Elephants, octopus and cellists

After waking up at noon today (I kid you not), we only had time for a PM stroll, so chose to wander the historic centre of Rome. We picked that in part because I love the Pantheon.

I think it is an architectural and engineering marvel. Built (re-built, actually) in 126 AD, it's just a remarkable place.

The imposing facade

The glorious roof 

The hole in the roof. Just once, I'd like to come here in a rainstorm

The light from the hole in the roof. Dramatic 

The awesome interior 

They have columns. I like columns. 

Beautiful Corinthian caps 

Remnants of the columns outside, too

43 m tall, 43 m across, with a 9 m hole in the ceiling. Brilliant.

There's a bunch of other famous stuff in that neighbourhood, one of which is an elephant.

Yep, and he's holding an Egyptian obelisk 

He's cute

He's not just an elephant. He's a Bernini elephant. Bernini sculpted all sorts of things around Rome, including two of the fountains in Piazza Navona.

The rather large piazza 

Not a Bernini fountain. There's 3 

Not Bernini, but a dude fighting an octopus 

The famous shot of Bernini's famous fountain 

More of Bernini's

Done by Bernini and his students

Piazza Navona was the host to the first of the street performers we have seen here, including a dude dressed as a cowboy statue.

How "Roman"

Based on my observation, that's a tough gig. The dude took several 10 min sit down breaks while we were there. You get to spend your day in makeup, too. Plus posed. Stationary. No wonder he needed breaks. And how Roman is a gunfighter from the USA ole' west? There was another dude beside him dressed like an Egyptian mummy.

Mummy getting ready. Cowboy taking break.

There were magicians, and a jazz band that wasn't bad. Plus spray paint artists. I like spray paint artists. I first saw them years ago in Victoria.

He had quite the crowd

There were two of them doing similar styles of work, but this guy was better, and was selling well.

After the piazza, we wandered, as we are wont to do. We saw some interesting things, as is wont to happen in Rome.

A narrow building on a corner 

A pretty place to park your scooter 

A grocery store, downtown Rome style

Horrible rooftop apartment 

Yep, it's a birdcage 

Distressed building + restaurant

Near our bus stop, we ran across a very cool street performer: a cellist in an alcove next to a gelateria.

He plays on a landing 

What a great setting

Intense playing

We stood there listening, enjoying our gelato, and he was good. As in I heard him make one mistake in three tunes good. In his cello case (at the bottom of the stairs where you could throw coins) was a paper with tabs you could "rip off" because he offered private lessons good. But...

I'm a big fan of using my zoom lens. And this is what I saw when I got home:

Um, what's that in his ears and across his face?

He's wearing headphones. And sitting on an amplifier/speaker combo. I'd like to think he was listening to music to play along with -- but if so, why does he need a music stand? Maybe he was waiting for a phone call from the Italian Philharmonic. But the cynic in me thinks perhaps his gig was the "rip off", and he was, in fact, doing an "air cello" routine (though he did stop to tune between tunes. But you can fake that, too). I did some searching on YouTube and found he plays elsewhere, too. I'm hopeful that I'm wrong and in fact he's just a good cellist, and not a street scammer. Either way, he earned an euro from KC.

Right next to our bus stop, we saw a depressing sight.

These people have no business here

Tomorrow: Castel Gandolfo, Albano Laziale, the Colli Albani and Castelli Romani. Anyone who drank a LOT of cheap wine 20 years ago knows the latter two.

Fountains, and hiking, Italian style

After 2 failed attempts, we got up to Tivoli today. We were quite quick getting there, in part because Karen ran out from the metro and leapt aboard the bus without stopping. And without buying a ticket. Oops. Okay, the bus was in the station and about to leave (they run every 10 minutes, however). We thought you could buy tickets on the bus (we ran past a ticket office, however). They never check for tickets (except this bus had signs asking people to point out ticket violators). We mucked up.

Tivoli sits in the hills above Rome, and is known for the gardens and villas. We first headed into the most famous villa, Villa d'Este, known for its grandiose fountains. And they are indeed grandiose.

The one on top's a separate fountain with a water-powerd organ

Lots of them. Big and small.

Sorry about the raindrop 

The organ

I thought about posting movies of the organ playing. We shot three, and they're actually not bad. They're also huge. As in ginormous. As in the smallest is over 50 Mb, or the equivalent of posting 25 odd photos. Which would take me all night to load.

The fish ponds 

The fish ponds in the spray 

The Eagles 

He needs a kleenex 

The Fountain of the Leaking Boobs 

Not running, but just imagine 

Water rains down on the the tigers 

More tigers. Lots of tigers. All leaking 

Curtains of water 

The balustrade's leaking 

So's this one

The owner of this place liked water. There's at least 40 different fountains and water features, plus manicured gardens. Plus staircases -- lots of staircases -- and spectacular views.

Rome's in the distance (no tall buildings so you can't see it) 

Stairs and ramps 

Lots of stairs 

Lots and lots of stairs

Manicured hedgerows

Our second stop was Villa Gregoriana. For the record, it's not a villa. It's a spectacular chasm full of waterfalls and lush vegetation that is reminiscent of hiking on Maui (if Maui didn't divert all the water to grow sugar cane). Think hiking up waterfalls on the Hana coast, only with marble steps built by the Romans. Okay, it was actually a chasm known by the Romans but re-engineered to control flooding by a Pope in 1835 -- overlooked by two Roman temples.

They can't decide which is the Temple of Vestra or Sybil 

The path leads deep -- 120 m deep -- into the gorge, which contains an old Roman house.

Rooms and foundations 

Life in the cliff walls

There's a whacking huge 130 m waterfall, resulting from them tunnelling through the rock to divert the majority of the river that runs through town.

Just the top part

Just the bottom. The middle's missing

Getting to this overlook is "interesting".

An "uncomfortable walk"

 Down deeper in the chasm are several other big waterfalls, two of which are about 50 m each.

In the lush gorge

These appear through something called Neptune's Grotto.

From the other side

Up close

Actually, less then half the water comes out of the waterfall in the shot above. Most pours out of another grotto under the waterfall, which was tough to get a photo of.

To access this grotto and waterfall, the Romans bored a tunnel through the rock (before that, they apparently used a rope).

The tunnel 

What it looks like from the other side

All this water disappears into a hole in the ground (called the Mermaid Grotto) and emerge as another waterfall just out of sight.

The temples literally sit on the cliff's precipice.

No falling over 

Did I mention I like columns? 

Yep, columns 

Corinthian caps on them columns

Tivoli itself is a pretty little town sitting on a hillside, and nice respite from the bustle of Rome. The "villas" are the most popular bit, but there are others we didn't get to, such as Rocca Pia, a fortress built in 1416...

Very gothic 

Nice towers

...or the Roman Temple of the Tosse, kind of like a miniature Pantheon, built in the 4th century...

I like the hole in the ceiling

...or the Sanctuary of Hercules the Winner, circa 2nd Century. It was huge; the metal frame is what the front of it used to look like...

Note the amphitheatre on the left

...or the Villa of Hadrian, which is 4 km out of town at the bottom of the hill, but supposedly a superb site.

Next time. There's always a next time.

Tomorrow, the Vatican Museums are free, for it is the last Sunday of the month. Wonder what the crowd will be like?

And no, Tony, despite your fine recommendation I'm not going to race though to be the first in the Sistine Chapel. I've been in there 3 times already, and they don't allow photos at all these days.