Skip to main content

Pope-ular spots in Italy

There is a lot to take in anytime you visit a new place that is marketed to have a variety of attractions.  And Italy is no different.  Depending on your taste and mood you might find a spot you absolutely fall in love with and just chill for a while.  Or you might want to feast all day on a buffet of sights and keep moving.

We are the latter category.  Why not taste a bit of everything and then decide if you want to visit again?  So we covered a lot of territory - 2,800 km in 14 days and hitting about 12 cities from top to bottom.

Most travel was on trains - the bullet train is called Frecciarossa reaching max sustained speed of 300 kph and then some with regional double decker trains that also do a good 150 kmph - India by comparison runs their fastest train at this speed.

There was also boat and bus and taxi travel in certain locales.

Here are some highlights -

Meeting the Pope - at the Vatican - Wed is a papal audience - you are one of 50,000 attendees crowding the St Peters Oval.


Then if you are lucky and it is not too hot and the lines to see the Sistine Chapel less than a mile long you might get to see the below -  Michelangelo Bunorotti's masterpiece ceiling frescoes



Followed by his amazing skill with the hammer and marble in the form of the Pieta at St. Peter's Cathedral next door


followed by a trip into Rome to see the other amazing architectural marvels - mostly a celebration of a higher being by beings that are clearly higher than many of us in terms of what their mind can envision; their eye can see and hands can do - be it Leonardo or Raphael or many others.

Pantheon


Above building is the Hadrian built temple of the gods from the second century  - literally hiding amidst 19th century condos.


Trevi fountain 


the above is a 18th century fountain that attracts tourists from all over - when we visited it was a warm 90 degrees with no wind.

Appears to be an extension of the building behind.

All these and more constitutes the grandeur of Rome which is one of many cities in Italy with remarkable history and artifacts that define our lives to this day.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

But What If We're Wrong?

I attempted to read this book by author Chuck Klosterman backward to forward but it started hurting my brain so I decided to stop and do it like any other publication in the English language.  Start from page 1 and move to the right. Witty, caustic and thought provoking this is a book you want to read if you believe that the status quo might, just might be wrong. At times bordering on being contrarian about most things around us it tries to zero in on the notion of what makes anything believable and certain in our minds.  The fact that there is a fact itself is ironic.  Something analogous to the idea that you can never predict the future because there is no future. Many books and movies have tried to play on this concept - best that I recollect (I think I am) was 'The Truman Show'.  This book by Klosterman attempts to provoke the reader to at least contemplate that what they think they know may be wrong. He uses examples like concept of gravity, and how it ...
2 comments
Read more

You are important to us

Followed by piano music.   Followed by 'we are experiencing heavier than usual call volume'.  Sounds macabre like bleeding during menstruation or after a ghastly attack with a weapon on a hemophiliac.  Sorry Mrs. Johnson but it appears little Gertrude here has been bleeding heavier than usual what with her night time activities competing with the woodchucks in your neighborhood. Some services even go as far as to pick a random day to say - 'if you were to call us during the Chinese lunar month when the moon is axiomatically hugging the polar star with Jupiter intravenous when call volume is light'.  Well I will be damned.  I thought  I had checked with my astrologer before I placed this well focused call but  I guess this is what you get for listening to a quack. Umph! I am not sure which marketing genius came up with this personal touch concept of informing the caller that you are really a jackass for actually calling the customer serv...
Post a Comment
Read more

Of Jims and Johns

Here is another essay on the subject of first names. As in birth names. Or names provided to an offspring at birth. While the developed world tends to shy away from the exotic like Refrigerator or Coca Cola for their new production there is a plethora of Jims and Johns and Bobs or Robs. Speaking of which I do not think there is a categoric decision point at the time of birth if a child will be hereafter called as Bob. I mean have not yet met a toddler called Bob or Rob for that matter. At some point though the parental instinct to mouth out multiple syllables runs out and they switch from calling the crawler Robert to simply Robbie to Rob. Now speaking of - it is strange that the name sounds like something you would not want Rob to do - i.e. Rob anyone. Then why call someone that? After all Rob Peter to Pay Paul is not exactly a maxim to live a young life? Is it? Perhaps Peter or Paul might want to have a say in it? Then there is this matter of going to the John. Why degrad...
2 comments
Read more