Dedaland

Free Week for monuments and Museums in Rome!

Of course I took advantage of it and went to visit:

- The Baths of Caracalla

- The Museum of Via Ostiense

- The Museum of the Roman Civilization

- The planetarium.

- San Pietro in Vincoli.

You can see pictures of my visits here

This is Giulio II's Mausoleum in San Pietro in Vincoli. It's famous for it was sculpted by Michelangelo. The Moses, at the feet of the construction, was so real looking and so natural that legend says... that Michelangelo hit his knee with a hammer and asked him: why can't you talk?

The one in the box are the Vincoli - that is the chains - who held Saint Peter captive before he was put to death! (don't ask me if they are real or not, I don't really care and I don't need to know! I still find this very beautiful).

Btw, because of the vulcan erupting in Iceland, nobody could fly from Rome and so... look what happened at the train Station in Termini:

These are lines to get tickets... I am standing on a balcony on top of the ticket office and the lines goes all the way out of the station and comes back in from the other side! I think they spent the day in line, poor people! I was sorry especially for those families with small kids... and lots of luggage!

There's very little left of Caracalla...

Imagine this place covered in multi colored marbles in sectile opus style and with black and white mosaics on the floor - on the upper floor - and colored ones on the bottom floor.

Supposedly it looked something like this:

Our tour guide, an archeologist called Ilaria, was very nice and detailed in explaining the history of the building and what having public baths meant in ancient Rome. Amazing! :D

The ruins are now inhabited by evil seagulls...

Will you look at this guy's face? XDDD

The Museum of Via Ostiense is attached to the Pyramid Cestia.

Of course it focuses on the road that connected Rome to its harbors Ostia and Porto.

Isn't it amazing to have an hexagonal basin inside the city?

Of course you realize how amazing the Romans were when you go to the Museum of Roman civilization. Now, this museum has no original piece in it, only replicas... then why go? Well... because while other museums have bits and pieces of this and that... this one is made in a way that through plasters and replicas it can explain to you how Rome worked: how was life for a merchant? how did a sailor work on ship? how was oil made? how did agriculture work? and so forth...

This is a restaurant menu, they serve: Chicken, fish, ham, peacock and partridge XD

You would see instruments, architecture, tools of war, weapons, book... a library... toys... and plasters reconstructing famous building - like the house of the poet in Pompeii - and Rome itself in the IV century.

Looks like sailors had it tough! ^_=

And didn't know how to swim. Just look at the pictures in the first link to see the rest of the album. I spent two wonderful days and the rest was really what I needed for my arm!