Mt. Etna from the harbor

Mt. Etna

            Today we just saw steam and ash from several crater vents at the top - about 10,900 feet above sea level.  The bus ride up to the viewing areas and the ski slope resort/shop areas gave impressive views of the city, the Mediterranean Sea, and the fertile wheat and grape fields. You could see where the lava flows have created rough porous rocky troughs and paths down the mountainside.
          

Crater and lava flows

Lava flows

Older lava flows now partially covered with vegetation

Silvestri Crater

Aa lava

         We were very impressed with the size and destructive force of Mt. Etna.  We were told that the road and a few houses were most recently buried in six meters of lava and ash but no one has ever died in one of these eruptions.  This was also the coolest day of the entire trip - because of the altitude.

Italian EU license plate - we didn't see any in Venice, only boats

Mt Vesuvius topped by clouds, not steam - Naples is in the foreground

       Evidently a Greek sailor 40 miles out to sea witnessed the eruption and wrote about what he saw.  He described the eruption as the shape of a huge "umbrella" pine tree. 

Umbrella pine trees

       We entered the ruins with our local guide and walked - in 90°+ heat and sun - to the marketplace that was originally next to the harbor and the odeon or small roofed theater.  There were eight gates into Pompeii and in the first century of Roman rule it was a peaceful, active, trading, commercial, and residential city. 

Mt Vesuvius beyond the walls of Pompeii

Walls of Pompeii

Marketplace or agora

Roman theater still used occasionally for performances

      We walked through streets wide enough for a chariot and the larger boulevards running north to south. Many of the streets contained large "speed bumps" - large, rounded rock structures designed to slow the chariots or to entirely prevent them from using the street.

Street with chariot "speed bumps"

Chariot "speed bumps"

Mural on the wall of a house of prostitution

Groove for a sliding door in the threshold of a shop

Market square with temples of Apollo and Diana

      Most of the statues, mosaics, fountains, etc. are displayed in the Archaeologic Museum in Naples (which we did not visit). Also, most of the original buried remains of people, animals, etc. are in the Museum.

      On display at the site, are casts of the people and animals as well as many other artifacts.

Pregnant woman

Dog caught by the lava

St. Peter's Basilica is supposedly the largest in the Christian world.  (There are marks on the main floor to indicate the length of Notre Dame, St. Paul's, etc.)

St. Peter's Square

The colonnade that encompasses the square was designed by Bernini to signify the arms of a mother caressing her children.  There are statues of 140 saints at the top of the columns.

Egyptian obelisk marking to site of St. Peter's crucifixion

Bernini's fountain

Swiss Guards

Center bronze door with a relief of Nero watching St. Peter die on the cross (lower right panel)

            Inside, the basilica is stunning.  All of the paintings on the ceiling and huge walls were changed to mosaics by Pope Gregory II.  The highlight of St. Peter's is without a doubt the Pieta.  It is now behind glass because a disturbed geologist attacked the sculpture with a geologist’s hammer in 1972.  The marble is a translucent white, the emotion in Mary's posture and the precision of the anatomies are incredible.  It really gives chills up the spine it is so beautiful.

Michelangelo's Pieta

Great dome of St. Peter's

The baldachin or canopy over the high altar - the apse of the Cathedra is in the background

A smaller dome

Aqueduct down the street from the Coliseum

Arch of Constantine

           The coliseum is actually two "C" shaped amphitheaters put together.  It had a double arch outer structure but several parts are in ruins because of "recycling" of the marble. 

Our "we were there" photo

         Below the slab are the cages for the animals and cells for the prisoners and gladiators.  The Romans created the first elevators operated by pulleys and counterweights to bring the animals up to the arena.  The arena stones were covered with sand so the blood was absorbed and not slippery. 

        Some of the coliseum has been restored and some is in ruin but we are able to imagine how it was almost 2000 years ago.

Trevi Fountain

Trevi Fountain - you can even see the coin!

            We had some free time so we walked the narrow alley-like streets to the Pantheon.  The original Roman temple to the mythological gods has been restructured into the Basilica of Santa Maria and Martyrs.  We stood inside and tried to envision it as the Roman temple that lay beneath the religious paintings.

The Pantheon

            We still had time so we walked back and over to the Spanish Steps.  We climbed all the way up and popped into the church at the top and then down and back to our tour group.

Spanish Steps

Obelisk at the top of the steps

Sundial on the Trinita dei Monti church

Traditional clock and sundial - neither working