When In Roma!

This may be my last post actually from Italy. I'm almost finished with exams and then its a week and a half of traveling before finally going home (which I am no where near ready to do).

The Colosseum at night.

Some B/W photoshopping.

Inside the Colosseum.
Looking out over the Tiber River.
Trevi FountainCiao!

Paestum & Pompeii

So apparently I'm only capable of updating once a month...

Over spring break I explored Southern Italy including the Greek ruins of Paestum and the Roman ruins of Pomeii.

Vesuvius looming over the city it destroyed. Pretty much anywhere you go in the Naples area you have a perfect view of the volcano, it was the first thing we saw when we got off the train.

This is in the tunnel going into the amphitheater. It was in so much better condition than the Colosseum (which by the way I saw last week and will add pics of soon). We sat on the grass in the middle of this amphitheater and ate pizza lol! How Italian is that?

Finally a lack of laziness!

Okay, I'm finally updating this thing. However, these pictures are a few weeks old because I forgot to put the newer ones from my camera on to my laptop before I left home this morning. The rest will have to be posted with my spring break pictures after I get back next week (Naples here I come!)

These pictures are going to be light on the explanations for the sake of time (and the fact that I forget what church was where).

This was actually outside of a monastery, I just thought it looked cool lol.We went to a nunnery and saw an intact medieval kitchen, so cool!

The three nuns who still live there (they use a different kitchen now). They normally don't let people see them, but they really wanted to meet us and let us take their picture!

The head nun.

Some cool old wagon lol!

And to end....yeah Charlie, yeah!

REALLY old books.

Okay last post of the day (make sure you scroll down to see the first two).

We went to the city library which is completely under construction, but they were nice enough to bring out some of their most important books to show us. Some of these were written before the printing press, others are from the Renaissance era.

These next for pics are from an astrological book, it was pretty amazing.

These circles MOVED to tell the astrological time. How awesome is that?

I really love how this picture came out. None of these were too easy to take because she was moving the pages so quickly. All of these were taken inside without a flash *hugs Zeus*

The oldest book in the library with gold leaf illumination and hand written script.
Obviously its a Bible because that was what the monks wrote mostly.

By the way, do you like my new header? Laura insisted I needed one with Italy pics so she made me this. I think it looks awesome! Thanks so much!

Italian Art

Now off to one of the biggest palaces in Macerata. Most buildings here actually are renovated palaces. This one is currently under restoration to become a museum but we got the inside scoop.

Zeus chilling out in the middle of the ballroom ceiling:

All the rooms have different themes, this particular one was the trials of Hercules.

Look Renaissance cartoons!Roman dude out on the balcony overlooking the courtyard.

This one isn't from the palace, it is from one of the local theaters. We were totally talking about how one of these days we want to get a group together and buy out one of the like 100 balconies. Even if we won't be able to understand a word of it, how awesome would an opera be under this ceiling? Pretty much the entire room looks like this.

Italy!

Well I have now been in Macerata, Italy for over two weeks and I am FINALLY updating my blog. I know everyone has been dying to see pictures of all I have been seeing so wait no longer! This is going to take me three posts to get everything on here so bare with me.
Lets start out with random pictures taken throughout Macerata.

This is a view from above of one of the many Piazzas throughout the old walled city.

This was originally built to be a sports stadium (post gladiators) but is now an outdoor theater. I so wish I was going to be here during the summer, this place is host to the second best outdoor opera in all of Italy.

Your basic Medieval city roof tiles.
These next two pictures were taken from the top of the clock tower. Unfortunately, I was too overcome by the beauty that stupid me forgot to take my camera off indoor settings so the pictures aren't the best at all. Oops!
The bell rang while we were up there. Have you ever had a giant bell ring about a foot behind your head? Cuz I'll tell ya, not so easy on the ears.
Oh yeah, I know you're jealous.

Down-Town Christmas

Last week I took a little strole down Main Street and took pictures of all the decorations, and in true lazy fashion I am only now posting them.

Welcome to the North Pole!

This is the Santa House. In the brief time as a child that I actually believed (about age 2, pathetic I know but I was a very realistic child) I thought it was so cool that of all the fake shopping mall Santas in the world we had the real one, and his house stood there year round as proof (of course he only lived there during December as the rest of the year was spent making toys at the North Pole).

50ft Santa anyone?

How about a 20ft snowman?

The Court House really needs to get some more attractive looking decorations, the building itself is pretty interesting though.

I have a feeling not many Court Houses have a baby Jesus sitting in their front yard.

As you can also see I finally got around to making a new header, which I must say is growing on me, I originally hated it but after Laura gave her positive opinion I decided to give it a go along with new template colors to match. I also added a bit of music because I thought it would be nice and relaxing. If I get annoyed by it it might not last very long, so feel free to let me know if you find it annoying as well.

Well that's about it... kind of light on the explanations tonight. I'm fighting to stay awake at least until the ball drops. Only one hour to go!

Happy New Year to all!