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...

Orvieto, 2017

We first visited Orvieto in 2011, mostly for the wine, but fell in love with the town and the great Italian Gothic cathedral there, its architecture, the amazingly well-preserved sculpture on its facade, and the Luca Signorelli frescoes in the New Chapel. We visited again in 2013. I don't think I can much improve on my 2011 and 2013 posts:

http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2011/05/orvieto-duomo.html
http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2011/05/orvieto-duomo-reliefs.html
http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2011/05/orvieto-1.html
http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2011/05/orvieto-2.html
http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2013/10/orvieto-cathedral-2013.html
http://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2013/10/orvieto-cathedral-2013.html

but I'll try with some new/improved pix. The wine was just a great as in 2011 and 2013.

Starting with some street scenes

Back in the gorgeous Tuscan countryside; OK, it's Umbria, I know, but Tuscany
also looks like this

Ditto

11th century church we just missed getting to before the mid-day
closing

Orvieto cathedral, a late Italian Gothic, beautiful inside and
out

The nave windows are half alabaster, half stained glass

In the port chapel/transcept

The one celebrating the 13th century "miracle" of the wafer "bleeding" onto the
linen, thereby "proving" the doctrine of transubstantiation; "2, 4,6, 8, time to 
transubstantiate"

Now in the port chapel/transcept, the so-called New Chapel: Signorelli's
Resurrection

And Damnation

"Don't worry, sweetheart, it's gonna be just fine"

The sweetly beautiful ceiling by Fra Angelica

More Signorelli...Heavenly concert

Bad stuff happens...

Including the artist, left, in black, an innocent bystander

An interesting case of gender disinformation

Among the several important Renaissance authors depicted in
the chapel

"Digitus impudicus" the Romans called it

Incredibly beautiful place