Rainy Rome

Bill and I planned a tour that would take us to some of Rome's highlights since this was our first visit here. Since it is a 90-minute bus ride into the city, we had to be up early and ready to go by 7:10. Three of the sites were very close together: St Peter's Basilica, the Sistine Chapel, and the Vatican. All three were amazing! One thing we have learned is that churches are filled with jaw-dropping art. All of the art work in the churches depicts an image from the Bible. Early Christians couldn't read, so they learned by looking at the pictures. Every church we've seen so far has had beautiful oil paintings and frescos. St Peter's Basilica is different in that there are only mosaics, but the mosaics are so detailed that they look like paintings. It's only when you can get up very close, that you can tell tiny marble chips make up the images. Here is an example of a mosaic inside St Peter's.

In front of the Basilica is the famous St Peter's Square. We walked through the Square where our guide pointed out the Pope's residence. In the photo below, the windows on the top floor on the right are where the Pope waves to the crowds every Wed. and Sun. Too bad, we were there one day too soon!

We had the luxury of sparse crowds when we were there, partly due to the time of year and partly due to the weather. We had steady rain accompanied by thunder and lightening. Fortunately for us we were inside the buildings during the heaviest rain.

Cindy and I were touring through the pouring rain at the Colosseum so we ducked into the interior of the building to get out of the rain. We found these guys waiting for the rain to let up. I think they have been waiting a long time. These are some of the statues that they have reconditioned. They were some of the statues that were displayed throughout the Colosseum when it was in use.

This next photo shows you the inside of the Colosseum. The hall ways that you see were covered with wood floor. The floor was where they had the gladiator fights and animal fights. The gladiators and the animals would mover through the halls under the floor and come up from doors in the floor. They would raise the animals up by using a pulley system. What you can't see in the photo is the streaks of lightning going over our heads as we took this photo. Just think the colosseum was built in eight years 72 to 80 AD and it held 70 thousand people. Thank God they didn't let Cal Trans in charge of the contract. We would still be waiting for the completion. They are doing such a great job getting half of the bay bridge built!