Glob: Travels

Stairway to Hell

Stairway to Hell - Rome - Oct 2007, originally uploaded by righthalf.

Oct 2007: The seating at the Colosseum is excessively hierarchical. This is the general seating area 100's of feet above ground level and far away from the action. Imagine thousands flocked here cheering the dead.

Brick-and-Mortar Blogs

Deportation - Venice - Oct 2007, originally uploaded by righthalf.

Oct 2007: The walls of Venice enable the age-old Italians form of expression - Murals and Frescos; only the messages are new.

Rialto Bites

Rialto Bites - Venice - Oct 2007, originally uploaded by righthalf.

Oct 2007: The famous bridge of Venice was third time lucky. It collapsed in 1444 and 1524. What we see today is a 1521 stone construction while the originals were wood. Here is a classic Venice shot with the gondola, an American family and Rialto bridge.

Domesticated

Pigeons - Venice - Oct 2007, originally uploaded by righthalf.

Oct 2007: Said the leader of the pigeon school, let us make these humans fetch food for us without us flapping a wing.

Photograffiti

Graffiti - Cinque Terre - Oct 2007, originally uploaded by righthalf.

Oct 2007: Places of historic importance are preserved by forbidding graffiti. Cinque Terre's tradition is preserved by locals adding graffiti! Tourists are alerted not to whistle-blow when they see someone writing graffiti, or cringe when they see too much of it around.

Italy Via-Agra

Cactus Viagra - Cinque Terre - Oct 2007, originally uploaded by righthalf.

Oct 2007: Going back to Italy Via Agra, where we saw the greatest Erection of a man for a woman, we now see the Horniest. This exhibit at Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre.

Go broke, go baroque

Fontana de Treve - Rome - Oct 2007, originally uploaded by righthalf.

Oct 2007: Influenced by Bernini in 1629, started by Nicola Salvi in 1732 and finished by Giuseppe Pannini in 1762, Fontana de Trevi (Fountain at the junction of 3 roads) is the most ambitious baroque fountain of Rome. People go broke dunking coins into the fountain.

Glass Apart

Glass Apart - Siena - Oct 2007, originally uploaded by righthalf.

Oct 2007: This is the oldest surviving and therefore the most important work of Italian stained glass. Though it reads from top to bottom as coronation, assumption and death of the Virgin; the real sequence is from bottom to top recounting the resurrection of the Mother of God followed by her assumption and then her coronation by her son. This 1288 specimen designed by Duccio di Buoninsegna (done by Duccio or Cimabue) was removed from the interior of the Siena cathedral and placed in the museum for preservation. This is the breathtaking original at the museum.

Protecting the Past

Pantheon - Rome - Oct 2007, originally uploaded by righthalf.

Oct 2007: Piazza della Rotonda is devoid of crowds once the Pantheon closes at dusk. Romans briskly walk back home while a Polizia Municipale officer ponders over the day gone by. Police force in Italy seems over-manned and over-gunned; and with national service still in practice, young officers abound. Though it does make walking around in Rome at night feel quite safe.

Dead and Buried

Dead and Buried - Pompei - Oct 2007, originally uploaded by righthalf.

Oct 2007: Another example of what was covered (or should I say uncovered) in the Plaster of Pompei post. While the other man died a peaceful death (probably buried in his sleep), this one is more dramatic. Though most of it is plaster; the teeth, skull and limb bones are real. The ruptures in the skull and clenched teeth are quite haunting. Imagine looking at the skull and clenched teeth of a 2,000 year old man, with the reproduced form of his body at the instant before he was buried alive by forces of Nature.