Easter and some Roman pictures

Lydia was so sick on Easter.  Here she's resting on her daddy and trying to smile for the camera.  The boys were being difficult for a picture:

But we finally got one decent one:

 And here are a few random pictures of Rome:

in the Roman forum

a mosaic in the Vatican

This is a circus (chariot racetrack) on the Palatine hill.

St. Peter's Square
I was amazed at how very big St. Peter's Square is.

The oculus in the Pantheon

Eggs and Chicks

I'm taking a break from the Roman Holiday today.  I may post more on that later, but today we dyed eggs.  Our eggs were pretty colorful before:

but now they're even prettier:

And look at how the chicks have grown!

Today we discussed the meaning of Good Friday, and I was impressed by how much the boys have remembered.  Yesterday we talked about the last supper, and they were able to tell me about that, too.  They are really absorbing the biblical lessons better than I thought they would.

Now I'd better serve dinner.  The troops are hungry!

Roman Misc.

We did go into several churches besides St. Peter's.  They are all a bit overwhelming. 

Also, I was surprised to find out that the Pantheon is still a church.  I knew it was, a long time ago, but I was under the impression that it was mostly a tourist destination now.  Sections of the interior are roped off for prayer and masses.  (The sign said that during mass times, no photos, tour groups, etc, only people wanting to attend mass.)  This is the outside of the Pantheon, which hasn't changed all that much from ancient times:

And this is some of the inside.

Naturally, all of the pagan statues are gone from the Pantheon.  There are some Catholic statues (Mary, Jesus) and plenty of decoration.  Raphael is buried here, too.
Now, some other random pictures I took. 

This pyramid was built in the 1600s.

Nathaniel loved this quiet street in Ostia Antica, outside the historic area and in the current town.

at the Roman Forum

This was one of those take-the-picture-myself-and-hope-it-turns-out-ok-at-arms' length shots.  We were in a park.  I thought it turned out to be a really good picture of Nathaniel.

Our Hotel and More Mosaics

Nathaniel took this picture of me in the courtyard.  He was standing at the door to our room.  It was a really nice courtyard, and there was a little table with 2 chairs by our door that we sat at when we called the kids in the evenings.  This is the only picture I have of the room, but the room itself wasn't anything exciting:

It was clean, and we had our own bathroom (which is not necessarily the case in European hotels). 

The other side of the courtyard, to the right of our room when standing in the doorway.

The Trevi Fountain

And now, onto more mosaics.   And frescoes.  These are from the National Roman Museum.  It had 4 locations, but we only went to 2 of them.  The first one we went to put me back in mosaic heaven, and had the bonus of the fresco paintings.  Wonderful.  First, the mosaics:

Dad, I thought of you when I took this one!

This one made me think of Elijah.

And I knew Malachi and Lydia would get a kick out of this one.

And now the frescos.  Some of these I have seen in books.  The colors are still amazingly vivid about 2,000 years after they were painted!

This one was a surprise - the entire room was painted in this garden scene.  This is one I've seen in textbooks, but it was a pleasant surprise to come across it in the museum.  I probably would have spent more time here (and taken more pictures) but a school group of German teenagers came in right after we did, so we went on.

Ostia Antica



me on the main road at Ostia, heading into town

 Now on to Ostia.  On Friday, Nathaniel and I went to Ostia, which is just about a 25 minute train ride from Rome.  In ancient times, it was an important port city for the Roman Empire.  I first learned about Ostia in Latin class in high school when we learned about the emperor Claudius, but I had no idea that the entire city was basically preserved and an awesome site open to visitors.  And I mean OPEN.  You could go all over and see so much.  It was fantastic.  Again, not crowded.  And unlike the Roman Forum, Ostia did have signs explaining some of the ruins.  We also bought a map and a book on Ostia.  The city is so well preserved that I could actually tell what some things were without the signs/books, which was really a treat.


the view from the top of the theater



the theater, which is only about 2/3 as tall as it used to be

And, have I mentioned mosaics yet?  (Insert Nathaniel's eye roll here.)  I have a thing for mosaics.  I took dozens of pictures of mosaics at Ostia, and at a museum on Saturday.  Nathaniel can vouch for the fact that I'm not exaggerating.  Here are just a few:


these two guys were athletes



Most (though not all) of the mosaics at Ostia were black and white.  Many had fish or a water theme, which is probably due to the fact that it was a port city.  It was so fun to wander through the ruins and happen upon an incredible mosaic, just out in the middle of ruined buildings.  Some of the biggest mosaics were actually covered with tarps because they are under restoration, and so there are actually several more than the many we saw.  And how close could you get to the majority of them?

Many of them are still on the floors where the tourists walk.  I tried not to walk directly on the decorated parts when possible, but it was incredible that you actually could.




Nathaniel really enjoyed Ostia, at least for the first two hours.  Those last two were probably a bit much for him, but he was a great sport.

 

This is inside one of the "fast food" restaurants of ancient Rome.



There were even still some paintings on the walls.  Again, you would just be walking in the middle of ruined buildings, and then you'd see something like this!

These are just a very few of the pictures we took at Ostia.  We're going to get one of those photo books made.  I was thrilled with how good the pictures turned out.

Home from Rome

We're back!  And I took hundreds of pictures (literally).  Today I'm going to share a few from the Roman Forum and such.  Tomorrow I think I'll show some of Ostia, but that's for later.  Anyway, our Roman holiday was awesome.  I saw all these things that I've always read about in books.  And best of all, it wasn't crowded practically anywhere!  Really.  Go in March, if you ever have the chance to go.

in the forum

On Tuesday, we got into our hotel around 1:00.  Nathaniel surprised me by being up to walking around all afternoon and evening.  He took me on an obelisk tour, because you know I like Egyptian stuff.

And we toured the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain.  The Trevi Fountain was amazing, but it was very crowded.  We went to some piazzas and saw artists painting and just had a very pleasant walk.  I also got my first gelatto and fell in love with the dark chocolate. 
On Wednesday we went to the Roman Forum, Colosseum, and Capitoline Museum.  I was surprised by the lack of signs at the forum, but I really enjoyed it.  We took our time (translation: Nathaniel followed me around for hours).  We saw the Palatine Hill and house of Augustus, which we were allowed to go into to see the frescos.  I was able to peek into the house of Livia, and the paintings in there looked incredible, but it wasn't open to the public and was hard to see.  Everywhere I turned, I saw something from one of my old Latin or history books.  Heaven!  Then we headed onto the Colosseum.

On Thursday, we went to the Vatican.  We bought tickets ahead of time so we could get in fast, and it really paid off.  We got in before it's actually open, around 8:30, along with a lot of other people.  But all of those other people went to one side, so we went to the other and had the entire Paintings gallery to ourselves.  I mean, other than the security guards (who are understandibly placed in nearly every room) Nathaniel and I could view works by Raphael, Carravaggio, etc BY OURSELVES.  And this was room after room after room. There was a tapestry room, too, with enourmous tapestries depicting Jesus's life.  All of the paintings were from the twelfth through seventeenth centuries, and I recognized several, although I couldn't have told you who painted what most of the time without reading the labels. 

Then we headed to the early Christian sarcophogus rooms, which we had to ourselves, too. 

After those two galleries, we did encounter other people, but there were only a few places that were truly crowded (like the Sistine Chapel, of course, and the Map Room and Raphael Rooms).   The Vatican Museums are amazingly huge and labyrinth-like.  We spent several hours there, and then headed to St. Peter's Square.

in front of St. Peter's Basilica (the square was partially blocked off due to preparations for the holy week masses that would be coming up the next week)

We wandered through St. Peter's and then back onto the square.  We went into a free exhibit on the history of the bible that had several old bibles and related artifacts on display, including a fragment from the Dead Sea Scrolls.  One of the most interesting things in that exhibit was the biblical papyrus fragment found in a mummy case in Egypt. 

I'm going to stop for now, but you can see how amazing Rome was!