Mozart’s Balls Are Delicious

On July 15, 2013January 26, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - Europe17 Comments

So far in the crazy travel-heavy month of May, I’d already visited Venice, Rome, Vatican City, and Dublin. For my last trick in May, I also spent a couple of days in Salzburg. I took hundreds of pictures, of course, and I’ve whittled this post down to thirty-eight images that tell the story of my weekend.

Before I get into the pictures, though, I wanted to say this: My first few hours in Salzburg made me despise the city. After I got to the hotel and had a brief nap, I felt a lot better and I started to really enjoy things. Those first few hours were really shaky though, and here’s why:

The public transportation didn’t work. The city’s famed bus system seemed to be using the posted schedule as a vague suggestion rather than an actual schedule. The city also has a very small underground train system which didn’t appear to be running at all. One of the bus lines I tried to use seemed to have a “next bus” time that was about eight hours in the future. There were no easily readable line maps, so when I did try a bus, I wound up in a part of the city that I was unfamiliar with, and I never reached anything even remotely recognizable. I found out later that a lot of this is because there were major streets closed for some sort of vintage car rally. I eventually snagged another bus back to the Hauptbahnhof, and just took a taxi to my hotel.

My hotel was amusing to me. It had upside-down cows painted in the room. The lamp said “Moo!” (Although it said it in German.) And in between the thermostat and the slot for your room card, there was an inspirational message. I’m not sure if there was beer hidden in my room. If there was, I never spotted it.

After I checked in and had a brief nap, I felt much better. I went out to try to grab the bus into the heart of the city for my first evening in Salzburg, and I wound up waiting another 45 minutes for the bus that was supposed to be there in five. I did eventually make it to the old part of town though:

While walking through the town, I spotted this sign. It made me giggle because I am apparently eight years old.

Giant statue of Mozart? Check. This must be Salzburg!

While I was waiting for my dinner to start on that first evening, I saw some people coming out of a church with cameras. I’m always curious about what other people find interesting, so I ducked inside. I’m glad I did; this is what I saw inside of St. Peter’s.

I don’t normally do this sort of thing, but I made a donation and lit one of these remembrance candles. Something about this church moved me to do so. Perhaps it was because of all the musical history in Salzburg. I’m not sure. People who have known me for a long time can probably guess who I was thinking about when I lit the candle.

After I spent a little bit of time in the church, it was time for dinner. As a treat for myself, I booked a seat at the Mozart Dinner Concert in the Barocksaal, the wonderful baroque room of Stiftskeller St. Peter, which is the oldest restaurant in Europe. It’s referenced in a document from the year 803, which is kind of staggering to think about. This is what the Baroquehall looks like:

The Mozart dinner concert is this: Drinks and bread rolls, followed by music. Then a soup course, then a second set of music. Then a main dinner course, and a third and final set of music. Finally, a dessert course. The photo below was my program, both musically and food-wise. The food was amazing.

The performers were talented, personable, and quite funny. This was a wonderful way to course-correct after the public transportation cock-ups earlier in the day. By the end of the evening, even though I still had to wait for the bus back to my hotel, I was feeling much better about Salzburg.

For day two, I started with a nice walking tour of the city. This is the part at which I mention that it was raining the entire time I was in Salzburg. The entire time. From my arrival to my departure, it never stopped. Not once. It did get lighter at times though, and it was a little bit lighter during the walking tour.

Part of the tour was in the gardens at Schloss Mirabell, Mirabell Palace. If you’ve ever seen The Sound Of Music, then these shots will look a little bit familiar. Julie Andrews and the kids went through here during the “Do Re Mi” bit.

The guy in the hat was our tour guide. He was very good. And yeah, it was an umbrella-laden tour. Lots of rain.

I should mention that the “I Heart London” umbrella I bought last summer finally bit the dust on this trip, and I replaced it with an appropriately musical Salzburg umbrella.

Seen on the walking tour: The house that Mozart lived in. I came back to this later.

The house where Christian Doppler was born. I think of him every time I hear “Sailing” by Christopher Cross. He’s a one-man Doppler Effect demonstration.

Another nice view of the old city.

So I’d never heard of Urban Knitting before this trip. Apparently, there’s a lot of people who go around knitting hats and whatnot for statues. I’m not at all sure how I feel about this hobby. It’s strangely entertaining, though.

There’s a fun (but completely fictional) story behind the “Stierwascher” image below. I’ll borrow text from visit-salzburg.net to tell the story, because they can tell it way better than I can.

During the period of the peasant′s riots of 1525, the city of Salzburg was under a siege. Soon the city′s population was running short of food, and fear spread when only a single bull was left within the mighty city walls.

Then the commander of the defending troops is said to have had an idea: he ordered to paint the naturally brown bull with white stain and lead it up and down the city walls on display to the enemy. The next day, they would wash the bull, paint it in black and do the same thing again. The next day, they would paint the bull red, then spotted, and so on.

In the end, the enemy thought that the people of Salzburg were slaughtering a bull every day, expecting that the live stocks were still large enough to feed the troops and people in the city for a very long time. Eventually, the troops that kept Salzburg under siege withdrew, leaving Salzburg to freedom. Under cheer and laughter, the bull was led to the Salzach river and washed until he appeared again in his natural brown. Ever since then, people from Salzburg are called “Stierwascher” – bull washers.

In fact, bull-shitters would be more appropriate with respect to this story. The whole legend is nothing but fiction, the real reason for the name “Stierwascher” are the butchers of Salzburg that were committed to slaughter bulls in public spaces to allow the authorities to control the quality of the meat. The slaughtering was done by the shore of the Salzach River to allow the blood being washed off quick and easily. This is the less romantic, but apparently more authentic root of the “Stierwascher”.

This is a view down the Getreidegasse, a popular shopping street. The close up shot is the detail on the classiest McDonald’s sign I’ve ever seen. McDonald’s was not allowed to put up their traditional supertacky sign here- they had to adjust their sign to conform with the rules of Getreidegasse.

Mozart’s birth house. A museum and gift shop. Kind of interesting, if you’re into musical history.

The walking tour went through a very populated old cemetery near St. Peter’s, and I took a few shots of interesting headstones while we were inside. I think these two shots came out particularly well.

It’s Europe, so of course there are giant cathedrals.

…and big courtyards. The tower in this shot is full of carillon bells that ring three times a day. I was never close enough to hear them at any of those times. Oh well.

The walking tour concluded back at Mozartplatz. My earlier shot didn’t really give you a good sense of just how big Amadeus is here. Both literally and figuratively.

Street musicians. Street musicians in costume. I didn’t stop long, but they sounded good.

This cool statue is in the alcove behind where the last group of guys was singing. The graffiti on the wall behind the statue totally makes it, don’t you think?

I know this is random, but I passed a snack shop at one point, and I have to say that this is perhaps the creepiest advertising image I have ever seen. It’s all kinky and weird with his four-fingered hands and weird stripey knee socks.

Not far from the creepy hot dog figure is a funicular that will take you up to Hohensalzburg Castle. We have already established in this blog that I like high places, so of course I’m going to go up. You can get there on foot- it’s about a 25 minute climb- but it was rainy and wet, so I elected for the funicular instead.

A quick Salzburg travel tip- I paid for the Salzburg Card on this trip. Not only does it give you entrance to a lot of the museums in the city, but it also includes unlimited bus usage for your stay, as well as a ride on the funicular up to this awesome view:

The Salzburg Card also included entrance to the Salzburger Spielzeug Museum. I can’t pass up a Toy Museum! We’ve already established that I’m basically eight years old.

There’s one small problem, though. The toy museum won’t allow you to go through in your normal street shoes. You have two choices. Option one: You can use some of the communal Crocs in the lobby. While these are slightly more stylish than most Crocs, I have sworn never to wear Crocs.

Option two is to put these little plastic booties over your shoes and just wear them around the museum. While this looks infinitely sillier, the choice was a no-brainer. Besides, now I have something to put over my bicycle seat when it’s wet.

The toy museum was indeed full of toys. There was a rather fantastic race car track, for example.

This was the find that got me the most excited. It was in a section of the museum where very small toys were suspended in clear cylinders and there were magnifying glasses nearby to look at the detail.

I didn’t need the magnifying glass though. I’d know this car anywhere, because I used to play with one just like it when I was a kid. This is Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and the slip of red plastic along the running board is a fold out plastic wing. There’s a matching wing on the other side. One of my siblings had this Matchbox flying car when I was a kid, and I remember it like it was yesterday.

Last but not least, I have two pictures from Mozart’s residence house. The first picture is of some of his musical instruments. I took this right before a woman told me I wasn’t allowed to take pictures. I’m a rebel!

Just before you leave the museum (and exit through a gift shop, naturally,) there’s a place where you can “Mozart yourself.” I thought this was too fantastically silly not to share.

Other than the umbrella, there was one other thing that I brought back with me from Salzburg, and it’s what I was talking about in the title of this post- Mozart Balls. Mozartkugeln, actually. Words cannot describe how delicious this candy is. I’m glad I only got a very small box of them.

Have you ever been to Salzburg? What was your favorite part? Did you take the “Sound Of Music” tour that seems to annoy the locals quite a bit?

BMW World

On July 11, 2013May 30, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - Inside Germany6 Comments

I visited BMW Welt (World) with Jenny and her merry band. BMW Welt is a tourist attraction in Munich, at the entrance to the Olympiapark. It showcases the company’s cars and a lot of people bring their children there because there’s a lot of interactivity. There’s also a full service restaurant upstairs.

I found it all to be kind of underwhelming. It was an interesting way to kill an hour, but I can’t imagine spending much more time there. I think this is a place for people who love cars. I’m not their target audience.

There’s some random kid-oriented stuff like this stilted police-woman.

In the kid’s section, there was a giant contraption with balls on tracks racing around the wirework in the center. I watched this for quite a while because it was kind of fascinating.

There’s a giant Mini section. (LOL, I said “giant Mini.”) You can sit in most of the cars- only a few are behind ropes like this.

For no reason I can adequately explain, there were a bunch of little girls in yellow and black facepaint on inline skates.

The facility is kind of like a giant showroom. The deck on the top right in this photo is brand new BMWs which are awaiting pick-up from their new owners. BMW-Welt is right next to the BMW headquarters, so picking up your new car here is something of an honor, I think.

That tower there? That’s the BMW headquarters.

Here’s another shot of the yellow-faced kids on wheels, because why not.

There were also several rows of BMW motorcycles bolted to the floor so that you could get on them and see how it feels.

Have you ever been to BMW-Welt? Did you get in any of the cars?

Munich X-Games: Ford RallyCross

On July 4, 2013May 30, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - Inside Germany2 Comments

Last weekend, I went into Munich with Jenny and her boyfriend Robert, to see a portion of the X-Games. Specifically, we went to see the Ford RallyCross races.

The race itself was really interesting. The cars were small and fast: Ford Fiestas, some sort of Subaru, some Volkswagens, and one Mini Cooper. The cars were kept under tents for the mechanics to work on them between races. Each tent had the driver’s picture on a banner next to it.

Most of the races we saw were qualifying heats, like this one with seven cars starting out.

I mentioned the Mini Cooper. Here it is, number 33 with the Monster logo on the side. The Mini actually won this heat; it was a really fast car.

Here’s some other cars from various races. Part of the track was dirt and gravel, and it really kicked up a lot. On several of the races, the cars had their windshield wipers on despite it being a perfectly clear day.

I kept thinking this driver was Italian for some reason, but he was actually from Brazil.

A lot of these cars were fast enough to do a little jump on one of the gravel sections. I took a lot of pictures of cars in mid-air, but none of them were sharp enough to be worth posting here. Here, pretend this car is flying through the air.

The gravel section had some sharp turns, and the cars kicked up a LOT of stuff. This car is in the middle of a turn. Also, this car kept stalling later in the day, so I suspect that he’s getting a lot of stuff in his air intake. Not that I’m a mechanic or anything.

One of the best parts of watching this event was actually the wrecks. Some of them were pretty subtle, like this one. I didn’t see him go into the wall, I was looking at a different part of the track. Note all the spectators on the hill.

Here’s what that car looked like when they pulled it out. I suspect the hole in the side behind the door is from whatever impact shoved him into the wall in the first place.

After every wreck like that, they had to stop to pull the disabled car out, and then crew members would clean up the track from debris. Here they are, cleaning the track. We were hoping they would do a dance number with their brooms, but it never happened.

One of the qualifying heats started with nine cars. Once they cleared the wrecks, they restarted it with seven cars. They cleared the wrecks again and restarted it with four cars. Two cars actually finished that qualifying heat. Very entertaining.

They did a lot of car-on-car violence, like this bumper kiss.

In the final race, there were ten cars at the start. They did the entire thing without having to stop, reset, and restart the race. There was plenty of damage and mayhem, though.

Early in the final race, this happened. That blue and green car was run into the water barrels. It went up on two wheels, as you can see here, and the crowd did a “whooooo” sound.

Amazingly, the car came back down onto all four wheels and kept going.

He did suffer some damage from the two-wheeler moment. He went a good long distance dragging his bumper behind him. There were plenty of other bumpers on the track, and yellow flags were used to warn the drivers of debris.

At the end of each run, a white flag would indicate the last lap, and a checkered flag would indicate the race is over.

This is the third place winner. He left his rear bumper back in the gravel. The second place winner was the guy in the Mini Cooper.

The winner of all of this was Toomas Heikkinen, a 22-year-old from Finland. Follow that link to see video from ESPN during the race. This was his car. It flew over this track.

Have you ever seen a RallyCross event? Did it make you want to drive faster?

Dublin

On July 1, 2013January 26, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - Europe13 Comments

I wasn’t kidding when I said that May was a crazily busy travel month. Four days after I got back from Italy, I hopped on another plane to go to Dublin, Ireland. I arrived on a Thursday afternoon, made my way to my hotel, and stashed my stuff. Four hours after I set foot in Ireland for the first time, I was waiting for my first tour of the trip.

Normally when I start in a new city, I’ll either explore on my own at first or I’ll take a guided tour that gives me a good overview of a city. Hop-on/Hop-off bus tours are really good for this, because you can see a lot of major sites in one pass and decide easily what you want to spend your time on later.

Dublin was different though. About two months before my Dublin trip, I stumbled across the “Le Cool Dublin Experience” online. From their website: “Find out about DIY culture, street art, fashion, emerging music and literature, artists, hidden historical gems and the latest trends.”

In other words, you never know what you’re going to get when you sign up for a Le Cool Dublin walk. The route and stops are different each time. Only the date and time are announced in advance, so you get there and the rest of the walk is a surprise. “This continually evolving two-hour tour will reflect the now and engage with people behind initiatives which are reshaping Dublin city in vibrant and meaningful ways.”

My tour started with a Q&A session with Jean Butler, who was in preparations for her show, “Hurry.” I was unfamiliar with Jean Butler before this walk, even though I’m quite familiar with Riverdance, a show she helped to launch. If you’re curious, just go to Youtube and put ‘Jean Butler’ in the search box. She’s quite well known, just not to me before this tour.

The Le Cool tour moved on to this gentleman, a tailor who makes hand-made suits. Jude Hughes has been running a tailoring shop in the same location since the 1980s. (Interesting side note: I did some Google searches to find the best link to point to for Jude, and in every single picture I’ve seen of him, he’s wearing a green sweater. Possible the same green sweater in every photo. That’s a bold, Barney-Stinson move, don’t you think?)

Our tour also visited a pair of people who were rushing to open up a new restaurant with a grand opening less than two days later- they were still constructing the place, and had just put the walk-in refridgerator into the building. They spoke with us for a few minutes but couldn’t really stick around.

The final stop of our Le Cool tour was at the apartment of Kevin Powell and Robin Hoshino, the folks behind News Of The Curd, to talk about their suppers. They do a weekly two course supper for roughly a dozen people, using locally sourced and seasonal ingredients in the Temple Bar area.

The Le Cool Experience walking tour was a very interesting introduction to the city, before I got on with the more typical touristy tours I had on my plate for the trip.

After the Le Cool tour wrapped up, I walked around a bit in Temple Bar. Up until this trip, I thought that Temple Bar was a specific bar- I didn’t realize it was an entire part of the city until I got there. Lesson learned!

I thought this pair of street musicians had a neat gimmick going. the “invisible” drummer was pretty good.

On Friday morning, as I prepared to go out for a walking tour of Dublin, something terrible happened. Travesty! Suffering! Ragnarok!

I dropped my camera.

The UV filter (pictured below) took the brunt of the impact, and it was buried with full honors in the hotel room. The helicoil of the lens was not unaffected. It made a weird snapping sound whenever I adjusted the focus of the camera, and the autofocus was no longer quite so automatic. I was able to use the camera somewhat for the walking tour that lie ahead, but I noted the location of a good camera shop so that I could visit around lunchtime.

While I waited for the walking tour to start, I was suitably impressed by the full frontal advertising on the Savoy movie theatre on Upper O’Connell Street.

The walking tour itself covered a lot of interesting things. Dublin has a tremendous amount of old churches that have been repurposed into other things. This one is a bar and restaurant, for example. Naturally, it’s called “The Church.”

The walking tour also passed by Dublin’s castle. It’s not the biggest castle I’ve ever seen, but at least it looks like a castle. Some of the castles I’ve been to hear barely look like a castle at all. This one could have been the model used to sculpt the chess piece of the same name.

During the walking tour, we kept hearing rampaging hordes of screaming children, without really understanding why. It turns out they were all doing their part to be tiny vikings on the amphibious “Viking Splash” tour. With all the hats, this was actually too cute not to share.

The walking tour concluded in the main courtyard of Trinity College. This works out well for me, because I wanted to see the Book of Kells anyway. Near to the Book of Kells is the Trinity College bell tower.

It is said that it rings whenever a virgin walks beneath the arch. It was also a very quiet day around the bell tower.

The main chamber of the Trinity College library is called “The Long Room,” and it’s easy to see why. This place was massively cool to see.

The courtyard behind the bell tower is also where I stumbled across my second sighting of Sfera con Sfera. This one has a significantly smaller diameter than the one at the Vatican, but it seems to be otherwise identical.

Not far from Trinity College is Merrion Square, a small green area where you can find a statue of Oscar Wilde made out of different colored stone.

There were a lot of really interesting statues around Dublin. In fact, I missed a bunch of really good ones. I didn’t get to see the Phil Lynott (from Thin Lizzy) statue on Henry Street because I didn’t know it was there until I’d already left. I did see Jim Larkin, though. I love the outrage of this statue. From one of his noted speeches, “The great appear great because we are on our knees: Let us rise.”

Of course Dublin is also famous for being home to more literary greats than you can shake a stick at. Some of them even come with their own stick. For example, James Joyce.

All the famous writers give way to the current crop. This guy was offering poetry for change. I’m not sure whether it was original poetry or borrowed; I didn’t ask.

This giant spike on O’Connell Street is called the Monument of Light, or the Spire of Dublin. The locals have more colorful names for it, because they really don’t like it very much. (The one I can remember right now is “The Stiffy on the Liffey.” Yeah. ) It was built to replace Nelson’s Pillar, which was destroyed by a bomb in 1966.

Not far from the end of O’Connell Street is the Liffey Bridge, known coloquially as the Ha’Penny Bridge. This is a pretty famous landmark, and is featured in movies and television quite often when Dublin turns up.

The Liffey Bridge is yet another bridge that gets the ‘Locks of Love‘ treatment.

More street musicians. Music is everywhere in Dublin. Most of it is even good.

Dublin is a city with a lot of interesting random things going on. For example, I think this was a bachelor party. The gentleman in the yellow and green top was dressed as a leprechaun. Four seconds after I snapped this picture, a random girl ran up and hugged him. I rather wish I’d gotten that picture instead of this one.

There was also a sporting event going on all weekend while I was there, a rugby final between two French teams. As a result, I kept seeing people dressed in the team’s colors.

That last picture was a group I spotted when I was on my way to Kilmainham Gaol. This famous prison is often featured in movies and television. It’s the location where members of the 1916 Easter Rising were imprisoned and, in many cases, executed.

This is the interior cell wall of the jail cell occupied by Grace Gifford Plunkett. She marreid Joseph Plunkett hours before his execution for the uprising in 1916, and was later jailed for her activities with the IRA in 1923. She spent three months in Kilmainham Gaol, and she painted pictures on the walls of her cell, including the Virgin Mary and Christ as seen here through the cell door’s round peep-hole.

This section of the jail has appeared quite often in films and television.

This courtyard is where many of the executions were held by firing squad.

Touring Kilmainham Gaol is very interesting, to be sure, but it’s also sobering and oppressive and the best way to counter that effect is to swing by Leo Burdock’s afterward for some famous traditional fish and chips.

If you luck onto a sunny day, there’s lots of nice things to see. This “Garden of Remembrance” in Parnell Square is pretty and quiet.

There are lots of green spaces in Dublin, and on a sunny and warm day, the flowers are fantastically eye-catching. By this point in the day, I had acquired a new camera lens, and this was actually one of my test shots to see how the new lens was working out. Pretty good, I’d say.

Then there’s Phoenix Park. On more than 1700 acres, this is one of the largest walled city parks in Europe. The Dublin Zoo is actually inside Phoenix Park. So is the Wellington Monument, seen below. The monument is the tallest obelisk in Europe. I like tall things.

This building is Christ Church Cathedral. I only saw this one from the Hop-on/Hop-off tour bus. It sure is neat looking though, isn’t it?

Look, random street art!

There are three more things that you should not visit Dublin without trying at least once, even though they’re incredibly touristy. The first is the Traditional Irish Music Pub Crawl. This starts in a pub, moves to another pub, and then wraps up in yet another pub. You sit, you drink, and you learn about traditional Irish music. You learn about the instruments, the styles, the structure. You learn about reels and jigs and lock-ins. And it’s all fabulous. Mine was run by these two guys.

The second must-do in Dublin is to attend a show of traditional Irish step-dancing. This is often done as dinner-and-a-show, and in that regard it reminded me a great deal of the flamenco show that we saw in Barcelona.

If it were me, I would totally crack my head on those stage lights.

Last, but definitely not least, in my list of must-do items for a visit to Dublin is the most touristy of the three. I don’t care, it’s still worth it. Visit the Guinness Storehouse. This is a giant facility attached to the Guinness Brewery. It’s not a brewery tour, but it does teach you a great deal about the making of beer.

Here’s a fun fact about the Guinness Brewery. See the cláirseach, the celtic harp in the Guinness logo? That’s facing with the curve on the right. Compare that to the image used officially by the Irish government on buildings and coins. The reason for this change of direction is that the harp was trademarked by the Guinness corporation in 1876, so when the Irish government started using it in 1922, they had to turn it around.

But I digress. Let’s get back to the Guinness Storehouse.

Outside of the Guinness Storehouse, the horses that pull the carriages are forced to suffer the indignity of tiny hats. They manage, though.

Embedded in the floor at the center of the main hall is the original 9,000 year lease signed by Arthur Guinness in the 1700s. That made made absolutely sure that he would be able to keep making beer in the same place for a good long time.

The experience is mildly educational, and full of interesting factoids.

Partway up, there’s a place to stop for a snack. I highly recommend the Guinness Chocolate Muffins. I cannot overstate how delicious these were. I wish I had one right now, in fact.

There’s a section called The Guinness Academy, where you can learn to pour the perfect Guinness. You get a certificate and everything.

Finally, there’s the reason that I wanted to go in the first place- The Gravity Bar. At the very top of the Guinness Storehouse, there’s a few more stairs.

They lead to the Gravity Bar. This giant glass walled bar overlooks the surrounding countryside. Your admission to the Storehouse includes a complimentary pint of Guinness, and this is the best place in Dublin to drink it.

For the record, Guinness tastes very different here then it does elsewhere. I’m not sure why this is. Some people say it’s just because it’s fresher. My personal theory is that bottling a beer for export changes the flavor in subtle ways. This is why German beer in America doesn’t taste quite the same as German beer in Germany, in my opinion.

I’m no expert though. I just think it tastes better in Dublin.

Here, have a pint.

Do you like Guinness? Do you like chocolate muffins? Do you think I missed something fantastic on my Dublin trip that I didn’t picture here?

Vatican City: It’s Full Of Papal Stuff

On June 13, 2013January 26, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - Europe9 Comments

Previously, on “Steven and Michelle Go To Italy,” our peripatetic siblings checked out Venice and Rome. What’s left? The Vatican, of course! This was our first view of St. Peter’s Piazza, a.k.a. Pope Central.

The archways on either side of the Piazza have a lot of columns on either side of the breezeway- they look like this. Pretty impressive, right?

The way in to the Vatican museums was an enormous spiral walkway. I don’t think this was the usual way in; they said something about the usual way being blocked off for some reason. Anyway, this was a herd moment.

At the top, there’s a series of rooms, and this incredible view. From here, St. Peter’s Basilica looks like a matte painting in a Lucasfilm movie, doesn’t it?

This was our tour guide. She’s from Indiana, as it turns out, but she lives in Rome and works as a Vatican tour guide. She has an incredible amount of knowledge. The big bronze sphere she’s standing in front of is a sculpture called Sfera con Sfera (Sphere within Sphere) by an artist named Arnaldo Pomodoro. Our tour guide pointed out that Arnaldo Pomodoro sounds very nice in Italian, but in English, he’d just be Arnie Tomato. This amuses me.

Sfera con Sfera rests on a disk of mercury, and can be spun by a single person. It’s heavy, but moveable.

I didn’t know this when I was in Vatican City, but there are actually thirteen versions of Sfera con Sfera. I first realized it was not unique when I saw a second one at Trinity College in Dublin. I’ll get back to that in a few weeks when I post about my trip to Dublin- we’re still in Italy.

Well, technically we were in The Holy See, not Italy. Vatican City is a fully functioning and recognized country with its own police, fire, military, and post office. It’s the only country in the entire world with a birth rate of zero. But I digress.

The thirteen different versions of Sfera con Sfera are all different diameters. To give you some sense of scale, take a look at the bronze ball atop the cupola of St. Peter’s Basilica in the next photo. Now bear in mind that the diameter of Sfera con Sfera is the same size as the bronze ball at the top of the Basilica. Neat, eh?

Let’s take a break from the Vatican to talk about water in Rome. Specifically, open water spigots that are all over the city. There’s two or three in the Roman Forum. They’re on streets all over the city of Rome. The water is perfectly drinkable, and the locals refill their water bottles from them all the time. The locals also know that if you block the flow from the bottom, there’s a small hole in the top that turns it into a drinking fountain, like so:

Meanwhile, back in the Vatican museums, there’s a whoooole lot of busts.

I’m not really going to talk much about these next few pictures. If you’re a student of art, particularly of sculpture, you’ll most likely recognize some or all of these. I acknowledge that they’re amazing, but I’ve never had much to say about sculpture. Here’s some really amazing sculpture, though.

I mentioned that the Vatican has their own fire department, right? Here it is.

The tour of the Vatican museums goes through the Raphael Rooms. The artwork done by Raphael in these rooms is amazing, especially for someone who spent all that time learning to wield a pair of Sai while running around the sewers of New York.

This particular panel, the School of Athens, is my favorite. Nobody is in this crowd by accident. Dude in the blue robe all by himself? Diogenes. Serious looking man front and center in the purple shirt and calf high boots sitting by himself? That’s Michelangelo. Pythagoras is in there. Euclid is there. Alexander is there. Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, Epicurus, all present and accounted for. Raphael painted himself in, as well as his favorite girlfriend. The depth and detail in this fresco is amazing.

I’ve seen Rodin’s work before, several times in several places, but seeing an original of The Thinker always makes me stop and ruminate.

You’re not supposed to take pictures in Michelangelo’s master work, the Sistine Chapel. I’m a rebel. This room is pretty incredible, though.

After the tour, we wound up in front of the Basilica again. There were big banners up because during the Pope’s service the next morning, two nuns were to be canonized. That is, they were to be sainted. I’ve forgotten their names, but I’m sure there’s a Papal website that lists them somewhere.

The Pope’s altar is set up and ready to go.

Before we ran out of time, we took the walk up to the Cupola of St. Peter’s Basilica. You know me and my love of tall places. I have to climb. The first part is a short elevator that gets you to this level, and shaves 200 steps off your climb.

From there, it’s still more than 300 steps up, but the view is worth it. Oh yeah.

After we climbed down, we finally went inside the Basilica. The light does this amazing streaming thing that, once again, looks like a matte painting.

I was a little bit amused that the Basilica uses Bose speakers that are painted to blend in with the marble. Very Popey!

No visit to the Vatican is complete without a few minutes spent marveling at the Papal Swiss Guard and their mighty multicolored pantaloons. Members of the Swiss Guard must apply for the position. They must be Catholic, single males with Swiss Citizenship, between the ages of 19 and 30. They must have completed basic training with the Swiss Military.

They must also be able to appear dashing while wearing a black beret, and they must be comfortable with wearing a sword at their left hip, cos it’s there. Hidden in this photograph, though.

I mentioned earlier that the Vatican also has its own Post Office, right? Here’s the front doors. You’re not supposed to take pictures inside, so you can only guess what I did when I went in to mail a postcard.

On our way out of the Vatican, I turned around to take one last picture of St. Mary’s Basilica with the sun behind the Cupola. It’s a hell of a building, if you’ll pardon the pun.

Finally, to wrap up our time in Roma, we went to the pizza restaurant which, according to Trip Advisor, was the number one rated pizza joint in the vicinity. Apparently, being number one means you don’t have to stay open.

Luckily, the place across the street was open and inviting and kind of amazing. It was also called Henry Cow, which I kind of love. I had this pizza. Visible on the pizza are, clockwise from the 12:00 position: artichoke, mushrooms, an egg, prosciutto, and in the center, black olives. It was absolutely delicious, and it was a fantastic last supper. I mean it was a great last meal in Italy.

Have you ever seen the Sistine Chapel? Is that the biggest ball of brass you’ve ever seen? Have you ever had an egg on a pizza? Is soy gelato still technically gelato?

Whimsy. Tacos. The DMV.

Category: Travel Posts