Roamin' And Meanderin' To And From The Pantheon

My favorite building is the Pantheon, and so we had to see it, again, walking across the River, getting lost, having a fine Roman lunch, wandering through a variety of piazzas, until it finally appeared out of the darkening 4PM mist. Still a thrill.

One advantage of getting lost is that your chances of wandering
into a neighborhood restaurant, as opposed to a tourist one, are
vastly improved; the one we wandered into even had a sense of humor

We couldn't find the one we were looking for, all the directions
we got misfired, and so, with the rain getting worse, we ducked
into La Monte Carlo; I've become quite fond of the Napoli,
tomato, cheese and anchovies

Vicki's standard sausage and mushroom; Neapolitan style, very
thin crust; yum

Also a fun place

Wandering in the rain

Piazza Navona

Wait a second! Isn't that Aunt Jemima? 

Poster in a bookstore: apart from the US, Rome
has the most anemic of all subway systems for
a city its size--two lines, a third to open a bit in
December--understandably, digging in this, one
of history's greatest cities, is slow going...

Bookish fountain

Backside of Pantheon, where, at the top, you can see a bit of the
brick (!) structure; the arches

Never fails to knock me out

Moving right along, in the direction of the Metro:
Marcus Aurelius Column (I think), in Piazza
Colonna (I think)

No room for a real IKEA in downtown Rome, so it's just a kitchen
IKEA

Slippery Spanish Steps

Among the best of all cities to wander in...

St. Peter's, 2017

Our visit to Rome this time was mostly about getting Le Duc ready for winter storage and packing for the next two legs of our current travel campaign, Knoxville and DC (plus there's a Chicago in there for one of us). It has been interesting packing for the two different campers and four different continents we have been on since August. Add late fall and winter in the US to the mix and it really gets interesting. Rachel has assured us we can borrow hats, gloves, scarves, coats.... In any case, we could not be in Rome without visiting a few favorites, and so we set aside two days for this, plus a third if time permitted. We started with St. Peter's since our last several visits there (http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2013/10/st-peters-2013.html, http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2011/04/mishap-sunday-i-at-vatican.html) had been less than fully satisfactory. We got to Vatican City without mishap ("follow the penguins!"), stood in line for 40 minutes (exactly the same as buying 5 Italian post card stamps at the PO), and then we were in and rushing to the Canopy to see the head of the church that we had missed the last few tries. We made it, there were no barricades, and we were finally able to see most of the things we wanted to see but missed in 2011 and 2013. Even the dead pope crypt. It was quite a satisfying morning.

In line, beautiful day until the rain came, not too crowded

We're there, looking at all the Bernini stuff

They went that-a-way

Starboard transept, cordoned off for prayer, but, hey, we got
to at least see it

Snapping pix of the Canopy and Dome

Thus

A tour guide demonstrates how to touch/kiss St. Pete's toe

The line of wannabe toe-touchers/kissers; unlike the Blarney
Stone, there is no bottle of spray disinfectant nearby

Tomb of the saint down there

It's a St. Petey sort of place

Required photo opp

Monster Park, Or, What Were They Thinking In 1552?

So in 1552, the mercenary soldier Vicino Orsini was grieving for his dearly departed wife, Giuia Farnese, and decided to build a Mannerist park below his castle at Bomarzo to distract himself. He engaged the designer Pirro Ligorio and the sculptor Simone Moschino. What resulted became known as the "Park of Monsters," aka Gardens of Bomarzo. Its symbolism, themes, messages, whatever, apparently were fairly arcane even for 1552, and are now very thin vapor indeed, but Monster Park certainly contrasts nicely with the structure and orderliness and beauty of various nearby Renaissance gardens. In any case, it all dissipated and fell apart in the following centuries, until rediscovered by, among others, Salvador Dali, who made a film about it. (Really Thai'd things together for me). It is now a minor tourist destination, not far from Rome. Making sense of it is beyond the scope of this or any other work, but there is a nice Wikipedia article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardens_of_Bomarzo. The pix speak for themselves mostly, sort of, although whatever they say is probably incomprehensible.

Bomarzo, castle

Required reading; click to enlarge

"Welcome to Monster Park"

Leaning House

Us in the Leaning House; thank you, Clemson student

Neptune

Hannibal's Elephants vs. Roman Legions

Signature piece

Rare view from inside

Dragon and lion

Again, in its setting

In England, this would be the Folly; here it is another in a park
of follies; neat place, nonetheless, especially if you're in the
right frame of mind...