Piazza del Popolo and Monte Mario

There is a big square not too far from where we live called Piazza del Popolo. One doesn't know where to look first. At the sphinxes?



At the angry fish?



Or perhaps at the obelisk?



Across the Tevere river is a park called Monte Mario, from which one sees views like this



and this



(That's the dome of St. Peter's.)

A walk in June

Back in June, we went for a stroll and snapped some photos. Here are a few.

In the first picture, you can see the sculpture atop the Vittorio Emanuele II monument in between two church towers. (Vittorio Emanuele II was the king of Italy. We heard that he destroyed a medieval neighborhood to create this monument to himself.)



You may have seen other photos similar to the one below, because it's a famous place in Rome. It's the Trinità dei Monti church at the very top of the Spanish Steps. (We stood on some of the mid-level steps to take the picture. There are a few more flights of steps below the spot where we're standing.)



Then we turned around, descended a bit, and took a photo of Piazza Spagna at the bottom of the steps. This is a wildly popular gathering spot, frequently crowded with tourists.



Here's another view you might've seen before: the Fontana del Tritone in Piazza Barberini. I see this fountain just about every day. Bernini was commissioned to sculpt it in 1642. I read that the fish-looking creatures at the base are supposedly dolphins. I've never seen dolphins that look like that, but I give Bernini credit for a fine fountain.

Orvieto

Orvieto is a beautiful town perched atop a hill in Umbria. We visited there on the day of the Cronoscalata della Castellana (see previous blog post).

The central piazza has a design in the cobblestones.

If you climb up many stairs to the top of the Moor's Tower, you see a pretty view of the town...

... as well as the bell tower.

It's a long walk down the stairs.

The duomo, or cathedral, is quite colorful compared to the others we've seen around Rome these past couple of months.

Cronoscalata della Castellana

Italy's got Dan's kinda people. We can tell because they have such events as the Cronoscalata della Castellana, an uphill race of vintage cars in Umbria.

The cars warmed up by zooming up a stretch of road one after the other. There were various makes and models from different countries, but Fiat was well represented.

When the drivers took a break, we could get an up-close look at their rides.

The actual race was against the clock, each car being timed separately rather than driving side by side.

They were loud and fast!

Palestrina

The town of Palestrina (called Praeneste in ancient times) is known for its Archaeological Museum...

... which is housed in a palazzo built atop the ancient Etruscan Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia:

The sanctuary was covered up for centuries, but exposed again due to bombs during World War II. The museum contains many items found at the site, including an incredibly detailed mosaic depicting the flooding of the Nile River. Numerous African animals, such as giraffes and hippos, are depicted. Apparently some people think one of the animals resembles a dinosaur, and they actually cite the mosaic as proof that man and dinosaurs coexisted. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos of it, so we'll have to share pictures of the town with you instead.

Palestrina is a hill town, hence plenty of steps! The residents probably have strong quadriceps.

Cerveteri Etruscan Necropolis

Last month, we visited the Banditaccia necropolis, created by the Etruscans in a place now known as Cerveteri.

It's a cemetery laid out like a city, with streets. The tombs are like houses. They have doors and sometimes windows. Most of them are round, like this:



but some were connected in a long, rectangular building:



Here's a shot looking from the inside out:



This tomb belonged to a wealthy family and was much more ornate than the others:



One tomb had a pool of stagnant water inside. What's the yellow slime floating on top?



It was really bright, flourescent even, but seemed to disappear when we looked at it from inside the tomb. Phosphorescence, maybe?

Opera al fresco

What does one do on a Thursday evening in Rome? Well, one could go to the opera as we did the other night. It was Tosca by Giacomo Puccini, performed not in an opera house, but at the Terme di Caracalla (ruins of ancient Roman baths)! What an amazing setting.

We were seated kind of far from the stage, but it was still fantastic. The scenery (and I don't mean the stage set) added to the drama of the story.

Apparently operas are staged at the Terme di Caracalla every summer. I met a woman who saw Aida here a few years back, and she said there were live elephants on stage!

They know how to put on a show here.

On another note, we have home internet access now! That only took, oh, two months or so. You see, in order to get home internet, you have to have an Italian bank account. In order to get an Italian bank account, you have to have a codice fiscale (an Italian I.D. number). It takes a while for two people to get their numbers. And another while to find a time when they can both go to the bank during business hours, during a week that's not the week of the G8 summit. Then, after setting up the account (a multi-day process because the bank manager has meetings to attend), you have to go to the ISP office and sign up for internet. From that moment, it takes 4 weeks for a technician to come to the apartment to check your phone line. Then a second technician comes on another day (during work hours, of course) to actually install stuff. Our internet package also includes phone and tv, but the tv technician hasn't come over yet. (It's August, the month when all Italians take vacation.)

Sorry for going on like that. Anyway, the important thing is that now we can post photos! Here's another of the Terme di Caracalla.