Rome Day 3: Vatican and New Years Eve

Vatican Museum

Well I did not know where to meet, according my friends at Piazza San Pietro, well actually I had to meet in front of the museum, which is a Km from where I was. In the end we were just in time to meet the guide and to get in without have to go in the very long cue. I do not understand why people do wait 2-3 hours when they already know they go to the museum without organizing tickets over the Internet. To my opinion such a cue is by far not quality time :-(.

What can I say about the museum and the Sistine Chapel … it is all rather overwhelming. But that is not only due to the many art objects, but also due to the sheer amount of people. The day we choose (actually this was the only day we could ..) was a special one (31st of December) and closing was early, so lot's of people in. This day some 20.000, yeah 20.000 … meaning you are in a cue all through the museum and the chapel. But for a first time this was OK. At that time said to myself I should come again. But … after we had a small lunch in the Vatican Cantina :-) we were able to do the excursion again, and guess what … almost no one there as the museum was closing. We had to hurry though, but this fast re-entry was great, we even were in the Sistine Chapel with only a few people, compared to a flock of birds in a narrow space earlier. 

Sant'Angelo

From the Vatican we walked to the river, passing my hotel and checking out the Castel Sant-Angelo. The Mausoleum of Hadrian, usually known as the Castel Sant'Angelo, is a towering cylindrical building in Rome, initially commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family. The building was later used as a fortress and castle, and is now a museum. The tomb of the Roman emperor Hadrian, also called Adrian's mole, was erected on the right bank of the Tiber, between 135 AD and 139 AD. Originally the mausoleum was a decorated cylinder, with a garden top and golden quadriga. Hadrian's ashes were placed here a year after his death in Baiae in 138 AD, together with those of his wife Sabina, and his first adopted son, Lucius Aelius, who also died in 138 AD. Following this, the remains of succeeding emperors were also placed here, the last recorded deposition being Caracalla in 217 AD. Also buried there were the bones of Julia Domna and her son Publius Septimius Geta. The urns containing these ashes were probably placed in what is now known as the Treasury room deep within the building. Hadrian also built the Pons Aelius facing straight onto the mausoleum – it still provides a scenic approach from the center of Rome and the right bank of the Tiber, and is renowned for the Baroqueadditions of statuary of angels holding aloft elements of the Passion of Christ.
We did not go in, instead just crossed the river and walked up to Piazza Navone, where a fair was held, giving little to no view on the piazza itself, but presented a good atmosphere.

Piazza Navona is a city square in Rome, Italy. It is built on the site of the Stadium of Domitian, built in first century AD, and follows the form of the open space of the stadium. The ancient Romans came there to watch the agones ("games"), and hence it was known as 'Circus Agonalis' (competition arena). It is believed that over time the name changed to 'in agone' to 'navone' and eventually to 'navona'.
Defined as a public space in the last years of 15th century, when the city market was transferred to it from the Campidoglio, the Piazza Navona is now the pride of Baroque Roman architectural and art history. It features sculptural and architectural creations: in the center stands the famous Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi or Fountain of the Four Rivers (1651) by Gian Lorenzo Bernini; the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone by Francesco Borromini and Girolamo Rainaldi; and the Pamphilj palace also by Rainaldi and which features the gallery frescoed by Pietro da Cortona.

The Piazza Navona has two additional fountains: at the southern end is La Fontana del Moro with a basin and four Tritons sculpted by Giacomo della Porta (1575) to which in 1673 Bernini added a statue of a Moor, or African, by Bernini, wrestling with a dolphin, at the northern is the Fountain of Neptune, Rome (1574) created by Giacomo della Porta. The statue of Neptune in the northern fountain, the work of Antonio Della Bitta, was added in 1878 to make that fountain more symmetrical with La Fontana del Moro in the south.
At the southwest end of the piazza is the ancient 'speaking' staute of Pasquino. Erected in 1501, Romans could leave lampoons or derogatory social commentary attached to the statue.
During its history, the piazza has hosted theatrical events and other ephemeral activities. From 1652 until 1866, when the festival was suppressed, it was flooded on every Saturday and Sunday in August in elaborate celebrations of the Pamphilj family. The pavement level was raised in the 19th century and the market was moved again in 1869 to the nearby Campo de' Fiori, which we visited the next day.

Giolitti Ice

It was time to head over to one of the best Ice cream makers of Rome and that is Giolitti. Giolitti is a well-known café, pastry shop and ice cream parlor in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1890 by Giuseppe and Bernardina Giolitti and operates at two locations: via Uffici del Vicario near the Pantheon and in E.U.R.. It is still owned by the same family.
The café is most famous for its ice cream (gelato), which comes in dozens of different flavours produced according to secret recipes. The rare flavours include champagne, cassata siciliana, ricotta, marsala custard and rice. The Giolitti family has several times refused to sell its brand and recipes to large dairy companies. The café is popular with both tourists and locals and is listed in many guide books.

Spanish Stairs

After a perfect Ice cream time to walk again, this time to the Spanish Steps. Although less impressive than expected, with al tourists present a perfect scenery. 

The Spanish Steps (Italian: Scalinata della Trinità dei Monti) are a set of steps in Rome, Italy, climbing a steep slope between the Piazza di Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinità dei Monti, dominated by the church of Trinità dei Monti. The Scalinata is the longest and widest staircase in Europe.
The monumental stairway of 138 steps was built with French diplomat Étienne Gueffier’s bequeathed funds of 20,000 scudi, in 1723–1725, linking the Bourbon Spanish Embassy to the Holy See, today still located in Palazzo Monaldeschi in the piazza below, with the Trinità dei Monti above.
Following a competition in 1717 the steps were designed by the little-known Francesco de Sanctis, though Alessandro Specchi was long thought to have produced the winning entry. Generations of heated discussion over how the steep slope to the church on a shoulder of the Pincio should be urbanized preceded the final execution. Archival drawings from the 1580s show that Pope Gregory XIII was interested in constructing a stair to the recently-completed façade of the French church. Gaspar van Wittel's view of the wooded slope in 1683, before the Scalinata was built, is conserved in the Galleria Nazionale, Rome. The Roman-educated Cardinal Mazarin took a personal interest in the project that had been in Gueffier's will and entrusted it to his agent in Rome, whose plan included an equestrian monument of Louis XIV, an ambitious intrusion that created a furore in papal Rome. Mazarin died in 1661, the pope in 1667, and Gueffier's will was successfully contested by a nephew who claimed half; so the project lay dormant until Pope Clement XI Albani renewed interest in it. The Bourbon fleur-de-lys and Innocent XIII's eagle and crown are carefully balanced in the sculptural details. The solution is a gigantic inflation of some conventions of terraced garden stairs.

Time for dinner, hm … that took some time as it was now 21.00 at New Years Eve. Luckily we found a pizzeria which also had some other food, which was actually rather OK, although the waiters many times put wrong plates in front of us. let us say it was hectic but nice.

Piazza del Popolo

Raining Cats and Dogs and the party still had to get started. It is not nice when you go to Piazza del Popolo and the weather is like shit, but with my friends we had a great toast on 2010.

The weather got a bit better after the Fireworks and we headed down to the Trevi fountain again, where a nice party was going on. Time to get the Metro and go and sleep, almost 03.00 in the morning.

Rome Day 2: Via Appia and much other interesting old stuff

We agreed to meet at 18.00 so I had all day to visit some parts of Rome. I just started walking along the river Tiber towards the center (although there is no real center, or there are many). I already saw many interesting buildings ending at the outside of the Colosseum. So close it is a magnificent ancient architectural masterpiece, and will go in later. 

I took one of the buses to get me to Via Appia, an ancient road which extended in the past for 500 Km to the south. These days only the first part from Rome is maintained and treated as touristic spot. 

The Roman army depended for its success on the use of bases in which to prepare for battle and to refresh and re-equip afterwards. Bases allowed the Romans to keep a large number of soldiers in the field waiting for the opportunity to strike. However, the bases needed to be connected by good roads for easy access and supply from Rome. The Appian Way was used as a main route for military supplies since its construction for that purpose in the mid-4th century BC. The Appian Way was the first long road built specifically to transport troops outside the smaller region of greater Rome.

There is still a lot to see, and I decided to visit the San Sebastiano fuori le mura (Saint Sebastian outside the walls), or San Sebastiano ad Catacumbas (Saint Sebastian at the Catacombs), is a basilica in Rome. Up to the Great Jubilee of 2000, San Sebastiano was one of the Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome, and many pilgrims still favor the traditional list. Under the church there are the catacombs. Catacombs are ancient, human-made underground passageways or subterranean cemeteries composed thereof. Many are under cities and have served during historic times as a refuge for safety during wars or as a meeting place for cults. The first burial galleries to be referred to as catacombs lie beneath San Sebastiano fuori le mura, in Rome. The derivation of the word itself is disputed and it remains unclear if it ultimately derives from the cemetery itself or from the locality in which it is found. There is no doubt however that the San Sebastiano catacombs are the first to be referred to as such.

In these … more than 100.000 people have been buried. As the guide told us as land was expensive so they had to burry the dead under the ground. Later most people were cremated.

I walked most of the road back to the last bus stop at the Appia itself and from there took the bus to the last stop, the Termini Station.

The first big church I visited was S. Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri and to my opinion also one of the most interesting. The Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels and Martyrs at the Diocletian Baths, the last great architectural project from the genius of Michelangelo. It is a monument to history, to faith, to art and to science.

The basilica was created by the will of Antonio Lo Duca (Duca or Del Duca), a Sicilian priest devoted to the cult of angels. Lo Duca, who was born in Cefalù in 1491 and died in Rome in 1564 expressed his passion from a young age when he was appointed choir-master of the Palermo Cathedral (1513 – 1515). During this time whilst teaching choir to a group of clerics, he discovered an antique painting of the Seven Princes of the Angels which had miraculously re-emerged after centuries of neglect in the small Church of Saint Angelo .

He went to Rome in 1527 and became chaplain to Cardinal A. Del Monte who was uncle of the future Pope Giulio III. He succeeded in securing recognition of the devotion to the Seven Princes of the Angels as well as composing a Mass for them.

After the death of the patron cardinal (1533), Antonio became chaplain to the Cardinal of the Count of Cifuentes who was ambassador to the Emperor Charles V. Since his arrival in Rome , Antonio had hoped that the Mass of the Seven Angels would be officially approved. But his attempts proved to be in vain even after the arrival of Pope Paul III Farnese. In fact, he was to receive appointments and prebends from the Pope which sent him back to Sicily .

After a few years he returned to Rome and became chaplain of Saint Mary of Loreto at Trajan's Forum. It was in this church that, during the summer of 1541, he saw a vision: a “light whiter than snow” emerging from the Diocletian Thermal Baths and at the centre were the seven martyrs (Saturnino, Ciriaco, Largo , Smaragdo, Sisinnio, Trasone and Pope Marcello). From this moment on, Antonio was convinced that a temple dedicated to the Seven Angels must be built in the middle of the majestic thermal ruins. He marked the columns of the great ancient tepidarium hall with the names of the seven angels (Michael, Raphael, Gabriel, Jeudiele, Salatiele, Barachiele and Uriel). He began to entertain the idea of building a church dedicated to the Seven Angels and the Seven Martyrs. However, he did not have the support of the then Pope Paul III.

In 1543 he went to Venice to print the booklet for Mass, prayers and angelic images. At this time he commissioned a painting of the Virgin with the Seven Angels which was a copy of an existing mosaic in the Basilica of Saint Mark. Today the painting can be found in the centre of the apse, behind the high altar of the Basilica.

When he returned to Rome as rector of the Orphans of Saint Mary in Aquiro, he continued to frequent the Thermal Baths with two ideas in mind: to transform them into a Church and to create a college for Orphans. Once again Pope Paul III did not agree. Antonio had to wait for the arrival of Pope Giulio III del Monte, nephew of Cardinal A del Monte for whom he had previously been chaplain, to fulfil his dream. In fact, in 1550 the Pope ordered the Vicar of Rome, Monsignor Filippo Archinto, to sign the decree for consecration of the Church with the name of Saint Mary of the Seven Angels.

The enthusiasm in fulfilment of his dream was cut short by the Pope's nephews who drove Antonio out of the Thermal Baths and transformed them into hunting and riding grounds instead. After the short Pontificates of Marcello II (22 days) and Paul IV Carafa, the new Pope, Pius IV Medici finally fulfilled Antonio's dream in the most majestic and solemn way. With a Papal Bull dated 27 July 1561 the Pope ordered the construction of a church in the ancient Diocletian Thermal Baths. And, in a ‘Brief' (issued immediately after conceding office to the Carthusian monks of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem ) it was given the name “Beatissimae Virgini et omnium Angelorum et Martyrum.”

Trevi Fountain, the present one

In 1629 Pope Urban VIII, finding the earlier fountain insufficiently dramatic, asked Gian Lorenzo Bernini to sketch possible renovations, but when the Pope died, the project was abandoned. Bernini's lasting contribution was to resite the fountain from the other side of the square to face the Quirinal Palace (so the Pope could look down and enjoy it). Though Bernini's project was torn down for Salvi's fountain, there are many Bernini touches in the fountain as it was built. An early, striking and influential model by Pietro da Cortona, preserved in the Albertina, Vienna, also exists, as do various early 18th century sketches, most unsigned, as well as a project attributed to Nicola Michetti one attributed to Ferdinando Fuga and a French design by Edme Bouchardon.

Panorama of the Trevi Fountain.

Competitions had become the rage during the Baroque era to design buildings, fountains, and even the Spanish Steps. In 1730 Pope Clement XII organized a contest in which Nicola Salvi initially lost to Alessandro Galilei — but due to the outcry in Rome over the fact that a Florentine won, Salvi was awarded the commission anyway. Work began in 1732, and the fountain was completed in 1762, long after Clement's death, when Pietro Bracci's Oceanus (god of all water) was set in the central niche.

The asso di coppe Salvi died in 1751, with his work half-finished, but before he went he made sure a stubborn barber's unsightly sign would not spoil the ensemble, hiding it behind a sculpted vase, called by Romans the asso di coppe, "the "Ace of Cups".

The Trevi Fountain was finished in 1762 by Giuseppe Pannini, who substituted the present allegories for planned sculptures of Agrippa and "Trivia", the Roman virgin.

Pantheon

Not checking the map, just walked, stumbled upon the Pantheon and the very nice square in front. Although a bit noise, with so many tourists and a few street musicians, it gave a very nice atmosphere.

The Pantheon (pronounced /pænˈθiː.ən/ or /ˈpænθi.ən/, Latin: Pantheon, from Greek: Πάνθεον, meaning "Every god") is a building in Rome, built by Marcus Agrippa as a temple to all the gods of Ancient Rome, and rebuilt by Emperor Hadrian in about 126 AD. A near-contemporary writer, Cassius Dio, speculates that the name comes from the statues of many gods placed around the building, or from the resemblance of the dome to the heavens. Since the French Revolution, when the church of Sainte-Geneviève, Paris, was deconsecrated and turned into a secular monument, the Panthéon, the generic term pantheon may be applied to any building in which illustrious dead are honoured or buried.

The building is circular with a portico of three ranks of huge granite Corinthian columns (eight in the first rank and two groups of four behind) under a pediment opening into the rotunda, under a coffered, concrete dome, with a central opening (oculus) to the sky. Almost two thousand years after it was built, the Pantheon's dome is still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome. The height to the oculus and the diameter of the interior circle are the same, 43.3 metres (142 ft). A rectangular structure links the portico with the rotunda. It is one of the best preserved of all Roman buildings. It has been in continuous use throughout its history, and since the 7th century, the Pantheon has been used as a Roman Catholic church dedicated to "St. Mary and the Martyrs" but informally known as "Santa Maria Rotonda."

Trastevere

As I said I would arrange a restaurant for tonight I Walked to Trastevere (the other side of the river Tiber) to check for a restaurant. There are many in a relatively small area. But first I visited … kerk Santa Maria Trastevere, a beautiful small church, to my opinion the best I have seen so far. Not the biggest, not the most decorated, but all in all a great scenic holy place. 

I checked out some restaurants and found a nice one where it was possible to reserve for 10 people. I think it is much easier in Rome, compared to Amsterdam, maybe because the families are larger?

Walking back I send some SMS'es to my friends to where to meet, we did in front on the Pantheon. It was/is almost like meeting family :-). I also met the other family of five, seems to be a very nice group all together.

The kids wanted to go to the Trevi Fountain first, making the total walk tough, as it was in the opposite direction of where to eat. Some time later we walked back to the restaurant (2 Km) and had an OK dinner. We parted our ways and agreed on the meeting time for the following morning at the Vatican.

We agreed to meet at 18.00 so I had all day to visit some parts of Rome. I just started walking along the river Tiber towards the center (although there is no real center, or there are many). I already saw many interesting buildings ending at the outside of the Colosseum. So close it is a magnificent ancient architectural masterpiece, and will go in later. I took one of the buses to get me to Via Appia, an ancient road which extended in the past for 500 Km to the south. These days only the first part from Rome is maintained and treated as touristic spot. 
The Roman army depended for its success on the use of bases in which to prepare for battle and to refresh and re-equip afterwards. Bases allowed the Romans to keep a large number of soldiers in the field waiting for the opportunity to strike. However, the bases needed to be connected by good roads for easy access and supply from Rome. The Appian Way was used as a main route for military supplies since its construction for that purpose in the mid-4th century BC. The Appian Way was the first long road built specifically to transport troops outside the smaller region of greater Rome.
There is still a lot to see, and I decided to visit the San Sebastiano fuori le mura (Saint Sebastian outside the walls), or San Sebastiano ad Catacumbas (Saint Sebastian at the Catacombs), is a basilica in Rome. Up to the Great Jubilee of 2000, San Sebastiano was one of the Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome, and many pilgrims still favor the traditional list. Under the church there are the catacombs. Catacombs are ancient, human-made underground passageways or subterranean cemeteries composed thereof. Many are under cities and have served during historic times as a refuge for safety during wars or as a meeting place for cults. The first burial galleries to be referred to as catacombs lie beneath San Sebastiano fuori le mura, in Rome. The derivation of the word itself is disputed and it remains unclear if it ultimately derives from the cemetery itself or from the locality in which it is found. There is no doubt however that the San Sebastiano catacombs are the first to be referred to as such.In these … more than 100.000 people have been buried. As the guide told us as land was expensive so they had to burry the dead under the ground. Later most people were cremated.
I walked most of the road back to the last bus stop at the Appia itself and from there took the bus to the last stop, the Termini Station.
The first big church I visited was S. Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri and to my opinion also one of the most interesting. The Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels and Martyrs at the Diocletian Baths, the last great architectural project from the genius of Michelangelo. It is a monument to history, to faith, to art and to science.
The basilica was created by the will of Antonio Lo Duca (Duca or Del Duca), a Sicilian priest devoted to the cult of angels. Lo Duca, who was born in Cefalù in 1491 and died in Rome in 1564 expressed his passion from a young age when he was appointed choir-master of the Palermo Cathedral (1513 – 1515). During this time whilst teaching choir to a group of clerics, he discovered an antique painting of the Seven Princes of the Angels which had miraculously re-emerged after centuries of neglect in the small Church of Saint Angelo .
He went to Rome in 1527 and became chaplain to Cardinal A. Del Monte who was uncle of the future Pope Giulio III. He succeeded in securing recognition of the devotion to the Seven Princes of the Angels as well as composing a Mass for them.
After the death of the patron cardinal (1533), Antonio became chaplain to the Cardinal of the Count of Cifuentes who was ambassador to the Emperor Charles V. Since his arrival in Rome , Antonio had hoped that the Mass of the Seven Angels would be officially approved. But his attempts proved to be in vain even after the arrival of Pope Paul III Farnese. In fact, he was to receive appointments and prebends from the Pope which sent him back to Sicily .
After a few years he returned to Rome and became chaplain of Saint Mary of Loreto at Trajan's Forum. It was in this church that, during the summer of 1541, he saw a vision: a “light whiter than snow” emerging from the Diocletian Thermal Baths and at the centre were the seven martyrs (Saturnino, Ciriaco, Largo , Smaragdo, Sisinnio, Trasone and Pope Marcello). From this moment on, Antonio was convinced that a temple dedicated to the Seven Angels must be built in the middle of the majestic thermal ruins. He marked the columns of the great ancient tepidarium hall with the names of the seven angels (Michael, Raphael, Gabriel, Jeudiele, Salatiele, Barachiele and Uriel). He began to entertain the idea of building a church dedicated to the Seven Angels and the Seven Martyrs. However, he did not have the support of the then Pope Paul III.
In 1543 he went to Venice to print the booklet for Mass, prayers and angelic images. At this time he commissioned a painting of the Virgin with the Seven Angels which was a copy of an existing mosaic in the Basilica of Saint Mark. Today the painting can be found in the centre of the apse, behind the high altar of the Basilica.
When he returned to Rome as rector of the Orphans of Saint Mary in Aquiro, he continued to frequent the Thermal Baths with two ideas in mind: to transform them into a Church and to create a college for Orphans. Once again Pope Paul III did not agree. Antonio had to wait for the arrival of Pope Giulio III del Monte, nephew of Cardinal A del Monte for whom he had previously been chaplain, to fulfil his dream. In fact, in 1550 the Pope ordered the Vicar of Rome, Monsignor Filippo Archinto, to sign the decree for consecration of the Church with the name of Saint Mary of the Seven Angels.
The enthusiasm in fulfilment of his dream was cut short by the Pope's nephews who drove Antonio out of the Thermal Baths and transformed them into hunting and riding grounds instead. After the short Pontificates of Marcello II (22 days) and Paul IV Carafa, the new Pope, Pius IV Medici finally fulfilled Antonio's dream in the most majestic and solemn way. With a Papal Bull dated 27 July 1561 the Pope ordered the construction of a church in the ancient Diocletian Thermal Baths. And, in a ‘Brief' (issued immediately after conceding office to the Carthusian monks of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem ) it was given the name “Beatissimae Virgini et omnium Angelorum et Martyrum.”
Trevi Fountain, the present one
In 1629 Pope Urban VIII, finding the earlier fountain insufficiently dramatic, asked Gian Lorenzo Bernini to sketch possible renovations, but when the Pope died, the project was abandoned. Bernini's lasting contribution was to resite the fountain from the other side of the square to face the Quirinal Palace (so the Pope could look down and enjoy it). Though Bernini's project was torn down for Salvi's fountain, there are many Bernini touches in the fountain as it was built. An early, striking and influential model by Pietro da Cortona, preserved in the Albertina, Vienna, also exists, as do various early 18th century sketches, most unsigned, as well as a project attributed to Nicola Michetti one attributed to Ferdinando Fuga and a French design by Edme Bouchardon.
Panorama of the Trevi Fountain.Competitions had become the rage during the Baroque era to design buildings, fountains, and even the Spanish Steps. In 1730 Pope Clement XII organized a contest in which Nicola Salvi initially lost to Alessandro Galilei — but due to the outcry in Rome over the fact that a Florentine won, Salvi was awarded the commission anyway. Work began in 1732, and the fountain was completed in 1762, long after Clement's death, when Pietro Bracci's Oceanus (god of all water) was set in the central niche.
The asso di coppe Salvi died in 1751, with his work half-finished, but before he went he made sure a stubborn barber's unsightly sign would not spoil the ensemble, hiding it behind a sculpted vase, called by Romans the asso di coppe, "the "Ace of Cups".The Trevi Fountain was finished in 1762 by Giuseppe Pannini, who substituted the present allegories for planned sculptures of Agrippa and "Trivia", the Roman virgin.
Pantheon
Not checking the map, just walked, stumbled upon the Pantheon and the very nice square in front. Although a bit noise, with so many tourists and a few street musicians, it gave a very nice atmosphere.
The Pantheon (pronounced /pænˈθiː.ən/ or /ˈpænθi.ən/, Latin: Pantheon, from Greek: Πάνθεον, meaning "Every god") is a building in Rome, built by Marcus Agrippa as a temple to all the gods of Ancient Rome, and rebuilt by Emperor Hadrian in about 126 AD. A near-contemporary writer, Cassius Dio, speculates that the name comes from the statues of many gods placed around the building, or from the resemblance of the dome to the heavens. Since the French Revolution, when the church of Sainte-Geneviève, Paris, was deconsecrated and turned into a secular monument, the Panthéon, the generic term pantheon may be applied to any building in which illustrious dead are honoured or buried.The building is circular with a portico of three ranks of huge granite Corinthian columns (eight in the first rank and two groups of four behind) under a pediment opening into the rotunda, under a coffered, concrete dome, with a central opening (oculus) to the sky. Almost two thousand years after it was built, the Pantheon's dome is still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome. The height to the oculus and the diameter of the interior circle are the same, 43.3 metres (142 ft). A rectangular structure links the portico with the rotunda. It is one of the best preserved of all Roman buildings. It has been in continuous use throughout its history, and since the 7th century, the Pantheon has been used as a Roman Catholic church dedicated to "St. Mary and the Martyrs" but informally known as "Santa Maria Rotonda."
Trastevere
As I said I would arrange a restaurant for tonight I Walked to Trastevere (the other side of the river Tiber) to check for a restaurant. There are many in a relatively small area. But first I visited … kerk Santa Maria Trastevere, a beautiful small church, to my opinion the best I have seen so far. Not the biggest, not the most decorated, but all in all a great scenic holy place. I checked out some restaurants and found a nice one where it was possible to reserve for 10 people. I think it is much easier in Rome, compared to Amsterdam, maybe because the families are larger?Walking back I send some SMS'es to my friends to where to meet, we did in front on the Pantheon. It was/is almost like meeting family :-). I also met the other family of five, seems to be a very nice group all together.The kids wanted to go to the Trevi Fountain first, making the total walk tough, as it was in the opposite direction of where to eat. Some time later we walked back to the restaurant (2 Km) and had an OK dinner. We parted our ways and agreed on the meeting time for the following morning at the Vatican.

Rome Day 1: Interesting start

Flying out almost empty to such a busy city is strange, but also nice having three seats. It took some time to get my luggage and after customs I had to wait for half hour for the hotel's driver to meet me. It was a short ride (not busy on the highway and in Rome itself) to get to the hotel. The hotel itself is OK, although the 4 stars remind of something that is long gone. Room is ok, bed is hard and there is a lot of noise coming in from the road. On the way to the hotel I already passed the Vatican so I immediately went out, first to get some dinner (it was around 22.30) and later to view the Vatican from the outside. Dinner was OK, Spaghetti e Vongole and it was still rather busy at the main square (actually almost a circle) in front of the Vatican. There I also saw the biggest Christmas stable scenery I have ever seen. Back to the hotel and tomorrow meet my Portuguese friends.

Laptop/Netbook Positions to Avoid

I know I am in some of those many times ...

Tilt-Shift effect

I found a website where you can upload your pictures to add a Tilt-Shift Effect, result can be very nice, ships look rather miniaturized ....

Saturday Vimeo Video: People in Yosemite: A TimeLapse Study

First snow .. giving problems and fun ....

 

Happy Holidays

Saturday Vimeo Video: Chromeo "Night By Night"

Google Chrome - Features

And yes .. I use it :-)

atelier outlet

In Berlin each morning I walked along a shop/gallery with some very nice big paintings for rather low prices.

Today I checked the website, atelier-outlet.de, and its seems they have many original big paintings. It is something to get back to in 2010 to buy one or two originals.

See some examples attached.

share.thismoment.com

that is my new url at thismoment.com; http://share.thismoment.com/

I think great name :-), check it out.

Hans