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St. Peter's dome from the roof
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St. Peter's roof
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The lantern of the dome
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A detail of the lantern
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The obelisk in St. Peter's square from the top of the dome
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Castel St. Angelo
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The Vatican Palace
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Interior of St. Peter's
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Today I walked to the top of St. Peter’s Cathedral, which is still the highest point in Rome. It took 532 steps from the courtyard of St. Peter’s Square. There were sloped passageways to reach the very top of the cupola. The view was very cool-you can see the whole city- but it was hazy out so you couldn’t see as far as the mountains. I saw the Pope’s gardens and house which are giant, and the city which is orange and brown buildings going out forever, with giant church domes popping up everywhere. It was a very cool and great experience.
Fish Shops
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A fish stall in Campo dei Fiori
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eels
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cuttlefish
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small octopus
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medium octopus
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squid
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shrimp (crawling)
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lobster
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The fish shops in Rome are very cool, becaus you see al kinds of weird stuff you don't see in Seattle. The have live lobsters just walking around, and all the fish still have heads. Every creature still has all its body parts and would taste really good if you cooked it. One box of a fish stand was crawling with live shrimp. I have seen 5 kinds of octopus, over 10 kinds of squid and cuttlefish, two kinds of lobsters, lots of flounders, stingrays, rockfish, and a 50 pound tuna. Today I saw some 4 foot long, silvery eels, and I'm sure I'll keep seeing new stuff. The fish stores are always very popular, and usually all the fish are gone by about 1:00 in the afternoon.
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Cat on a car
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Cat on a scooter
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Cat at the temples of the Theater of Pompey
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More cats
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Another
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In Rome there are ruins of the Theater of Pompey. This was the place where Julius Ceaser was famously murdered, but the purpose of the place is now completely different. The theatre ruins are now a cat sanctuary full of over 50 cats, and there are hundreds more lurking around in the alleys and sleeping in cars around the city. The cats usually are pretty healthy looking, so the stray cats are usually not rabid or anything like that which is really good. The cats usually hang out in “colonies” so when you see one cat, there are usually about 10 more nearby. They are usually sleeping, but mostly are pretty fun to observe.
Sistine Chapel
I went to the Vatican Museum today and I saw the Sistine chapel. The Sistine chapel is very interesting, because of the amazing paintings on the ceilings which were done by Michelangelo. There are some amazing paintings of angels and devils, awesome battles and Bible scenes, which are very cool, but I couldn’t take any pictures because the security guards didn’t allow cameras. The place was packed, but I could still see all the beautiful paintings. There was that famous painting with God and Adam, and some new ones that I hadn’t heard of that were extremely interesting. It was really rainy at the Vatican, but it was worth walking up there.
Siena
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A view of Siena
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The Campo in Siena
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The cathedral (duomo) of Siena
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Duomo interior
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The asymmetrical dome of the duomo
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Heads along the nave of the duomo
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A stained glass window in the duomo
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Part of the floor in the duomo
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My last three days have been spent in Siena, which is a cool, packed-up town up in Tuscany. Siena is famous for its giant sloping plaza, the “Campo”, where every year there is a famous horse race with sometimes spectacular crashes into the spectators. Siena is also famous for its 14 neighborhoods, and its Gothic church, which was planned out to be the biggest church in the world. The front of this church is whitish marble, and is covered with statues and elaborate designs. The bell tower is really tall and is colored with black and white stripes, as are all the columns inside. The inside is full of more cool statues and paintings and a giant asymmetrical dome. The church has some interesting stained glass windows and some very cool designs. For example, the ceiling has a giant row of all the heads of the popes and cardinals, there are about 200. The church is my favorite church so far in Italy, because of these details, and its very cool and elaborate floor.