I still don't have this blog stuff down pat as far as the pictures are concerned. By the time I get through this trip - I probably will. So all the pictures might be together and not spaced with the text.
Our hotel was essentially across the street from a nice little park with a very good art museum. So this morning we went to the museum which we both liked. Peg had already gotten the tickets back home. It had an elevator, a definite plus. Not a lot of big name stuff but very nice. The park had statues and fountains and nice shady trees - it was a pleasant walk.. The fountain is the Marine Horse Fountain.
That afternoon we wnt to the Vatican with a professional guide that we'd arranged for back in Phoenix. I'd never thought much about the Vatican as a place to see but Peg was insistent. She had been there years and years ago. My impression - what a fantastic treasure. The art - sculpture and paintings - cannot be measured in dollars. When I look at the walls, ceilings (and floors) and the sculptures I think about the billions of man hours of tedious, precise work they represent. They are beautiful, to be sure, but those man hours are something else. Another impression. People, lots of them. You can see in the first picture of the Pieta, the crowds that were there. Every once in a while I could get a shot of a statue by elbowing my way up close. (Wide angle lens are very nice for this.) While we couldn't take pictures in the Sistine Chapel there were lots of other ceilings like the one shown here. Statuary of mythological and biblical themes was everywhere. I've always wished I had the time (and skill) to sculpt. I might give it a hand yet. In the midst of all that beauty two thingskept cropping up in my mind. Lordy, lordy - what a bunch of people. Lordy, lordy - what a lot of stairs. I'm pulling my oxygen concentrater on its little wheels. But I'm carying it up and down the stairs. With the spare batteries, it weighs about 25-30 pounds. I carry it with one hand - I'm ready to arm wrestle. I think it was these stairs that got to Peg's knees. The last picture is of some guards at the exit. So ended our afternoon at the Vatican. I urge any one who can to visit the Vatican. You can take pictures of everything except in the Sistine Chapel. There are picture books of the Vatican treasures, but nothing can beat standing there in awe of everything. Even when tired andsore and getting jostled by people.
I'm just putting in some representative pictures. Maybe one day I'll learn how to integrate them into the text.
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