A Week in Rome: April 2005 Archives
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seal of evil serial crackWell, after a couple of months and hundreds of photos, Susan the Human will cease to be All-Rome-All-the-Time after today. You might say I was ahead of my time, given that the news networks went All-Rome just in the last week. But that's the kind of cutting edge photojournalism you've come to expect from our little blog. Yes sirree. I've got lots of non-Roman pics on tap, but let's get that last batch of Rome out of our system right now, capisci?
Click here for previous installments of A Week in Rome.
Rome is a big city, too big to wrap up in just one post. For all the places I've shown you, there are dozens of little pictures and tidbits that just didn't fit. So it'll take two photo-filled posts to finally get The Eternal City out of my system.
I don't know where to start. So let's just hop randomly through the week, shall we?
The Pope's death this week brought millions to Rome, and according to today's New York Times, 4 hundred thousand in the last two days have visited St. Peter's Square. All I can say is thank you, John Paul, thank you for not taking your bow while I was in town. Because St. Peter's Square photographs so much better when your dearly faithful are not in it.
A lone monk wanders by the fountain in St. Peter's square, looking for his cloister.
Click below for the rest of this second-to-last swing through Rome...
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On our last day in Rome, we had a bit of extra time, and the rain was coming down, so we dove into the closest museum to Termini station, The National Museum of Rome. Modest on the outside, the museum's modern interior features several levels of diverse attractions ranging from a massive fresco collection to a genuine treasure vault that would make any pirate drool. But first we must admire the discus man.
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From almost anywhere in central Rome you can see them, the flying horses on top of the Victor Emmanuel Monument. Well, ok, the horses aren't flying, the Hermes-type-guy is, but from a distance you can't see him, and it looks like flying horses.
Emmanuel was the first king of a unified Italy. The country is now a Republic, its dysfunctional royal family banished from its borders, but the monument remains, a shining white palacial expanse of marble, horses, more marble, and more horses, capped off by an enormous fat king sitting on an enormous fat horse. While locals call it a set of dentures, tourists enjoy it and the lovely views from the top of its many steps.
The dome in the background is St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City.
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Atop Capitoline Hill is a museum sadwiched between the enormous wedding-cake Emmanuel Monument and the stunning remains of The Forum. In a single day it's easily possible to do the Collosseum, Palatine Hill, The Forum--
--the Capitoline Museum, and the Emmanuel and still have time to walk into the heart of the old city for dinner.
The Capitoline's appeal is in its irreverent (perhaps unintentional) exhibits, such as this fine collection of disembodied parts:
