Marrakech, Rome and Florence

Marrakech

Inside the Souk

Sidi Fatna

I just really enjoy how this camel is standing.

So happy to see fall colors!

We found some other PCVs!

View of Florence during our electric bike tour.

Riding up this hill was a breeze. As long as we just kept peddling, the bike did all the work. If they weren’t about $3,000, I would buy one.

More of Florence.

Galileo’s house.

Now a school, this is one of the 20 something mansions the Machiavelli owned around Italy.

Olives about to get squished.

Yey for real pizza!!

I don’t know why but I really like this sequence of pictures with this woman standing in front of the fountain.

We rented bikes from this place and rode on the Appian Way, a really old and important road in Italy and for the Roman Empire.

This is not a hobbit hole, but an old traditional Roman style home.

We saw the pope! And so did a lot of other people.

I think this guy was really happy to see the pope too.

Street performer

This lady painted this with spray paint!

Trevi Fountain

The Pantheon!

The Patheon is on the left and if you look closely the ground slopes down slightly toward it. This is because the city of Rome for centuries has just built on top of the old ruin and other the years has risen. So the older stuff that is still standing appears to be sunken into the ground a little.

Matt was very happy to find good beer.

View of the Roman Forum from the Palentine Hill.

Look closely and you will see some fingers in the top left corner. Those are Matt’s. He was pretending to try to catch the rabbit…

But then it didn’t move and he got to pet it.

On top of Palentine Hill.

All the animals that they have found remains of in the Colosseum.

This was really cool! These are the passages under the arena. On the tops of each row, you can see square shaped holes which were actually shafts where various animals, warriors or props were lifted through secret doors into the arena.

These seats were where the emperor, vestal virgins and other VIPs would sit to watch the games.

The dome in St. Peter’s Basilica. This picture and the next really do not do it justice.

We weren’t allowed to take pictures once inside and since I am a rule follower, I didn’t take any. This is as close as you will get.

So while it is not the Sistine Chapel, I thought this ceiling was also quite nice. And I kind of feel bad for its painter. Michelangelo sort of stole the thunder from all other ceiling painters ever.

Muses

One of the first written languages!

I studied this gal in my art history class. She is really old. This is also the item that my teacher used to demonstrate what cultures valued in the human figure based on their art work. So according to this figure, this culture valued big hips, small chest, and tiny arms.

Victor Emmanuel Monument

Our apartment in Italy.

On the train back from Florence.

This museum had a lot of cool science stuff. Unfortunately we got there close to closing time so had to rush through, but still cool.

This is an old fashioned air conditioning unit and not a giant whistle like I first believed.

Matthew contemplating what you would need such a large mortar and pestle for.

I didn’t know what this was and if you don’t know what it is, then you should look it up because it is cool!

This is the Mechanical Paradox.

What the center of the earth looks like… well maybe not exactly.

Interesting street signs

Not sure what this one is implying.