All for a coin

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Alex is an avid Euro coin collector (especially in light of their possible demise, "Just think how much they will be worth!") and he was excited about going to a new country and collecting a Vatican City Euro coin with his friend here.

This is what we saw when we entered this new country. And, at the end of this post, you can watch the clip and hear what it sounded like on this beautiful Sunday morning (having technical difficulties at the moment, though. I'll try to upload again later). Mass was at its high point, with the choir singing. We could see the Pope giving the Eucharist here on the big screen. I had read earlier in the week that he had been in Germany, so I thought this was broadcast from somewhere else.

After much discussion about how one might conquer the Vatican and why it is historically important in the first place, we set about getting inside the Church. How I managed to visit the Vatican and not take a photo of the actual facade is beyond me. But, I've got the view from the top steps in front of the facade for you here.

The music, the history, the architecture, the marble, the art, the enormity. I know it is a trite statement, but the Vatican is breathtaking. And, maybe this statue even seems cliche, but it still is one of the most beautiful pieces of sculpture I've ever seen.

Perhaps not appreciated as much as I had hoped by the younger set. Someday they will understand. In the meantime, there were other symbols to look for. Why bother with this one of the most famous ones?! And, so...how many pigeons, I mean doves, can you find? How many keys, Papal hats, crosses, etc...?

A rare woman in the Vatican: The controversial Queen Christina of Sweden.

So, here is the thing. I thought the Pope was on vacation. I thought the ease of our entry was due to his absence. Dear guests and readers, after some research, I have to tell you that I was wrong. The Pope was giving the service today and he's right up there. One of the small dots above Alex's head. Oh! So that is why we were blocked off and not allowed any further.

We had other things to look at though. Here is St. Jerome. I'm enjoying spotting him around Italy now. As I got closer, I remarked, "Wow! This is a mosaic!"

Alex and his friend replied, "Yeah, we knew that. Look at the feet." Ok...

On our way out we watched the guards smile when they saw children. In Italy, that is the secret.

Then, of course, we turned our attention to pigeons...

We found a good spot for our picnic, but not the best spot for jumping on a bus (just yet, we did that perfectly later!). So, initially, we ended up walking for a while from the Vatican, across the Tiber, into Rome.

This turned out to have been a blessing. It was fun to stand outside Castel Sant Angelo and watch the street actors.
We walked, hopped a bus, and then stumbled around the Piazza Venezia trying to decide what to do. This became fairly obvious to us all when Alex yelled, "Look, there is Marcus Aurelius!" We followed him up the Capitoline Hill and looked at a few famous replicas.

And, with all of the obvious killing discussions that were taking place such as "this martyr got crucified here and this one there," it made perfect sense when Eleni said, "Look, it's a crucified bug!"
We couldn't have planned a better day. Gorgeous weather. Postcard perfect forums.

There was a market going on so we had one of the busiest streets, Via del Fori Imperiali, open just for pedestrians. Here we are heading towards the Colosseum.

Grilled corn for all!

Standing just next to the grand finale of the Colosseum. This is one of my favorite photos of the day.

We were in Rome for eight hours. Add the two hours to and from and you have a pretty long day. A great one though, and thankfully, riot free. Six days later our same route was full of protesters.

And, did we get the Vatican City coin? Yes, we have a 50 cent Euro now. Phew!

If you have seen one, you have not seen them all

Friday, October 7, 2011

Cerveteri. In its time, this was the great Etruscan city, Kysry. Today, the main attraction for us was one of its many necropoles, Banditaccia. Alex has one of his best buddies visiting and our idea was that this would be similar to our adventures in other Etruscan tombs and cities of the dead. We were very wrong. It's hard to top Tarquinia, but Cerveteri did it.

First we visited the museum. Neil's school was visiting as well, so we were along for the bus ride and the archeology and art history lessons, too. Our kids listened carefully to the information and even completed the field guides!

During the lunch time down time, I found pigeons to watch with Eleni while

Alex and his buddy walked around and around this Renaissance fountain and discussed various methods of taking over the town.

I'm not sure what they agreed upon at last. But, here is the town for you. How would you attack this structure? Where? How many people would you have in your army?

We walked almost a mile from the city to the necropolis. The Etruscans buried their dead in cities of their own and Cerveteri truly exemplifies that. There are streets and piazzas for the 7th -6th century dead here. There are thousands of tombs here and many haven't even been excavated yet. Here was the entrance to the site.

As I walked under the Umbrella Pines, I took this photo of what I saw on my left.

There are many different periods of tomb building. One of the most famous in Cerveteri is its most unique: The Tomb of the Reliefs.

My favorite part was the red pillows they provided, as well. There is even a cat and mouse continually playing their parts out for eternity.

And, here I am. You can see that this was similar to Tarquinia. Glass separating us from the actual place. However, I was very wrong to think the rest would be similar.

You can go into any tomb you want as long as you aren't afraid of spiders and snakes. I tried venturing into a few of these, but without a flashlight, a few brushes with spider webs and images of slimy beings on me, I didn't make it very far.

The marked tombs are a bit easier. Lights are provided for you to find your way and they are clean so you don't have to fear things jumping out at you.

Tufo! Now I can see it's everywhere!

Eleni, Alex and his friend were helpful actors in Neil's students' history film projects. I think Alex and his buddy were grave robbers in this scene.

Most tombs are empty of art now, but some of the best and most famous examples of Etruscan art were found at this necropolis.

Three hours of exploring, climbing, walking, and gelato-ing it later and she is still smiling!*

Creating a replica of a tomb. Several teenagers helped out with this soon after I took this photo.

A lion guarding the Tomb of the Reliefs.

And, there you go. Neil and I definitely felt as though this was one of our best visits, but that could have been more about how happy the kids were in their friendships; Alex had his buddy and Eleni had around twenty teenagers at her beck and call.

* Eleni's group of five students won the short film contest. I'm sure it was due to her superb acting skills...

Bridging the cultures

Sunday, October 2, 2011

We had a lovely afternoon meal with a family from Viterbo today. After lunch, we walked in the woods and then, around 6 PM, we drove over this bridge to the town of Blera with them.

Blera is a replacement name. It's original name was Bieda, but that means beetroot so it was recently changed. I don't know much regarding the politics of that decision, but this what I was told. While Blera has an Etruscan cliff necropolis that is actually part of the current day road, an ancient Etruscan bridge and Roman bridge (which you can see in the photo below), it was not an altogether outstanding town for me. Am I getting Etruscan and Roman history fatigue? Or...

Am I sick of bridges? I think I got stuck on the fact that there were no females to be seen. Seriously. We saw every age group of males: there was a cafe with around twenty men of the older set sitting about, a cafe with around twenty of the middle set males sitting about, and there were even groups of gangly teenage boys walking around or driving in their wide boy cars. But I only saw two females. One women was minding the bar we went into for ice cream and the other one was putting laundry out to dry on her balcony.

I could go further with that point, but that would involve discussing a certain Prime Minister or a certain American college student who recently made headlines because of accusations made four years ago, or even the.... But, I'm trying not to make judgements about my host country here. It's the Italian culture, after all.

However, there are moments when bridge building is challenging. At a recent birthday party we went to, Eleni was actually screamed at and kicked off the pick up soccer game field. She was told, "girls don't play soccer!" Eleni promptly erupted into tears.

What would you do?

Think about it while I share a photograph of a fig tree in Blera. Like the soccer field incident, I was actually far from the three bridges of Blera when I took this.

I wish I could capture the smell of this fig tree for you, but this will have to do.

Ok, intermission over.

I know it's not a culturally sensitive When in Rome moment, but I went ahead and stomped onto the field and took the soccer ball away from the boy who had it and made it clear that if she did not play, no one was playing. The game began again. Eleni played.

But, no one is at fault here, right? There are no soccer teams for girls in Italy and that is just the way it is. And, I guess my presence as a female walking around in Blera at 6PM was an anomaly and that is just the way it is.

Of course, these are only examples of what we see.

Rather, what we don't see.