Author: davifam

After our visits to the Coliseum and the Forum our afternoon plan was to go to the Vatican Museum, see the Sistine Chapel and St Peters Basilica, well 2 out of 3 ain’t bad! More on that later, see this map attached below. You would think that with your audio guide these would be just specific locations, where you dial in the guide and listen in but that is not the case, each of those numbers represents a museum!. The Vatican Museum is huge and unless you plan on being here for weeks there is no way you can give it justice. Evidently, each Pope was a museum curator as well as leading the church.

We did our best with a relatively short around of time but nevertheless, we only caught a few of the museums in a relative quick survey. Some of the highlights below include three masterpieces by Raffaello, and unfinished portrait of St. Jerome by Leonardo De Vinci. The Museum is, of course, filled with religiously significant works. The three masterpieces by Raffaello depict the transfiguration of Christ, The Virgin Mary and the third, I forgot sorry sensory overload! The picture by Leonardo is an unfinished work, which shows some of his technique as he develops the piece. Also below some shots of the museum itself, including the huge corridors, which contain just some of the museums objects.

 

You are not allowed to take any pictures inside the Sistine Chapel, which is where Michelangelo painted his glorious frescoes depicting the creation, the original sin and redemption through Christ’s sacrifice. You stand in the center of the chapel and look up at the magnificent works elbow to elbow shoulder to shoulder with your fellow pilgrims. It’s hard not to exclaim out to your neighbor and companions about the beauty of the paintings but there are plenty of museum guards to remind the rapt audience that there is no talking. You can imagine how successful they are at suppressing the hoards. After our visit to the chapel and the museum we intended to go over to see St. Peter’s Basilica but the Pope had other plans for us. We have be seeing huge groups of youth, all representing their various countries with very distinctive hats and shirt. They are a massive moving body at every place we have been. We just thought well its summer and this is how it is but not to be the case. They are here to pursue peace in the world, a noble goal and they are all alter boys and girls. There are more than a billion Catholics and their numbers do not seem to be declining with this youth movement. So we got caught in this incredible mass of humanity and literally had to push our way out of St. Peters Square and into the freedom of the streets. It was scary what could of happened if some how a stampede got started people would of been seriously hurt. But all went well and, ironically, we got to see it on TV as the Pope made his appearance in this special event.

At night we went over to where the 4 rivers fountain is, which represented the 4 know major rivers at that time of its erection, the Tiber was obviously one of the represented.

Good night from St. Peters Basilica:)

 

We had the best intentions of taking the bus from our apartment but the bus never came so we took a cab instead, which is not really that expensive and the buses are crammed with tourists and pickpockets, so we thought better to give EUROS to the cabbie rather than  a scoundrel. The visit was very much worth it. The morning light highlighted the stone work of the arena and the crowds were manageable, which as the day lingers on the masses will arrive. After the visit to the Coliseum, we went from there to the forum, Capitol Hill and Palatine Hill, which were the great gathering places for business and politicians. The scale of the structures is quite impressive as only a few vestiges remain to remind one of the scale of Rome and their innovative building skills, mostly rendered by slave labor from conquered territories.

In the forum were many temples for the various deities worshiped and the home of the Vestal Virgins, who kept the flame alive in the temple.  Some of the Vestal Virgins were immortalized in the form of marble statues. Also in the forum is a pit where Julius Caesar’s body was cremated. People still leave coins and flowers in the pit.

 

The Forum tour pictured here what was the majesty of Rome now a skeleton of itself for tourists to pick through the bones

 

We caught the train from Venice to Rome today.

We have a very nice accommodation right by the Vatican, I may convert if the Pope can make the crowds disappear. Rome built a fortified wall around the city, to keep the barbarian hordes at bay, unless needed for attending to the nobles. Well the walls have been scaled and the hordes have overrun the city including us. See below for just a sample of the madness at the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain, which is where Fellini filmed the famous scene from The Dolce Vita, with Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg.Tevi Fountain La Dolce Vita. That was then this is now

Still a fantastic site as evidenced below

The Spanish Steps were somewhat apparent if you could discern marble from the multitude of feet treading the steps, which we dutifully did. Later, as we came back, through the square, the crowd was enormous with various groups singing their country’s song or perhaps some soccer team ditty, in either case, it was a bit out of touch with where they were, very nationalistic.

 

After ascending the steps Nick and Margeaux were nearly swallowed up by an enormous door but got away just in time before it opened up.

There we are along the Tiber river heading to the Steps.

On our way back to the apartment, we by way of St. Peters Square very quiet refuge after the hectic scenes in town. Police presence is no joke they are armed to the teeth.

He did not like having his picture taken but fortunately did not shoot!

This picture represents and successful battle repelling European invaders from Venice. The Lion Representing St. Mark has rebuffed the Horned Bull Representing the defeating European invaders of Venice.

This picture depicts the final judgement and what is in store for the wicked and misbehaved certainly at the time a very powerful dissuading graphical representation that people took to heart or had fun anyway.

The final picture represents the benevolent blessing from on high of the virginal Venice, as a God ordained heaven on earth, if you were on the right side of the Doge that is

 

 

Venetian intrigue, politics and aristocratic rule married to artisan elegance and a wealthy merchant class, made Venice the jewel of Renaissance culture. See some pictures of the ostentatious of the Doge Palace.

Now see how those who lost favor with the regime lived in the Doge Palace.

Can you spot the inspiration for the cartoon characters Beavis and Butthead?

Here is a taste of the busy water traffic and the crowded water buses we are crammed into.

 

After a early morning departure from Amsterdam, and a short flight on KLM, we motored in on a water taxi from the airport to the visually stunning city on the canals. Just entering the city on the Grand Canal is a captivating visual experience, and as you will hear from your blogger in video below, rendering one speechless, well not really! Also check out the video on the San Marco square, where people gather to enjoy a refreshing, and Euro draining beverage, and festive musicians.

Since this seems to be a uniquely beautiful city, I think most of the world’s traveling population is here. There are not really streets but tiny passageways that remind one that in this city heyday and a major center of commerce, you better have your bodyguards, or be well armed. Today you merely have to watch out for pick pockets.

You stream like migrating salmon to your desired destination, through the maze. Nevertheless water taxi’s or water buses are really the only way to get around and then look for the cheese in the maze. We did a tour of St. Mark the apostles church also in San Marco Square. Right next door is the Doge’s palace, which we see tomorrow. The large cruise liner in the picture was one of two, where streams of people were massing in the square to return to the ship, which adds to the sense of chaos of aimlessly wandering, picture snapping hoards, invading Venice like no  army in the Doge’s day could ever hope to emulate.

Our very efficient guide pictured here took a page from her mentor Rick Steves to find us a very fine restaurant, in a little out of the way charming restaurant that only has maybe 20 seats. We dined late, very typical for us, and truly enjoyed the meal. The name escapes your ever faithful, if sleepless narrator but the bill will remind me it was good and expansive!

Dear followers there may be some duplicate pictures in this post but when you are photographing the beautiful people, repetition is allowed, ala Dolce Vita. Va bene and chao.

 

Today we sent our teams out to scout for the best Amsterdam experiences, and then reconvened to share the discoveries over a 4 star dinner at a Margeaux find. Nick and Margeaux now are also authorized to update blog so I will let them provide their reports. Amy and I decided to bike over to the Het Schip Museum housed in one of the original housing complexes that were built for working families, who moved from the country to be employed in the rapidly developing industrialization, happening in Amsterdam. Amsterdam school of architecture. The government made loans at a low interest rate to collectives that banded together to build these housing units. The pictures below are of a building that houses the museum, as well as residents to this day.

To instill pride in the workman ,to save their money, and not engage in dissolute behavior with their hard earned wages, the collective with the architects designed a postal office on the premise that also acted as a savings bank and a communication hub for the residents. Check out the phone system, most likely and early model of phone system form the German conglomerate, Siemens AG.

The architects had a bit of whimsy in their designs. Look closely at the stain glass in the postal office that was decorating the out side of the phone booth, where the residents could go to make calls, as the attendant set the call up in one of the booths and listened in to make sure the connection went through, but did they really hang up or listen in? Thus the birdy on the wire get the scoop on the goings on among the residents. No FISA warrant required!

 

Oh and yes we finally found a windmill not a modern one but the real deal.

Later we met up with Margeaux and Nick to climb The Westerkerk Church tower, which has excellent views of Amsterdam. The huge Bells and the Carillon are pictured here as well as shots above of Amsterdam.

As addendum to the day, see the pictures from The Het Schip Museum of artistic creations inspired by the Amsterdam School architecture movement.

Oh one more picture that sort sets the stage for why in the early part of the 20th century the Dutch needed to help improve the living conditions of the working class in the country. The whole family lived ate and crapped in the same place no privacy at all but better than a tent but then they were working…

And now really the last post for our second day in Amsterdam it on to Venice tomorrow.

 

 

A real gut buster but Gluten free it is not. The ham and cheese dutch pancakes are delicious and filling. Ms Amy the healthy one had a juice smoothie and Matcha Boost Ball which you will nit find at Costco. Also below are the old school street sweepers, kind of a combination of the modern and traditional as they sweep garbage off the sidewalk ahead of the street sweep machine itself. So all you wanted to know about street sweeping or not.

 

Now where did I leave off from our first full day in this Venice of the north? Some cultural observations first. This is a very old city but very youthful energy and very social people are hanging out, either in cafes, or just in front of their homes to all hours of the day and night. The city is very compact, with homes closely connected to the since of vibrant connections certainly impressed this traveler that the social cohesion is a very attractive aspect of this city. But on to the activities of the first full day. The bikes are a must for getting around, although they have an excellent public transit, the bikes really immerse you immediately into this energized place. The bike lanes parallel the canals which set the layout of the city and boat traffic is another means of getting around, boats and live aboards are docked along the side of the canals. We have dined well and taken advantage of the beer gardens and based on this current heat spell these watering holes are very popular destinations. Of course the Heineken green is everywhere.

Both the Van Gough Museum and the Eye Film institute are very interesting sharp angled photogenic buildings, although the  current exhibition at the Eye of avant guard artist and filmamker Alex Van Warmerdam, who experiments with narrative form in his films, left this observer in the proverbial plebeian dust! But the institute itself is very impressive, with over 200 staff curating and preserving film. To beat the heat we took in 2001 in full 70 MM splendor. Kubrick was a master of narrative.

Day 2 begins and I end here more later!