unforth | Day 8

Another day I'm ending exhausted, but my excuses are much better today, as I walked a ton, hardly sat down, and have found the time to work for four hours. Indeed, today has been a kinda stressful day in the work department, as I found out something I was going to mostly not work on until I got back is expected done on October 1st, which means I'm going to have to fit it in (And it's a BIG job) and between that and other stuff, I'm once again being reminded of how badly timed this trip is from my job perspective, dammit.

However, despite that, had a full day of sightseeing. Started out this morning to meet mom (going by taxi) at St. Peter's Basilica. Along the way, I passed a store whose name was, for me, a synonym for Eden: a "canoleria" - which, of course, means "canoli store." Well, I looked at it, feasted with my eyes, and then walked by. But as I took the steps that took me onward, I thought to myself, how can I possibly walk by a canoleria? It doesn't matter that I'm not terribly hungry. It doesn't matter that I don't need the calories. It doesn't matter that I'll have to eat it now. Could I really live with myself if I went through life never having tried the canoli from the canoleria? Of course I couldn't! So I turned around, and I got that canoli. And ya know...it wasn't the greatest canoli I've ever eaten, but it was damn good - the cream was so light yet the outside part was so crunchy...it was a very rewarding canoli experience.

We got to St. Peters at just about the same time, and I was surprised to discover a very long - but fortunately quickly moving - line to get in. The Basilica itself is pretty amazing, as well as presenting an interesting contrast in how to maintain the place as a tourist attraction vs. maintaining it as a holy place for those of the faith. This was mostly done by carefully cordoning off parts of the church and ensuring that those who came to pray could do so in some modicum of peace despite the noise and the obnoxious people (re: me - and a whole lot of other people too) wandering around taking pictures. The whole thing is pretty damn huge, with a towering ceiling, and in addition to the one main dome, there were numerous smaller domes all of which were painted to very lovely effect (that, unfortunately, due to distance and light quality were very hard to photograph). Many popes and martyrs are interred there, and over many of these sites there were very impressive sculptures. Of course, the highlight in sculptures is Michelangelo's Pieta (still behind glass after some idiot attacked it a few years ago). It's so mobbed that I just fought my way to the front, took a picture, and moved on, without hardly taking the time to really look at it and judge how impressive I thought it was, but it did seem to have a certain pathos to it, when it wasn't being illuminated by a dozen flash bulbs at once...all in all, the Basilica was suitably grand and immense to qualify as the most important holy place of one of the world's dominant religions. I wasn't as awed as I was when I saw the Cologne Cathedral, but on the inside it was pretty awe-inspiring.

Oh, I forgot. As we were leaving the Basilica, mom fell and landed with about half of her body weight on my hand (my hand was resting on a banister, and she tripped and landed on the banister, and my hand), and as a result came about as close to breaking one of my bones as anything ever has. My thumb took the brunt of it; it hurt a lot at first, and then it started to tingle, and the only reassurance I have that nothing is busted or sprained is that at no point (since the very beginning) have I had any pain when I've tried to move it. After the first couple hours it stopped tingling, and now it's mostly just stiff and achy (and this is a good 8 or 9 hours later) - as are a few other points on my hand - at this point, I'm mostly just worried that if it swells I might lose the nail, but given how bad I was worried it might be when the tingling started, I'm pretty pleased to note that it doesn't even look like it's swollen. Still - ow - definitely the closest I've come to a break in my whole life.

From there, we went over to Castel Sant'Angelo, which was original the Mausoleum of the Roman emperor Hadrian. In the centuries that followed, it was converted into a medieval fortress, the primary purpose of which was to protect the Pope should the city of Rome by attacked, revolution should happen, civil unrest, etc. It had to serve this function several times. Unfortunately, Hadrian's ashes are no longer there; interred in a sarcophagus, some pope in the Middles Ages decided he wanted that sarcophagus, so Hadrian was removed (put I have no idea where) and the sarcophagus was reassigned and relocated to someplace where it then managed to get destroyed in a fire. Charming. However, the room where it was housed is still intact, and is suitable monumental, if not otherwise terribly impressive (not particularly decorated). The two main highlights of the Castel are: 1. the popes quarters - many different popes made their stamp on the building, and many had rooms added, which often are suitably impressive looking, with paintings and frescoes, and a number of rich looking wooden furniture items. 2. the view, which you have to climb a few hundred stairs to get to, but which is panoramic of all of the directions where there's anything worth seeing (can't really see north, but there's nothing much of interest north of the Castel anyway). In addition, there's a very interesting sculpture of the angel Michael, which was carved in the 16th century by an artist named "Raphael the Mountain Wolf," and which has large brass wings attached to a marble body. There was also an exhibit on Garibaldi, who was a very important figure in the unification movement of the 19th century, and it included an interesting array of artifacts, flags, paintings, and sculptures of the man. Finally, and tragically far to small, there was a little exhibit of Italian uniforms, arms and armor from the 17th - 19th century or so. This is the first such selection I've found in the city, and though photography wasn't technically allowed, I stole a shot of a rifle with two flint locks, both shaped like dragons, which I thought was pretty awesome. It was nice to get in a little bit of arms and armor exposure, and there was a really awesome battle flag there that was huge, with a white background, black pattern, and central image of a wolf. Oh, and on one of the landings there was a rather large and pretty cool siege cross bow. :)

There wasn't much more to today, which got off to a bit of a late start. We decided to go back to Babington's despite the expense (hey, we're obsessed with afternoon tea) and then we headed back, and while we were doing so, my work stuff started to hit the fan, my stress peaked a bit, and I started working pretty much as soon as I got back, until about 20 minutes ago. Oh, and I got the first few postcards mailed, but I definitely still have a bunch more to write. So if you want a postcard and didn't ask me for one, now is your moment. :)

Still uploading pictures. Definitely not getting them attached to posts today. Now that I have all the work to do after all, probably won't get them linked before I get home. What a pain. :( Later!