coming up on 502 years
since its (re)discovery.
Here is the view of our hotel from the Vatican Museum. Off to the far right (but still low in the hotel ::sniffle::)
is our room.
Hooray for boobies!
This is the Ehpresian statue of Diana, the goddess of fertility. Although the multiple boobs are also rumored to
be bulls balls. And another cool rumor about this statue is that if a woman wanted to get pregnant, she was supposed
to walk around the statue 3 times. To stop the ladies from circling the statue, the folks at the Vatican Museum moved
the statue up against a wall.
The "Map Room" section of the long hallway in the VM. This room with its walls and ceiling will just about blow
your mind. The pope could show off the known world to visitors by taking them down the hall. This is an extremely
colorful hall and was just awesome.
Cathy in front of the map of Calabria. All of the maps in the Gallery of Maps were colorful with fantastic detail.
Cathy in front of one of the paintings as we approach Rafael's rooms.
Here we are in the Room of Constantine. The lower portion is the Battle of Constantine against Maxentius.
The Battle of the Pons Milvius in 312 A.D. is a big deal since Constantine's victory, in addition to leading to the construction
of the Constantine Arch, also led to Christianity becoming the new Roman religion. Upper is part of the ceiling
"Triumph of Christian religion" by painter Tomasso Laureti.
Here is the School of Athens from the Room of the Segnatura (1508-1511). Plato is in the center (pointing upward)
with Aristotle next to him. You've also got Pythagoras (left front), Diogenes (lying on stairs), Heracleitus (leaning
on marble block and supposed to be a portrait of Michelangelo), Euclid (teaching on right) and Zoroaster and Ptolemy (also
on right holding heavenly and earthly spheres, respectively). Unfortunately, the self-portrait of Raphael got clipped
on the right edge (dude in black beret). We should've stepped back one step (did that in a later picture that we took).
A picture of Mike in the Room of Constantine (1517-1524). The picture in the background is the Baptism of Constantine. The
lighting is really low in the Raphael Rooms and this gives you an idea of how dark they really are. The Room of
Heliodorus (1512-1514) was so dark that there wasn't even a chance of getting a good picture there. Back to this room
and painting, according to the VM, the actual work on this fresco is attributed to Giovan Francesco Penni.
A nice picture by Cathy (impressive because she was using the camera without image stabilization). The fresco here
is the Fire in the Borgo which is in the appropriately named Room of the Fire in the Borgo (1514-1517).
Another nice picture by Cathy from the same room. This one is the Crowning of Charlemagne. The crowning took
place in St Peter's on Christmas night in 800 AD. According to the VM website it "is quite likely that the fresco refers
to the concordat drawn up between the Holy See and the kingdom of France in 1515, since Leo III (pontiff from 795 to 816)
is in fact a portrait of Leo X and Charlemagne that of Francis I." I guess back in the 1500's, there was mixing of politics
and religion <grin>.
After you finish the Raphael Rooms, you go to the Sistine Chapel (no pictures allowed). Leaving the Sistine Chapel
we took the "Rick Steve's shortcut" and headed over to the crypt where we visited the popes including the extremely popular
John Paul II (so busy that guards keep the crowd moving on their way). After that we circled around to the
front of St Peter's and here is a picture of Mike on the steps with the St Peter's square behind him.
The inside of St Peter's. I don't know how you try to capture the size or the beauty of the inside. It just
goes to show what you can accomplish with nearly unlimited money and manpower.
In the middle you can make out the St Peter's baldacchino designed by Bernini. Rumor has it that the bronze for
the baldacchino came from the ceiling of the Pantheon. This led to the awesome quote by Paquino: Quod non fecerunt
barbari, fecerunt Barberini ("What the barbarians did not do, the Barberinis did").
The inside of the high dome.
Here is Mike in front of the apse. They had closed off the part (looks like they are setting up chairs for either
the Sunday service and/or epiphany service) and so you couldn't get close to Bernini's Triumph of the Chair of St Peter. There
is a dove (symbolizing the Holy Spirit) in the center of the alabaster yellow window surrounded by twelve
rays (symbolizing the apostles).
To the right of the entrance is Michelangelo's Pieta. The sculpture is now behind glass (thanks to an attack by
an axe-wielding crazy in 1972). So we couldn't get too close to this fabulous piece either.
Cathy in front of the baldachin standing over the main altar. This thing is huge. Look at the people beside
it; they are tiny. The baldachin is 98 feet tall. We've already discussed where the bronze came from (ha ha) but
the representation of the chair is supposed to contain remants of the chair belonging to St Peter. Underneath the baldachin
is the tomb of St Peter.
Mike in front of St Peter's. What can you say about it? The facade is huge 150 ft by 376 ft wide. Lining
the top are Jesus, John the Baptist, and eleven of the apostles. There are also 2 clocks.
We didn't climb the dome. Cathy was pretty much out since she is pregnant (and the lesser climb at St Paul's took
a lot out of her) and Mike decided to pass because there is a pretty long line to get into to the dome (cuppola in Italian).
So instead we headed out of St Peter's, bought some postcards and mailed them, visited the nativity scene (still no wise
men in it since they don't show up until the 12th day) in the square, and headed towards Piazza Giovanni XXIII and our exit
of Vatican city.
Leaving St Peter's, we headed over to the Castel Sant' Angelo. The Castel has been used as a fortess for the popes
since the 6th century AD (there are secret tunnels to sneak to the pope to the Castel if needed). Today it is a museum
(we didn't visit) and also has a bunch of street vendors out in front of it (we didn't buy any artworks but we should have).
Here is Mike on the Sant' Angelo bridge. You can see the St Peter's Dome in the background. The bridge was
originally finished in 136 A.D. And it has been improved many times since then. The current railing and statues
were done by Bernini (yes again!) and his students in 1668. Bernini did 2 of the statues (too busy... jeez, do
you think?!?) and supervised while his pupils did the other 8.
One of the 10 angels on the Sant' Angelo bridge.
The Pantheon by day. You can also see the obelisk and fountain (aka pigeon roosts) in the piazza.
Mike in front of the Pulcino della Minerva. This is yet another Bernini sculpture (although carried out by
his pupil Ercoli Ferrata in 1617). The obelisk is the shortest of the 11 Egyptian obelisks in Rome, dates to 589-570
B.C., and was brought to Rome by Diocletian for placement at the nearby Temple of Isis.
According to Wikipedia, the inspiration for the Obelisk came from Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. Quoting Wikipedia:
"The novel's main character meets an elephant made of stone carrying an obelisk, and the accompanying woodcut illustration in the book is quite similar to Bernini's design for the base for the obelisk. The curious placement of the obelisk through
the body of the elephant is identical." I read in one of the Rome books that the original design did not have the elephant
wearing the large supporting cloth but one of the priests said the statue would be unstable without it and demanded that it
was added. That right dude, I'm sure you know more about statues than Bernini <sigh>.
Behind the elephant is the Basilica di Santa Maria sopra Minerva. It is the only Gothic church in Rome. The
interior hosts many major artworks including Michelangelo's Christ the Redeemer statue, (not shown and was blurry in both
pictures we took), the body of St. Catherine of Siena (where the 2 individuals are standing in the picture), plus the bodies
of popes Paul IV, Leo X, Clement VII, and the painter Fra Angelico.
St Catherine's tomb. She is the saint that Cathy was named after by her mom.
Leaving Santa Maria sopra Minerva, we passed by the Trevi Fountain on the way to catching the hotel shuttle. We
stopped and tossed in some coins to insure a return to Rome. Cathy snapped this one of Mike and you can actually see
the coin in the air behind him.
Cathy in front of the Fontana del Tritone. This is yet another Bernini masterpiece and was created by him as a
tribute to Pope Urban VIII. The fountain was made in 1642-43 out of Travertine. A large muscular Triton (minor
Greco-Roman sea god) sits on a shell supported by 4 dolphins. He holds a conch shell to his mouth and a jet of water
spurts from the shell (supposedly dramatically higher in previous times). In the dophins tails you can see the
papal tiara with crossed keys (emblem of the Vatican City state) and also the Barberini Bees.
By the time we returned to Piazza Barberini we had missed the hotel shuttle. So we walked a few blocks up Via Veneto
and had an early dinner at the (where else) Hard Rock Rome. So we continue our photo streak of "Noveans at the
Hard Rock Cafe".
On the 5th day, we visited the Colosseum (Flavian Ampitheatre). This was the Roman site that Cathy wanted to visit
the most. It is very impressive, even 2/3 fallen down, in its old age.
Sorry dude, the thumb has spoken.
The Arch of Constantine from the upper deck of the Forum. Constantine built the arch to memorialize his victory
in 312. The reason it looks strange (or things are out of proportion) is because he just stole marbles from other items
and placed them onto the arch. As we all know, plaigerizing is a lot faster than doing stuff from scratch.
Once we had finished at the Colosseum and the Arch, we headed up Via Sacra to the Roman Forum.
Mike in front of the Basilico of Maxentius and Constantine. All that is left is the northern aisle of the basilica.
The central arches have all come down along with the other side. Construction was begun in 308 by Maxentius and finished
by Constantine in 312 (after he had defeated Maxentius to become emperor). At the time it was built, it was the largest
structure (go figure!). As you can see, it is so large that it lets Mike appreciate how Cathy feels in buildings with
10 foot ceilings. The apse contained a colossal statue of Constantine--remants of which are found in the Capitoline
Museum including the head (no word if it was a new head or re-carving of Maxentius' head) and giant hand.
A sweeping overview of the forum. On the left is the remaining columns of the Temple of Saturn. It dates
back to 500 BC. In the center you can see the Column of Phocas in front of the Arch of Septimius Severus. The
Column was the last so-called addition to the Roman Forum; dedicated (or shall we say re-dedicated) in 608 AD in
honor of the Byzantine Emporer Phocas. The Arch was dedicated in 203 AD to celebrate the military victories of Septimius
Severus over the Parthians in 195 and 203. His victories led to 2 decades of relative peace for the Romans. On
the right is the Curia Julia or the Senate house. Both the Arch and Curia are in excellent condition because their structures
were later used as churches (or parts of churches).
After this we headed up the stairs to the entrance to Palatine Hill. Up to this point Rick Steves had done us right.
He'd told us about the Sistine Chapel to St. Peter's shortcut. His tip on the Roma Pass to gain entry to the Colosseum
(and bypass lines) saved us a bunch of time. But his description of Palatine was substandard (as was much of the Palatine
area in our opinion).
Heading up the stairs to Palatine Hill, we did get this nice picture of the Colosseum and the Arch of Titus.
Here is the view of the Circus Maximus from Palatine Hill. Palatine Hill had all the rich folks' homes (it was
the 90210 of Rome) so the emporers could overlook the Circus Maximus from his house. The Hill also contains the Flavian
Palace (such that it remains) and, allegedly although becoming more proven, the Lupercal cave.
Leaving the Palatine Hill area, we jumped on the subway and continued away from the city center. One of the guys
Mike works with, Greg, had given us a tip to visit the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls and we wanted to take him up
on that tip.
Here is part of the interior of the church. Each of the popes has his portrait in a frieze above the columns
Here is the apse mosaic. It shows Jesus flanked by the apostles Luke, Paul, Peter, and Andrew. It is suggested
that Paul (pointing somewhat downwards) is pointing towards his tomb in the church.
Unfortunately most of the exterior of the Basilica was being redone. So we didn't get any great pictures of the
outside. We left St Paul's and headed back to the subway station. After for a stop for some pizza, we headed back
on the train to the Termini station. Here is one of the awesome train cars on the B line.
Back in the city, we followed Rick Steves advice and visited the National Museum of Rome (Palazzo Masimo alle Terme).
Honestly, we didn't see what the big deal was here. Rick had it as one of his top attractions in Rome but it was really
just a bunch of sculptures, frescoes, and mosaics. Nothing terrible but we'd already seen so many marbles at the Vatican
Museum and other sites and this museum didn't really have anything new. Plenty of emporers busts, a copy of the discus
thrower, and the Borghese Hermaphroditus (also found in the Louvre and Borghese Gallery). If you're crazy about marbles
then maybe its great. We found it just to be good.
One cool item was this interior of a bath house room. The mosaic was made out of painted shells.
Pretty cool.
Sunday dawned with heavy rains. After trying to wait out the rain, we finally left our hotel around 11:30 and headed
into the city. We arrived just in time to visit the Cappuchin crypt beneat the church of Santa Maria della Conceizione
dei Cappuccini. The crypt has the bones of 4000 monks arranged into various pieces of art. Unfortunately, photos
are not allowed. Leaving the crypt we decided to have a wet walking tour of Rome. We headed to Via Quattro Novembre.
Guess who was born on that date? It is also significant because the Battle of Vittorio Veneto (24 Oct - 4 Nov 1918)
marked the closure of the Italian front in World War I. The Italian victory also marked the end of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire and effectively ended World War I; the collapse of the southern front meant Germany would be fighting on another front,
the country went into revolution in early November, and they (Germany) signed an armistace a week later on
November 11... (true history geeks will note that the actual Treaty of Versailles was not signed until June 1919).
Cruising further down the street, we ended up at the Monument of Victor Emmanuel II. This monument honor's
VE who was the first king of a unified Italy. Its built on the ground backing up to the Forum on Capitoline Hill and
has gotten some bad publicity for many things. First, it is on ground which is probably archaelogically rich.
Second, it is really white and sticks out among the surrounding brown buildings. Third, it is big, like too much so.
It has nicknames of the "wedding cake" and the "typewriter". In spite of all that, Mike liked it. Hey its
Rome where everything is built huge (remember that gigantic statue of Constantine) so in a thousand years, people will be
loving this too.
Plus the Monument was one of the few other things easy to spot from the hotel room and once you knew where it was and
St Peters was, you could try to spot the other buildings on the skyline.
Actually looking at the monument, VE is the guy in the equestrian statue. The goddess Victoria (Roman goddess of
Victory) is riding the quadrigas. If the Monument looks familiar and you don't know why (never been here), maybe
you saw it get destroyed by lightning in the movie The Core.
You could see the Colosseum and Trajan's Forum from the top of the Monument. You could also see the domes of many
churches in Rome. The picture above shows Trajan's Column in front of a church dome. The Column was innaugurated
in 113 AD. It commemorates Trajan's victories in the Dacian Wars (101-102 and 105-106). It is 98 feet in height
and the winding frieze is 625 feet. The statue of St. Peter at the top was added much later by Pope Sixtus V.
To the right of the column is Trajan's Market which is the only other part of Trajan's Forum to survive intact.
Leaving the Monument of Victor Emmanuel II, we headed back towards a bunch of churches by the Pantheon. Another
good thing about Rome is the fountain water makes for free drinks. Mmmm, fountain water.
We walked to (and past) Gesu which is the first Jesuit church. Unfortunately it was closed in the early afternoon
so we continued on to the Pantheon. We wanted to make sure to visit Raphael's Tomb (and get good pictures... sheesh
we'd only been there 2 other times). Since it was the 12 day of Christmas (epiphany), the wise men were added to the
nativity. This is the nativity scene from the Pantheon. Also note how the Christmas star is a shooting star.
It was like that in almost every church that we visited. Some nativity scenes even had it moving accross the night sky.
Cruising onwards we swung by Giolitti for some world-famous gelato. Mike went with chocolate (death by chocolate
as a piece of cone went down the wrong pipe) and Cathy got raspberry and citrus (or something crazy like that).
Yummy!
Further wandering the streets of Rome we came accross the Fiat Panda Van. Panda Van!!! It even has some
caging in the back-- presumably to keep the panda from eating the driver or passenger.
Next stop was the Church of San Luigi dei Francisi. We checked out the beautiful church, highlighted by 3
Caravaggio paintings, and then headed back towards our shuttle stop. The shuttle wasn't scheduled to arrive so we headed
over to the Spanish Steps. If you watch the travel channel, you know the nicest McDonald's in the world is over by the
Spanish Steps. We visited it to use the restroom. No we didn't eat there; you don't go to Rome and visit and McD.
We got our picture taken on the Spanish Steps by a nice family from New York now in Russia. Unfortuanely the
embassy is under renovation and there wasn't the wide assortment of azaleas like you see in some pictures.
Cathy got her picture taken in front of the Keats-Shelley house and we continued toward Piazza del Popolo.
In the center of Piazza del Popolo (Piazza of the people) is a large obelisk, the Egyptian obelisk of Rameses II.
It was brought to Rome in 10 BC by order of Augustus and stands 24 m high. But surrounding the obelisk is the Fontana
dell'Obelisco. And this fountain consists of 4 mini fountains made up of lions on step plinths. And you can't
have a lion fountain without Mike climbing on it.
The piazza also features the "twin churches" of Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria in Montesanto. They are
almost duplicates but the street widths are different so one is slightly narrower than the other. We also visited Santa
Maria del Popolo (more Caravaggios, great dome, and as-read-about in Angels and Demons) before calling it a night
and concluding our sightseeing in Rome.
Heading back to London, we didn't do much on the travel day. But that night we had tickets to see Sir Ian McKellan
in the title role of King Lear. This is the same RSC production that was playing at UCLA (and scalped tickets were going
for $1000+). We "only" paid $100/seat for ours so it was cheaper to fly to London and see the show than it would have
been to buy tickets off of ebay for the UCLA show.
Back in London, we headed out to get our pictures taken TOGETHER at Big Ben. Then we headed over to Kensington
Palace (no pictures allowed inside). Here is Cathy outside the Palace with the statue of William of Orange.
Leaving Kensington Palace, it was time to get some real London food. We headed back to Covent Garden and went to
a top rated pub there. But the chalkboard menu out front lacked fish and chips and that is what Mike was craving.
So we pulled out the guidebook that Kim got us and it recommended The Rock & Sole Plaice. So we went there instead.
Two trips to London and we still haven't eaten in a pub. We got smoked out in 2006. Now there is a smoking ban
but we still missed out. The third time will be the charm!
And the guidebook was spot-on. The cod plate at this place was outstanding. I'd highly recommend a visit.
With full bellies of fish, we headed west and visited the Sir John Soane's Museum. It was an interesting house
full mostly of books and marbles plus the sarcophagus of Seti I. After he bought the sarcophagus, he threw a 3-day party
to celebrate it. Cool guy and cool house.
Then we finished up our sighseeing with a trip to the London Transport Museum. The museum was pretty interesting
and it had some cool posters. This one refers to people sleeping in the tubes during WWII to avoid the German bombers.
"Be a Man" and leave the space to women and children. Ha ha.
"I got held back in the fourth grade myself. Twice. Look at me, man: now I drive the school bus!"
The museum had some interactive places for playing around (presumably by children). Here's Mike
complaining about the guy double parking in front of him. Just like in LA, laying on the horn and gesturing wildly with
your other arm seems to help clear the traffic jams.
On our final night, we went to see Avenue Q. It was another great show. It started hilariously and then tailed
off after the intermission when they had to weave in the plot and take-away message. All three shows we saw were excellent
and we had great seats.
We flew back home on Jan 9. :(
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