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Maeve: week 2, November 10 to November 16
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Me next to a mosaic way up in St. Peter's
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The base of St. Peter's dome
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At the top of the dome
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View to St. Peter's Square from the dome
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View to Castel St. Angelo from the dome
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The Pope's crest in the Vatican Gardens
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A veiw up inside the dome. We were at the top in the very center.
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Touching St. Peter's foot
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Today we visited St. Peters chuch. It was huge! About 40 St. Bridget churches could fit inside it. We climbed to the top of the dome. There were 532 steps to the top. When we were at the top of the dome, you could see all of Rome. I saw the Pantheon, the Forum and other big buildings. The inside of the chuch was cool too. There was lots of gold painted everywhere. Most of the pictures inside the church were made of mosaics. It was the prettiest church I have ever seen.
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Panthon from the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II
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Forum and Colosseum from the monument
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Colosseum from the monument
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St. Peter's from the monument
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Me in front of one of the statues on the monument
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Me in front of a statue of Vittorio Emanuele II. He was the first king of modern Italy.
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Climbing the steps up to the Church of the Ara Coeli
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A chandalier on the ceiling of the church
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Me on the Palatine Hill, where the emperors of ancient Rome lived
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Today we went to the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II. We went to the very top. From the top you could see all of Rome. I saw the Pantheon, the Forum and Colosseum, St. Peters, and some other Roman Buildings. There were 2 huge statues of angels on the top. They were really pretty. We also went inside the Ara Coeli church that had real crystal chandeliers. They were really beautiful.
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Cat on a car
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Another cat on another 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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Cat
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3 cats
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White cat
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2 cats
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2 black cats
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Cat resting
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I have noticed that everywhere in Rome there are a lot of cats. Most of them are strays, but they are very clean and not sick. When I was in Mexico there were lots of stray cats and dogs, but they were very dirty and yucky. Today we were at a museum and outside of it there were 2 cats sleeping on cars, a cat eating some cat food, 2 cats sleeping next to each other, a cat lying on a motorcycle and 2 cats that had jumped into some one's car when the window was open. There is a cat sanctuary that used to be the Theater of Pompey, were Julius Caesar was murdered. There are tons of cats there too.
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A ceiling in the Vatican Museum
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The ceiling in the map room of the Vatican Museum
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The School of Athens, by Raphael
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Me next to a 3000+ year old Egyptian sculpture
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Cuneiform writing
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Hieroglpys
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A mummy
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Close up!
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Today we went to the Vatican museum. It was very pretty. All the ceilings were painted or carved. There were lots of gold and pretty carvings. There was a room that had artifacts from Egypt. I saw lots of hieroglyphics and I saw some cuneiform. There was a real mummy. It was cool but really gross. It still had fingernails and a little bit of hair. It was 3000 years old and it was in pretty good shape. The grossest part was that there was a medium sized hole in the mummy's face where they pulled out the brain. It explained this on the sign next to the mummy.
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Friday 11-14 to Sunday 11-16
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Siena
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The tower of the cathedral (duomo) in Siena
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The duomo interior
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Me feeding pigeons on the campo
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This weekend we were in Siena. It is a town outside of Rome. There is a square designed by the 9 Craft Guilds of Siena. It was slanted, so you could lie down but also walk, run and stand. There were tons of pigeons and once I fed them. They were crazy! They flew up and bit the bread out of my hands, they were walking on my feet and they would not stop following me. It was a fun trip though.
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