Some random photos I forgot to upload

There are so many great photos that I couldn't fit into the themes of other posts.  Here are just a few:

Roman breakfast :D

Lake Trasimeno in Umbria.  See how awesome this photo is?  See how it could hang at a museum?  Of course Cara shot it - with a camera-phone no less!!

Cara on the lake .

The olive trees right outside our front door in Umbria.

Ancient Fiat at car show in Rome.

A 2CV outside of France!

Citroen!

Waiting to get into St. Peter's.  I think those are all Saints.

Inside the Vatican Museums.

From the steps of St. Peter's

Inside St. Peter's

This place saved my life.  Liver wasn't so lucky.

Trastavere neighborhood at night.

Outside of Trevi Fountain (of "Three Coins in a Fountain" fame)

The Forum

The Forum is a long, rectangular plaza filled with the ruins of great buildings from Rome's past.  It is the forum/plaza from which all others are modeled, and grew slowly over time.  In fact, excavations have revealed more and more detail the deeper they dig.

There's much too much history for me to understand / explain, so please check out the wiki page here.

Entering the Forum from Palatine Hill through the Arch of  Titus.

The columns in the foreground are the remains of the Temple of Castor and Pollux.

Detail of the columns and arch.

The columns on the right are the remains of the Temple of Saturn.

Arch of Septimus Severus on the north end of the forum.

The arch from farther away (and uphill).

Keyhole in the arch.

 What's that?  You wanted a movie?  Ok, sure ...

The Colosseum

On our last full day in Rome, we decided to hit the popular touristy spots.  First up, the Colosseum.  I don't know if this needs any introduction, but if so, here's the wiki.

The view from our front door.  Seriously.

Approaching from the street.

From underneath the outer walls, waiting in line.

From one of the lower decks, looking up at the nosebleeds. 

Translation: Hot Dogs: 30 gold pieces, Beer: 70 gold pieces ...

Middle decks looking down.  Note that the original "floor" was made of wood and has been destroyed over time.  Those are the chambers under the floor, and those folks are standing at would be ground level.

This is seriously the sign to the men's room.  Even the Italian bathroom signs have well dressed people.

Inside looking out to Palatine Hill (I think).

More looking out from the upper floors.

At this point, we left the Colosseum and passed under an arch on the way to Palatine Hill.

Arch detail.  Not bad, eh?

One final view from the hill.

Walk to the Spanish Steps

After leaving the greater Pantheon area, we decided to head to the Spanish Steps (the long way).  Here's what we saw along the way.

Loneliest. Parishioner. Ever.

The Tiber River

Fontana del Nettuno (or Fountain of Neptune) at the North end of Piazza Navona.

Fountain of the Four Rivers, also in Piazzo Navona.

Detail from the Fountain of Four Rivers. 

Obelisk above fountain.

Why yes, I will live here.

We eventually found are way to the Spanish Steps, and apparently we weren't alone.  Keep in mind this is the "off" season.

The top!

View from the top.

Santa Maria sopra Minerva

Literally around the corner from the Pantheon is one of the major Dominican churches in all of Rome; Santa Maria sopra Minerva.  The church is named such because it was built on top of a  building dedicated to the Egyptian god Isis, but incorrectly attributed to Minerva.  I guess Isis messes up the "a" at the end of each word anyway.

This was taken from the front of the church.  That's the Pantheon in center.

Despite the rich history of the church, and the fact that there's a Michelangelo statue inside, and the Pantheon literally across the street, there were very few tourists in the building or on the grounds.

The structure seen today was built in 1288, but the grounds themselves contained Roman artifacts dating back to B.C. times.  Apparently, some can still be found in the church's Crypt.

One of the most interesting details of this site is the obelisk out front being supported by an elephant.  I'm having a hard time simplifying the history, so here's what the Wikipedia page says:

In front of the church there is one of the most curious monuments of Rome, the so-called Pulcino della Minerva. It is a statue designed by the Baroque era sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini (and carried out by his pupil Ercole Ferrata in 1667) of an elephant as the supporting base for the Egyptian obelisk found in the Dominicans' garden. It is the shortest of the eleven Egyptian obelisks in Rome and is said to have been one of two obelisks moved from Sais, where they were built during the 589 BC-570 BC reign of the pharaoh Apries, from the Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt. The two obelisks were brought to Rome by Diocletian, during his reign as emperor from 284 to 305, for placement at the Temple of Isis which stood nearby. 

The Latin inscription on the base, chosen by the pope who commissioned the sculpture to support the obelisk found on the site, Alexander VII, is said to represent that "...a strong mind is needed to support a solid knowledge".
The inspiration for the unusual composition came from Hypnerotomachia Poliphili ("Poliphilo's Dream of the Strife of Love"), an unusual 15th century novel probably by Francesco Colonna. 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.

Close up, showing obvious age difference between obelisk and base.

Stepping into the church is like stepping into some kind of mostly tourist-free museum.

Lookin from the entrance doors directly on to the main chapel.

From the right side of the chapel back toward the front doors.

The church is laid out similarly to those in Florence with the "main" chapel in the middle and several mini-chapels decorated and kept-up by wealthy families of the times located on each side of the building.

From the oldest mini-chapel.  I think this gentleman passed away in the 1400s iirc.

Most visitors, however, entered for the statue of Christ the Redeemer by Michaelangelo (although it has many other names).  See this page for more information.

Christ the Redeemer, on our left.

Finally, upon exiting the building, I noticed that markers had been placed where the Tiber had flooded over the years.  It often flooded where I grew up, but all we ever did was paint markers on retaining walls.

Upon leaving, the light was beautiful on a building across the street.  Here's my final photo for this post.