Venice: St. Mark's Square, Rialto Bridge

St. Mark is the patron saint of this majestic city.  The Square is surrounded by St. Mark's Basilica and the Doge's Palace, and covered in tourists and pigeons.  St. Mark's Basilica is a Byzantine masterpiece, covered in gold mosaic within.  Women be sure to cover yourselves, or you may be forced to wear a maroon tablecloth, of which you must pay for.  The Doge's Palace is where the duke resided in splendour. The Campanille is the bell tower of the church, which fell over 100 years ago.  The Rialto Bridge is the oldest bridge in Venice (500 years), which is doubly occupied by markets on both sides, and is connected to the Mercerie, the main shopping drag.


 

Italy: Venice

Venice is a must-see as well, a city that floods in high tide and everyone gets around by boat.  Even fire and ambulance.  There are no cars, only people and boats.  The island is an easy walk, easy to get lost, but you won't get lost far when you hit the ocean.  The greatest way to get around is by gondola.  There is nothing quite like gliding along the canals, with O Sole Mio echoing off the buildings.  The buildings are all on stilts, where people park their boats in the basement.  Hundreds of bridges cross the many canals.  Everything is old and falling apart, but yet it lends its romance, allowing you to live in another time and place. 

Rome: Vatican City

Even if you are not Catholic, it is a must see.  The Vatican Museum is a hot and sweaty march through the ages.  The long hallways have a massive collection in each room, one for maps, one for tapestry, and Greek and Roman statues filling the rooms with their carefully covered privates in fig leaves.  Of course everyone who comes here looks forward to the piece de la resistance: the Sistene Chapel, by Michelangelo.  The ceiling tells the story of creation, while one whole wall displays the Last Judgement.  It would be nice to have  more benches for people to lay on to see the ceiling, as it is hard to crane the neck for such a long period of time.  It is supposed to be a quiet place for reflection, but sometimes tourists get noisy and the security guards have to tell the crowd to shush.  It doesn't last long though.  I try not to let all this disturb my reflection upon this masterpiece.  St. Peter's Basilica is the largest Catholic church in the world.  Try not to be here during the death of a pope or you could lose your wits in the crowd.  If only I could climb the statues, but no, you must follow the masses like a lemming and hope for the best.  Michelangelo's Pieta is the best, although up high and behind glass, it is still a breathtaking masterpiece.  Bernini's alter is a baroque mish-mash of awesome beauty. 

Rome: sites

Piazza Navona is a fun place to stroll at night, with entertainers, hawkers and lovers in love.  In the center is the Four Rivers Fountain by Bernini, a baroque structure displaying the four great rivers around the world: Nile, Ganges, Danube, and Rio de la Plata.  In the center is an Egyptian obelisk.  Next is the Pantheon, which is across the way from a McDonald's.  You go through a maze of streets, never knowing where you are or where it is, until you suddenly stumble upon it.  Pictures cannot capture the solemn beauty of this most ancient of structures, as if it doesn't seem to belong  there.  The Trevi Fountain is another site that you don't find until you stumble upon it.  The surrounding buildings protect the roar of the crowds so that you don't even hear it outside the block. A good luck omen is to back up to the fountain, and throw a coin over your shoulder wishing to come back.  I guess it works because I have always been back when I performed this ritual.  The Spanish Steps is beautiful in the spring with pots of flowers.  Otherwise it is covered in hoards of tourists.  Still a lovely site though, with the Boat Fountain at the bottom, filled with cool, clear water from one of Rome's many famous aqueducts.  In fact, all of Rome's fountains are fed by these aqueducts. 


Pantheon

Piazza Navona




Spanish Steps



Trevi Fountian

Italy: Rome: Forum

Rome is a chaotic city that is full of surprises.  There are no crosswalks or stoplights, so you are on your own if you chose to take on the mission of crossing the street.  There are beggars everywhere, and people trying to sell you junk.  It is best to pretend you are deaf and blind, and completely ignore them, as if they are not in your face.  Otherwise they never leave you alone.  But yet it is a beautiful city, full of ruins, history, art, and cats.  Being a cat lover myself, I felt right at home.  Rome is actually a walkable city, with the subway (metro) easily accessible to the hot spots.  The metro is nothing like London; it is dirty, broken, and unsupervised.  Kind of like their bathrooms.  Even though they make you pay for them. 

First stop is the Roman Forum.  The Roman Empire lasted approximately 1000 years, from 500 BC to 500 AD.  The forum was the center of city life, where everything happened.  The Colosseum was actually the first domed stadium.  There was a canvas awning that could be hoisted across by sailors to provide shade on those hot summer days.  It seated 50,000.  Gladiators and criminals killed animals and each other, providing free entertainment to the public masses.

Paris: Versailles

This is the royal residence of the kings of France from the mid-1600s until the French Revolution in 1789.  The Royal Chapel is just off the Kings' Bedroom, where he would awake every morning and attend mass, but for the people down below, they had to worship him, not God, as he stared at the alter trying to look pious.  The Hall of Mirrors is 250 feet long with 17 mirrors to pair with the 17 windows.  The Queen's Bedroom has a secret passageway to the King's, as well as to others; same as in King's Bedroom.  The beds are short as people reclined instead of laying flat as they slept, for fear of death.  During labor, there was an audience, hence the large open spaces around her bed. The Gardens included an Orangerie and mini Grand Canal.  Quite the sumptuous place for a few royals!  No wonder the people revolted.

 

Paris: Orsay Museum

This museum houses the largest collection of Impressionist works in the world, in a turn of the century train station.  It includes works by Degas, Manet, Monet, and Renoir.  I cried when I first saw it as I had admired it for so long and to see it in person was priceless. 



Bal du moulin de la Galette-Renoir

The Luncheon on the Grass-Manet



Le dejeuner sur l'herbe-Monet

The Dance Class-Degas