Vatican Museum Tour, part 2

Continuing with the Vatican Museum tour, here’s some video and stills from the Hall of Maps. These maps were commissioned by the Pope to make an accurate renderings of various areas. Here’s the video where they turn on the lights first thing in the morning:

Here are some still photos that show some detail, including this view of Italy:

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The person standing on the left gives a sense of scale. Here’s another map, this time of Venice. There will be some posts about Venice here on the blog later.

DSC_3245The maps contain insets of various town and cities as you see next:

DSC_3242And another example here:

DSC_3241More to come in the next post.

Published in: on December 3, 2018 at 12:39 pm  Leave a Comment  
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Vatican Museum Tour, part 1

Any tour of the Vatican Museum is worth the time and money. I was fortunate enough to take the “Waking the Vatican” tour which begins at 6AM sharp, when the doors are unlocked, yet the public is not yet permitted to enter.

DSC_3262Yes, those are the keys actually used to unlock all the doors. Of course, the museum holds artifacts from many eras of history, including Egyptian pieces like this tablet:

DSC_3224There are plenty of Roman objects as well, literally huge rooms full of them:

DSC_3223Including this magnificent sculpture:

DSC_3228And this bathtub of an empress:

DSC_3219Must have been a ladder to get in and out of that thing. More posts to come, showing the Hall of Maps and other marvels. Check back often!

Small vehicles, Rome, Italy

Walking around Rome, Italy, I spotted a number of tiny vehicles. In a city of tiny, winding streets, it’s definitely easier to use one of these than a full-size machine. This fleets makes deliveries:

DSC_3099You can see their size relative to the people and car on the right. Then was this passenger vehicle:

DSC_3197Look at it compare to the bicycle on the right. Here’s a colorful variation:

kbdRKjRUSUSm4ovqZw%LNAThe roof is actually lower than the top of the windscreen on the scooters. And as you can see more clearly in the next photo, it’s a pop top.

ALOrWpfBTpSyoQwB2hrQLQI’m sure they get great mileage and are just enough to get you where you want to go and keep the weather off. Be careful.

Published in: on November 28, 2018 at 1:41 pm  Comments (1)  
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Snack stand, Pompeii

As mentioned, Pompeii featured all the conveniences one might expect to find in a modern town. Here’s a photo of a typical snack stand (my term) found in almost every street around the town.

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There’s a bar with the holes over which warm food could be served. There’s even a cutout in the bar to serve what I believe was “take out” food. I can imagine people stopping in here for something to eat, a friendly chat, and then going on with their day. I wonder what was everyone’s favorite snack.

Published in: on November 26, 2018 at 1:03 pm  Leave a Comment  
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