Let's go to the Vatican Museums!

It's cold in the States and the sun seems to only be up for a few hours of the day.  Let's cheer up and go way back to September in Rome.  Ahh yes, those glorious days of sunlight and pizza.  Hey, how about we start at the Vatican Museums?

First off, here's the front door.  I call this one "Why To Buy Your Tickets Early".  The line stretched at least 200 yards (and probably much longer)

Then I decided to take the stairs up instead of the escalator.  It was a huge mistake, but I did get to channel Andy for about 15 seconds...

We finally made it through all of the lines and were able to enter the museums (which, by the way, is really just one enormous museum).  The first room we entered was floor-to-ceiling full of sculpture, although none had the explanations of what each item was or where/when it was from.  It was kind of awe inspiring, regardless.

Pretty much all statues had leaves over their naughty bits. 

Reminds me of this.

We spent at least 45 minutes in this hall alone and soon realized that we better hurry or we weren't going to make it through to the end.

We skipped over a lot of rooms that I could have spent hours in, but we were able to take our time in a few places and get these awesome photographs.

Nice ceiling, no?

Another nice ceiling, right?  This picture is 200% better than the one above because Cara shot this.

There were some interesting points on several of the works.  The photo below is of the ceiling, and the main image is supposed to represent Christianity's victory over the pagan gods of the Roman Empire (and possible the Empire itself)

This is a close up of a much larger painting on one of the walls (in the Raphael rooms?) where Cara noticed everyone's favorite Florentine, Dante.

This is the larger picture.

In this room, we saw what appears to be Mary standing over something that looks like a sarcophagus... 

With this on the side.  I couldn't help but wonder what the significance of the child is.

Is that man teaching Science?!?!

Random art on the walls in all rooms in every direction.

Honestly though, I wasn't expecting so many pictures of violence.  I guess it wasn't all fun and games back in the day.

One of the rooms that I least expected was a "map" room (really several rooms) with items you wouldn't normally associate with the Catholic Church.

This is where our tower in Umbria was!

At this point, we left the Vatican Museums and headed over to St. Peter's, but not before using these completely awesome stairs:

Looking down.

Looking up.

Arriving in Rome in the Afternoon

After leaving our tower in Umbria, we returned our car in a nearby town and took the local train back into Rome.  Don't drive in, or near, Rome.  Trust me.

We arrived in the afternoon and found our way to the AirBNB apartment that Cara reserved.  We could not ask for a better located spot, and the owner even supplied us with a bottle of Champagne to celebrate our wedding anniversary.  Pure class.

The View.

After a quick bite and some time to rest, we headed out and discovered that the Imperial Forum(s) were literally at the end of the street.  Although not what most people consider *the* forum (more later), they were built between 50 BC and 115 AD in an attempt by leaders of various times to show a continuation of the power held at the ancient forum.

Trajan's Forum (wiki page here). 

Trajan's Column celebrating the Dacian War victories (on the right) and Basilica Ulpia (center).  

Trajan's Column (see wiki here).

Looking from the "new" forum to the Piazza Venezia and Altare della Patria.

Quadriga on one side of the Piazza Venezia.

Vatican Museums up next time.

- B

Cortona

The owner of our apartment stopped by to welcome us and see how we were doing earlier in our trip.  We got to speaking about the countryside and the things he liked about the region.  He mentioned a nice little town about 20 mins away called Cortona that was beautiful and well preserved.  He also said Americans loved it because a movie called "Under the Tuscan Sun" was filmed there.

We had a few hours after our trip to Assisi, so we decided to swing by.  Here's what we found.

Not Shown: The Outdoor Escalators we used to get up the hill.  La Dolce Vita!

Original city walls.

Parking: Even harder than NYC.

One of the many squares in Cortona.

Storm approaching the Church of Santa Maria Nuova outside the city walls. 

Afterwards, we headed back to our tower in the olive orchard for a little R&R:

Life is hard.

- B

Road Trip to Assisi

One of our "must" visit places during our trip to Italy was Assisi.  It was the birthplace of St. Francis and St. Clare who found the Franciscan Order and the Poor Sisters (later: Poor Clares) respectively.  The town itself sits high upon a hill with a commanding view of the valley below.

We left our tower in the olive orchard early that morning.  Do you have any idea how difficult it is to say goodbye to this??

The drive was quick and we were soon greeted by views of the city, which was much larger than I had envisioned. That's the Basilica di San Francesco all the way on the left.

Once we parked and entered the city walls, we found an ancient city dominated by churches and beautiful views.

Our first real stop was the Basilica of San Francesco, but we were unable to take photographs of the inside. We did, however, go a little crazy with the photos of the exterior of the upper church.  Here are a few:

Sculpture in the large grassy area immediately in front of the Basilica.

Afterwards, we headed across the town the Basilica di Santa Chiara (St. Clare).  She founded the Poor Clares, an organization very similar to the Franciscan monks (but for ladies, of course).  Her Basilica was much simpler than St. Francis's, but equally impressive on the inside.  Unfortunately, we were again unable to take photographs of the inside.

And finally, we headed back home (but not before taking a few more photos):

- B