The Road Goes Ever On

Monday, April 8, 2019

Cheesy Experience Leaving The Eternal City

So on our way out of Rome, we stopped at the Conad on Via Ardeatina for enough provisions to get us into Tuscany. Happily, the cheese guy was there, splitting some giant rounds of Reggio Parmagiano, and happy to share with us some of the finer points of cutting the cheese. As it were.

April, 2017; I expect these puppies weigh 70-80 pounds

And it takes a small armory of cutting instruments to open one up properly; we
got the first big slice

I have perhaps mentioned the European fascination with zero-degree frozen
food--we've seen dedicated stores in France (Picards are all over Paris), UK, Spain...
and in Italy big parts of supermercatos are given to the frozen sections; here the
"Croissanterie" section at the Conad

And here a bit of the enormous seafood section

And here family seafood packs...just doesn't seem European!

Last Days In Rome, 2019

Our last couple days in Rome were administrative: some final repairs, replacement of the house battery, filling of propane, and such. But, hey, it was Rome!

The house battery that came with the camper in 2015; finally no longer holding a charge

So we drove out to Start Batterie on Via Tuscolana for a Fiamm replacement; even
in the outskirts near CineCitta, nowhere near the touristy centro storico, there were
walls, towers, aquaducts, memorials...

Thus

A final picture of Le Duc at Prato Smeraldo, the Emerald Meadow, with thanks
(and a nice bottle of Brunello) to Alessandro, who's been helping us since 2010;
don't know that we'll be back; but that's what we said in 2013...

Pantheon, 2019

Even with the hordes, the masses, the throngs, it's still my favorite building...

Favorite bookish fountain on the way

The oculus above is 9 meters in diameter

Marcus Aurelius column in the neighborhood

Return To The Vatican Museum, 2019

Vicki wanted to see the Vatican Museum one more time so we conjoined that with my desire to see the Pantheon one more time and made a long day of it. I'd like to say we have been to the Vatican Museum so many times we now practically known our way around. But it's so huge and labyrinthine we accidentally found some sections we hadn't seen since our first visit, way back in 1979 (AD). If you want to see my pix of the Museum's principal collection items, use the search box to the right, entering "Vatican Museum," or just click here for a recent list of my 2011, 2013, and 2017 Vatican Museum posts. For the present post, I'll just picture some things we found amusing, hoping not to duplicate previous entries.

We're in the "Profane" part of the museum--not what you're thinking--this is some
sub-flooring from St. John Lateran, the original and still seat of the Bishop of
Rome; on the flip side, as you can see below, is some pretty nice Roman ceiling
carving

Thus; coffered

Fragment from a much larger banquet floor; beautiful tiny mosaic depicting the
remains of the night before; note mouse munching on walnut

Winner of the 129 AD (CE) wet toga competition

Another of many incredible and incredibly intact mosaics at the Vatican Museum

"And I promise I won't gouge you with my hoofs, honey"

"Hmmm, not so sure about that..."

Ever more mosaics, many reconstructed, from the Baths of Caraculla

Now in the early Christian museum, a sarcophagus depicting the feeding of Jonas
to the whale

More early Christian

Originally, they were all painted pretty much like this

Now entering the Pina Colada, excuse me, the Pinoteca,
one of Flori's angelic musicians, a family favorite (15th)

"I can't give you anything but love, baby," the zebra is desperately singing; click
here for insight

Personal devotional type thing

Detail; exquisitely miniature

Diocletian; we saw his retirement villa in Croatia last summer

The Romans, but not the Catholics, were really big into river gods; here's the Nile

Creepy department: Vicki said this reminded her of the Haunted Mansion

View from the map hall

In the map hall, detail depiction of a galley plying the Mediterranean to bring an
Egyptian obelisk to Rome; personal favorite

"Here's looking at you, kid"; her eyes follow you all around
the room; his don't

Vatican gardens; next time maybe

Sunday, April 7, 2019

Basilica Di San Clemente

We visited very briefly last June, balking at the "no fotos" policy and the 10E/pp price of admission. See http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2018/06/2-12-part-first.html. This time, however, with Penelope in tow, and not at all excited about visiting a crypt, we soldiered on, past the Coliseum, and marched right in. After duly examining the sizable chapel on the main floor adorned with 3 walls of Masolino frescoes (Masolino was Massacio's elder partner in doing some of the Brancacci Chapel in Florence; Masolino's bits are often contrasted with Massacio's, thereby demonstrating the brilliance of the Renaissance; personally I think Masolino is impressive enough; but I digress; plus the bouncer was hovering, and I couldn't get even a single shot), I plopped down 20E (children free), and we descended the stairs to the lower realm, where, no bouncer in sight, everyone was snapping and flashing away at all the sights.

A word of explanation. San Clemente is a three-fer. It is interesting enough as a Medieval church, on the site of a couple earlier important church councils, very Romanesque, and the Masolino frescoes are a draw if you're into such things. In 1857, however, the abbot, an Irishman, got curious, and started digging. Long story short is that the "crypt" is actually the early Christian church, later Empire, where the councils were held, quite a bit more extensive than today's basilica. Even more interesting, below the earlier Christian church is a Mithraeum, that is, a temple to the god Mithra. Mithraism was among the rivals of early Christianity in the Empire. Thus, a three-fer. Beyond that are warehouses thought to have been part of republican Rome's mint. And thus our interest, and, considering I took all the fotos I wanted, downstairs, it certainly was worth the price of admission.