Wednesday, 29 January 2014

Intercity, Vatican and Rome

Outside the Vatican's St Peter's Basilica - No Pope today
A view in the other direction from the 
top of the Basilica's dome 
And from the back of the 
statues who oversee St Peter's Square
The dome
A beautiful mosaic at the top of the dome
Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers) 
Each river has a representative God with 
stereotypical indicators of each respective continent

A lion and a  palm tree for Africa and a 
bamboo stick for Asia etc... 
Great fun guessing who represents which
Incidentally this fountain was also fed by aqueduct 
and occasionally (although not since 1866),  
they put a plug in the drain, flooded the entire surrounding square,
and had mock warship battles!
Good times!
The Pantheon, an original Roman building built in 
27 BC in homage to the Gods. 
Later converted, in 609 AD, to a 
Catholic building to celebrate just the one God

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Flooding the Fountain of the Four Rivers to have mock warship battles sounds brilliant. What a piece of integrated water management. And all it needed was a plug or two.

For a minute I thought you had a photo of the first female Pope, being boycotted by the faithful. But one or other of those would never happen - I'm just not sure which...

Looks a fabulous trip and such great photos.
Simon

Anonymous said...

Fab pics - of both you two and the city. You've seen loads of great stuff. Xx