Chip & Mel

The famed mountain as viewed from Sorrento across the Bay of Naples.

Not much sand but we would love to live their!!

This is nothing remarkable but the quaint quite street is well, marvelous.

Mel took this photo in Roma as we wandered in our first day.  We are still trying to figure out the name & location of this church but it was nice.

St. Peters is remarkable and we shared it with a bunch of our closest friends.  Wish I could remember their names.  The giant four poster you see is Bernini's baldacchino and is made out of bronze. I believe the bright spot in the background is also a Bernini.

You can't go to Roma without visiting the ancient sites.  Again everyone feels the same way so you are sharing this space with what feels like everyone in the world.  None the less it is a remarkable site. It will hold 50,000+ people and could be evacuated in 10 minutes. 

Do that at your local stadium!

I picture the colosseum with Russel Crowe fighting who knows what to win back his freedom.  At first viewing it is difficult to reconcile this fantasy view with that movie.  

When you look at the colosseum in this photo you can't hardly view a seat much less where Russel would have been fighting.  Well if you look at the lower right hand side closely you will see a black railing.  Behind this railing is a floor.  Now look at the right hand edge of the railing and follow the light colored path that gradually curves around the colosseum to the left edge of the photo.  This line marks the floor line.  All the structure towards the lower left corner was apparently "underground" and below a floor covered in a thick boundary of sand.

Picture lions, tigers, bears and slaves ooh my - being kept in those areas.  I don't remember the exact numbers but their we many many elevators, ramps and other gizmos under the floor to lift all the nastiness up to visit havoc on the poor souls fighting on the floor.  

What fun!

As we toured Roma we came away with a common feeling.  Wow the artwork is remarkable.  No modern tech yet we can't do this today especially not in the volume that it was put out back in the day.

Just amazing!

This church is a 10 minute walk from the Colosseum in Roma.  It is call Saint Peter's in Chains.  The small bright area at eh bottom of the photo si the chains put onto St. Peter.  Remarkable.  Also found in the church is a statue created by Michelangelo of Moses.  This statue is the famous statue of Moses with horns! 

We stayed at the wonderful Hotel Eliseo on the Via Veneto just inside the ancient wall.  Relatively inexpensive for hotels in the area with great dining in the area (I can't recommend the Ristorante Vladimiro enough!!!!). As you can see it is a short distance from the Vaticano and the Villa Borghese is just across the street.