Sunday 8 November 2009

Roman Holiday

Currently imprisoned in the house by a cold (strange that men get far worse colds than women, who consequently can't understand the suffering and don't give the appropriate sympathy) I'm forced to bore any remaining readers with holiday snaps from our recent trip to Rome.
During a hot slog around piles of rubble in the forum, many tourists enjoyed the light relief of a wall lizard sunning itself.
The Romans had an advanced notion of sea monsters, in common with other sea-faring cultures that suffered from the occasional and capricious violence of the sea.

The Vatican museum holds an interesting collection of Egyptian artifacts, including carvings of ibises and other stylised animals. All hail the meerkat god-king!
Michelangelo's statue of Moses suffers from an unfortunate mistranslation of the Hebrew, with a word for 'dazzling' being understood as 'horned'.
Bernini's elephant. Strange that Dan Brown didn't use its pointing trunk as a clue in Angels and Demons.
Hooded crows abound in the parks - they outcompete carrion crows in Ireland and Italy, but not in the places in between.

6 comments:

Greenie said...

Steve ,
Don't worry mate , I'll read your post , especially as it might be one of your last ones , if that cold is as bad as you say .

Anonymous said...

visited Rome myself at End of October... I also photographed gull in Trevi fountain (wonder if it is same one?). Saw a Little Egret in the Tiber and a kestrel over the Colosseum and 2 parakeets at the Baths of Caracalla (recommended, if you dind't include them). A display board outside the (closed) Domus Aurea promised Blue Rock Thrush...

Warren Baker said...

In a few days you'll be right as rain Mate. Well....so I keep getting told by the wife.

Kingsdowner said...

Greenie, I was hoping to have "I told you I was ill" on my headstone, but have been told it's already been done.

Anon, I also saw the Blue Rock Thrush sign, but glimpsed none - there were plenty of unidentified calls in the trees, but no bins to hand.

Anonymous said...

Lovely Roman columns. They never fail to impress me.

I don't recall seeing the meercat god-king on my trip to the Vatican museum, though I do remember it being full of a vast assortment of relics and curiosities. Thanks for filling in that gap in my study of art history.

While enroute to Malta more recently, I glimpsed the green of the Italian landscape. It was so beautiful. I wondered why I had wasted so much of my time going through dreary museums on my earlier trip to Rome instead of being outdoors enjoying the scenery.

Mary said...

Far from being bored, these are very interesting. Love the Meerkat :-) "Poor Steve..get well soon" is as close to sympathy I'll come for your manly cold and suffering.