when in Rome part 2

painted ceiling and walls

How many pictures of painted ceilings should I post... How many roman ruins pictures... statues... tiled floors... tapestries... maps......

We 'did' the Vatican Museum today - finishing up with the Sistine Chapel - it was a mammoth 3 hour slog - and when I say slog I don't mean it wasn't enjoyable but its bit like trying to walk backwards on a conveyor belt of people - round a most beautiful building with incredible exhibits from amazing tiled floors to the obvious painted frescoes and ceilings.

such detailed stone carving

In-between all this were sculptured bits of marble sliced and mirrored and in every kind of colour and pattern marble could ever be seen in. it was all very sumptuous -and completely over the top!!!! Every surface was patterned, tiled, marbled or painted. The Map corridor was just amazing -

map fresco only one I could get pretty much whole there were so many people about

I cant help thinking of the poor starving people out there in the world who do not in anyway benefit from this culture and beauty but as Dr Fred says you can hardly sell the Sistine chapel to clear world poverty and I know really its just the atheist in me coming out when I see such blatant opulence that I am actually privileged enough to go see.

fierce creature

I took hundreds of photos mainly of statues which were just so beautifully carved with such intricacy I couldn't leave them. I also bolstered my mythical creatures collection quite a bit and might have got a tad carried away with tiled floors!

fabulous detail of tiled floor

There was a bit of me that wished we could start the tour with the Sistine Chapel because it is so stunningly gorgeous but the glory is slightly lessened by all the previous grandeur you have just witnessed. That coupled with museum leg and the insanely packed in amount of people takes the edge of some of the worlds most iconic art. On a busy day 25,000 people visit the Sistine Chapel!!!! Still amazing and awe inspiring though to see the Michelangelo paintings for real (without additions such as coffee and spliff...)

After the museum - St Peters Square - busy and no seating! I would have liked to rest my weary legs and reflect on what we were looking at, and what we had seen. We were in St Peters Square a few years back when we discovered we had totally lost track of time and suddenly it was Easter Sunday and there was huge Mass going on and the Pope was throwing blessings around.. the choir were incredibly beautiful and it was quite spiritual but I'm still an atheist... it was a bit quieter today but lack of seats meant we carried on.

Up, up, and up A LOT of steps to the most amazing view point across the city - we could see for miles and miles. All the iconic buildings were glinting in the 32 degree heat and it was rather splendid and we sat looking eating more delicious ice cream.

view across Rome

We walked and walked and walked a bit more through the old town - up and down more steps down by the river and finally realised we were getting footsore thirsty and hungry but were also very very hot - so back to base for a shower and then a nice restaurant at the end of our road. Perfect end to a long hot culture filled day!

Scotland part 2

The second half of the week continued in much the same vein. We had one rainy afternoon which was actually quite nice to be holed up in the house with the rain lashing the windows. It probably wasn't quite so nice for the two visitors that came on their bikes but they're tough cookies - and its only water- but I did feel sorry for them having to cycle six miles back down the track in the wind and rain, but given Scotland, it wasn't as bad as it could be. The big quest for the 2nd half of the week was to find some deer antiers! The chap that owned the house dropped in to visit - he was a very friendly fella and was chatting about how this was the time of year when all the Stags lost their antlers (he collected them and sold them) so after that we were on the serious lookout. It's always been Fred's mission to find some dropped antlers.... The Monro baggers continued with the mission to bag the remaining three Monros... there is discussion as whet...

Vigo

We left the ship to explore Vigo. Its a much larger place then we expected... although tbh I hadn't given ut a lot of thought. Its a real mish mash of old and new and having got a map from tourist info we decided to follow the walking trail to the Monte Castro... the highest point of the town. Most of the town was pretty much as everywhere else... lots of traffic... lots of people... one or two interesting buildings and a lot of shopping. We headed to the art gallery - this has been a year of gallery visits so we we seen o reason to change now. The Museo de Marco is housed in the towns ex prison building and its very grand. In fact, I think that on this occaision the building might have been more interesting than the art.... Although the visiting exhibition by Susanne S D Themlitz was strangely compelling. It was a huge varied collection of eclectic items... found, salavaged, manipulated and arranged in lots of ways - weirdly inspiring - and mostly enjoyable to look at...

Funchal

So after three days at sea we finally hit Funchal in Madeira. An escape from the ship, and I have to say it was very pleasant indeed. First of all the weather is really splendid. Especially when you know that everybody else in the UK is suffering grim storms and vile winds.. Over here it is between 22 and 25 degrees is really quite warm. Funchal is a pretty city. It's built on a hill it with lots of lovely white houses with stunning red roofs. In order to get the best of it we walked along the sea front until we got to the cable car and we took it up the hill. It was a really good ride much longer than we imagined and it's quite weird because it goes right through the town - completely over everybody's house... So not only do you get a lovely vista of the bay but you can view the beautiful rooftops and get to look in everybody's gardens and to look at their picnic sets.. clean washing nice plants... scratty b...

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