FAIR VIEW

Meet Leeluu [a Boston terrier]. We made her acquaintance at Madrid Barajas Airport. Isn’t she a princess? Her lady-in-waiting was returning to her castle in Miami.

Her lady would take her chew toy from her and taunt her with it. Leeluu would grab it and…

Return to the safety of her carrier, probably thinking, “I am not to be disturbed until I am in my palace!”

Look at her regal lines. Definitely royal lineage!

So we continued through a short cut from the San Pietro in Vincoli down to the street leading to the Colosseum. We were walking of course, because there was a bus and metro strike scheduled for the morning. And, what do we run into? A teacher’s strike! You may enlarge the above photo if you would like to see any of Rome’s finest a bit better.

This was an impressive strike! They had a full band on a truck and the entire procession took a half an hour to pass. Sean got swept up with the excitement and joined in taking photos with the real news people. After waiting until the entire strike had passed, I figured out that he wasn’t coming back. So I went ahead to the Colosseum unconcerned that we were separated. Because you see, he and I are in the same karass, and the universe will bring us back together at some point in time. It is inevitable. We met up a short time later. While a waited I took this photo of the Arch of Constantine, 315 AD.

Reunited, we used our Roma Card to avoid a group of students and head in. The last time I visited the Colosseum was in 1967. Of course it was a bit different then, we could go a level higher and it was filled with cats. The kitties are gone now.

As we walked around, I tried to remember that this structure is nearly 2,000 years old. So what is the difference between this structure and so many in the United States that are made of brick and mortar and don’t last that well? We examined the brick here closely to figure that out.

Look at all of the arches. Sean took some close ups of these. The brick work is truly impressive!

We saw a student of Art History prise a piece of mortar out from in-between the bricks and say with excitement “Concrete! Two-thousand year old concrete!”

I was thinking, yeah, so put it back bitch. If everybody picked off their own little piece this thing wouldn’t be standing here! Sean’s comment was that it was really mortar, not concrete.

Look closely at this small area of bricks. Here we see some that have been repointed, some that need to be repointed and a nail. The nail does not look modern, in that it is not from this century. But what century is it from? The head was almost an inch [2 cms] in diameter and looked hammered. It also seemed to be iron, rather than steel. The repointing seemed a bit more modern. Maybe within the last decade or so. But who knows? One could write an entire essay about this space of brick work.

In the last photo is a place where the brick is wearing away over time. Just think, Italians are the people that brought brick work to the USA!

As it was 1:00 PM, the bus strike was over and we caught a bus back to the Hotel Barberini. The Roma Card pays the fare. I took my nap, and Sean went out.

When he came back, he told me that he had found some beads that were perfect for my mom and I could look at them tomorrow!

The most exciting episode is yet to come!

Here is our destination: San Pietro in Vincoli. Who put a street lamp right in front of it? The front is not notable, since it has been reworked through history. The inside is a different matter.

This is the Michelangelo Moses, taken with my shitty camera. I got frustrated asking Sean for his shots, so you will have to suffer with the terrible lighting of my camera. Please enlarge it.

Note that Moses has horns [which I didn't notice until I returned and just read about it on Wikipedia, for shame, for shame.]. Apparently the tomb of Pope Julius II is behind the sculpture.

Above, you can see that the sculpture of Moses is seated in a huge arrangement of figures and in a temple like scenario that doesn’t seem to fit into this tiny basilica. That is because it was meant to fit into St. Peter’s. It was completed in 1545.

In the photo below, you can see how it is only squeezed into this tiny church and dwarfs the main altar which is to the left.

This reliquary, in front of the main altar, is said to hold the chains that held St. Peter captive in Jerusalem.

Here is a photograph of the main altar from a distance and you can see the reliquary in the foreground. Note how dark the basilica is.

Here is the ceiling fresco which was painted by Giovanni Battista Parodi, portraying The Miracle of the Chains, 1706. The fresco was quite dingy and seemed to need a cleaning.

Supposedly, the tomb of Cardinal Cinzo Aldobrandini in behind a grim reaper, but I noticed two grim reapers, one was behind some construction material and then this one, which I photographed. So, there is a 50% chance that the Cardinal is behind this one. LOL!

This is a gorgeous Byzantine mosaic of Saint Sebastian from the 7th century.

This just really cracked me up. A perfectly good solid marble holy water font, with a glass water bowl in the center. What is up with that? Was the priest to lazy to walk to the font to bless the water? So I ran over to check the other one…