Just Pope-in' Around

A video I took of the Pope while we were in Rome. He pretty much spent about a half-hour saying "Hey, everyone who speaks German, Good morning and Bless you! Hey, everyone who speaks English, Good morning and Bless you!" Etc. for every language or so, in that language. I wanted him to tell everyone to do the wave, but I think that was out of his whole religious theme.

Do as the Roman's Do.... Steal Obelisks from the Egyptians

Almost everyone in our group went to Rome last weekend for three days. This is what we saw...

The Colloseum!
The ground outside of the Colloseum.

Our tour guide said that one of the reasons the Colosseum is still standing is because, after the fall of Rome, it was used as a Redlight district so homes were errected between the arches. That's what all these holes are. Go prostitution!This shows how much dirt is encrusted on the walls. In order to keep warm, the people who lived in the Colosseum had to burn things and burning things means smoke and other nasty bits that get absorbed in the stone. Thus a dirty Colosseum.

the Arena, you can see how the surface would have looked had it not been destroyed, all you can really see now is the support system and tunnels.
Inside the Colosseum between the outer walls and the arena.
The Arch of Constantine.


The Arch of Constatine from inside of the Colloseum.
Detail...
Columns... a handful of many.
The remnants of some HUGE building.

A fountain made out of ferns and moss.

Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II is the building with Winged Victory on a chariot in the distance.
The Forum and Dharyll with the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II in the distance.
Olive trees in the Forum.

Rebecca and Justin looking oh so pretty. Especially Justin...

In the Forum, I can't remember what building this was, but it's now or was a church more recently. There were giant gashes on the top half of the columns where someone tried to pull the building down with ropes. It wouldn't budge so it was turned into a Christian church. What you can't destroy, recycle.

Taya!

The columns in front of St. Peter's Basilica.

Obelisk in the same piazza. Nobody steals them better than the romans.

In Piazza San Pietro.

Front of St. Peter's Basilica.

In the Vatican right before you go into the Cistine Chapel.

In the Vatican courtyard still.

The Vatican Museum.

Sexy-time snake... sexy DEAD time snake.
This was my favorite room in teh Vatican Museum. It was full of marble animals.
Willow!
More dogs.
It's good to see the call of the wild captured in marble. Raawwrrrr....
Pot head.... hehe.
Mosaic within the Vatican Museum.

One of the minor domes within St. Peter's Basilica.
Holy water.

A view of the dome. This is amazing because all of the artwork, or anything that looks like a painting isn't. It's all mosaic. It's unbelievable.

Bernini's "Cathedral Petri" and "Gloria".

The high alter.

St. Peter's Basilica.

The Tiber.

A statue on a bridge across the Tiber river.
I was trying to show everyone how mixed the buildings are. Some of them are thousands of years old, and some are only a couple hundred (the age of OUR old buildings).


The Pantheon! This building... this chunk of history is just squatting in some random piazza in the middle of Rome. You're wandering around these twisted alleys and then BAM, there's this amazing building across from a McDonalds. It's almost unreal...Inside the Pantheon, looking up at the dome.

Eatin' McDonalds in front of the Pantheon. Nice, thanks fastfood.

In the piazza outside of the Pantheon.

The Trevi Fountain.

I found this neat sundial on one of the buildings. I'm not sure how it works, but I think it's way cooler than an actual clock.
Romans love their giant basins of water. Mosquitoes.... anyone?
Ladies with lizards.
Ladies with crazed geese... I sense a fountain in the making!

Taya and Rebecca.
Sunset over the fountain.
Yet another gory/violent caution sign. Better not hump that door or do the monkey dance while getting off the subway... bad things happen.

We went to the catacombes and I saw sheep. The catacombes had no bodies and went by in a jiffy, the sheep however made a HUGE impresion. The even have their little tails still on!
Baby sheep.
The religious bus. It's good to know someone cares...
The Pope! He's the little red strip of cloth in the middle.
Another obelisk.

Fashion!
Crazy fashion, that is.
Colorful houses.
The statue on the far right has fallen out of her toga and looks like she's saying

"Oh.. there you two are! I thought I'd lost you. That's nice."
Road.

A statue in Piazza Vittorio Emanuelle II.
Rome is famous for its out-of-control cat population but this is the only cat I actually saw, so it'll have to represent! Gangsta' style...