July trip
4/7 - Rome (Part 3)
*This post is the first to finally have my own pictures, since the incompetence/stupidity/laziness of a French Internet Cafe staff member in Nimes did not touch them*
Much in the Capitoline Museum was labelled in English and most were labelled in Italian. Unlike the Vatican.
Foundations of the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill
Diana Ephesia. Copy of Artemis at Ephesus. 2nd century BC
Head of Medusa, Bernini.
Capitoline She-Wolf. 5th century BC, boys added 15th century.
Finally seeing this in the flesh sent my flesh tingling. I almost wanted to suckle at the teats together with Romulus and Remus.
Battle of Alexander vs Darius. 1644-50. Pietro da Cortona.
The information panel called the execution of Brutus' (the consul) sons a "little known episode" of Roman history, but I knew about it. Heh.
Mucius Scaevola and Porsenna, Tommasa Laureti, 1584-94
This is the crazy guy who burned his hand in the fire after mailing to strike the mortal blow against the Etruscan king. I'd comment: "Damn Romans", but "Damn" is a prefix already reserved for the Japs, and "Bloody" for the French, so I'll need to find a new one.
Courtyard of Palazzo Nuovo
'Pirro' statue. Colossal statue of Mars, 1st century AD. Flavian period. Copy of another.
The Dying Gaul
Amonis and Psyches Amoris (sp?)
Altar with dedication to Sol. 2nd half of 1st century AD.
Forum from the museum. Arch of Septimus Severus.
Temple of Veiove
Unfortunately, 2 hours was not enough, even though I was running around a lot. 25 minutes before the museum's official closing time, at 7:35, they'd already closed off the main building - I'd expected 7:45, so this was ridiculous. Bloody hell, closed at 8pm my foot. So I had to miss the picture gallery; oh well, I'd seen lots of painting and was to see many more. It was too bad that I'd gotten lost earlier, due to forgetting to get a map (though St Pietro in Vincoli was nice).
Capitoline Courtyard, staircase leading to it
Capitoline Insula, 2nd century AD.
An Indian guy was selling this near the Arch of Constantine. I actually took a video in Paris, but thanks to the Cock it was lost. Luckily this wasn't lost thanks to the other idiot. The man whacked the legs of the figures on the speakers (which weren't blaring Bhangra) and they stopped dancing. He whacked them again and they started up again. I asked to try, but he adamantly refused, just restating the price. So he was either a conman, a bad salesman or both. Someone'd advised me to look for a string connected to a briefcase, but as you can see in the video there's no place a string could hide (and otherwise he could not have picked it up).
My neck pouch broke on its 4th day of use - the ring where the neck strap joined the pouch came out. I jerry rigged it back, and eventually clipped the strap to the zip, which worked for the rest of my trip.
An advantage of staying in youth hostels is that you get to meet and talk to people, and hear interesting anecdotes, even if they aren't about adventures beyond compare. For example, this Canadian blamed Sex and the City for how girls now refuse to let guys go to third base, and apparently there's a club in Prague which no one knows the name of, but everyone knows that it's called "5 floors of fun" and it's "just over the Charles bridge from the Castle". Even if you're ASAP like me (or travel to see things and not to drink, socialise and visit "5 floors of fun", especially with a tight schedule), it's nice to have the option.
Somehow the €13 batteries I got in Paris disappeared. Wth. I put them in my pocket when going to the Capitoline cloakroom, but at night they weren't there anymore. Gah.
I found that my power extension didn't work in my hostel room, nor in most of the Italian power plugs, so in Italy it was mostly useless.
Before I'd arrived, the girl in my hostel room had asked for the aircon to be turned on (the door said there was a €5 surcharge) and the man at reception brought in a fan (I can't imagine how anyone could've slept without a fan). On this second night, the man took away our fan, but turned on our aircon for free, so we got a great night's sleep. Excellent.