Rome day 2, part 2

Since this is our travel diary as well as a blog for our friends, I want to note a couple of interesting facts that I forgot to put in yesterday's blog....or maybe I was just too tired to keep typing:
--there is NO TALKING in the Sistine Chapel. And you can't take pictures. They are very serious about this and the guard confronts you and makes you delete any pics you take. No, it didn't happen to us, but we saw it happen to someone. Apparently some Japanese company paid for a restoration some time ago and the Pope gave them the copyright/licensing rights and they forbid picture taking without their approval.
--there is a Jubilee door at St. Peter's which is only opened every 25 years.


It is bricked up and cemented over until the Pope opens it on Christmas Eve of the appropriate year. It stays open for one year. All who pass thru are cleansed of their sins...a rebirth if you will. Next opening is 2025; Farley wants to know who wants to come with us to Rome for that????
--for a long time, the ancient ruins were not respected. In fact, Bernini was



told by the Pope to take down all the bronze from the Pantheon which he did (200 tons) and melted and recast it into the high alter. The high alter is 7 stories tall!
--there are no paintings in St. Peter's. It was built of materials that would "last for all eternity". The pics that looks like paintings are mosaics. You


have to get really close and get just the right light striking them to see the
little (very little) tiles. Incredible!
--St. Peter's is the largest church in the world, supposedly. Apparently there is one on the Ivory Coast of Africa that might be larger. St. Paul's in London is next in size after St. Peter's.
--we have seen lots of random cats roaming the ruins. I guess these are pretty well known. They are all fat cats; must be a lot of mice in those ruins!
--stumbled onto the quintessential "Italian guys playing chess in a square".


It was charming!
--Piazza Navona used to be filled with water each Saturday in August and mock naval battles were reenacted on "boats" pulled by horses. But this practice was stopped many years ago as the crowds enjoying the spectacle and the cool waters were too large to control.
--the large fountain in Piazza Navona depicts the greatest 4 rivers on 4


continents along with an indigenous animal for each. The Uruguay river animal (for the Americas) is the armadillo but Bernini had never actually seen
one and had to go by written descriptions. He ended up carving something that looked like a dragon instead.
--their are running fountains everywhere with fresh water where you can refill


your water bottle, from large and ornate to small single spouts hidden on
alleys. The water comes in via the aqueduct system hat was devised centuries ago.
That's all for now!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Rome, Italy