The Pantheon

The next stop was the Pantheon-- it was an ancient Roman temple and is now a Catholic church. This was probably one of my favorite places. The roof has an oculus (a big hole in the top) and the building played a large role in Dan Brown's book Angels and Demons.

From Rome

From Rome

From Rome

Rome Stop 3

Next we went to this plazza with Italy's tomb of the unknown soldier:

From Rome

Mussolini used to deliver his speeches here.

From Rome

In the background on the left is a brick tower-- the emperor Nero watched the city burn from there.

Stop 2-- the mouth of truth

Next we went to "The Mouth of Truth"-- it is this statue head of an old man on the outside of a church. Back hundreds of years agos, moms would tell their children if they put their hands in his mouth and told a lie, he would bite down on it. Inside the church we saw St. Valentine's skull.

From Rome

From Rome

The Coliseum

We went to the coliseum last night and this morning--- it exceeded my expectations (it's huge) and deserves its own post

From Rome

From Rome

From Rome

From Rome

San Croce

Today we toured the Cathedral of San Croce. In Florence, there are three large cathedrals within a few blocks of where I'm staying-- the Duomo (once the largest church in the world, the one with the big dome), Santa Maria Novella (I haven't visited this one yet) and San Croce.

San Croce is a Franciscan church, and six monks still live on site to take care of it.

Inside San Croce, Galileo, Michaelangelo, and Niccolo Macchiavelli are all buried.

From San Croce

The tomb of Galileo:

From San Croce

The tomb of Michaelangelo:

From San Croce

The body of some saint:

From San Croce

St. Francis' frock:

From San Croce

Wines so far

Here is a list of the wines we've had so far in class:

I couldn't find pictures of the Pepe Rose, the Campi Nuovi, the Visilia or the Godiolo.

Viareggio

After class today, a group from Memphis and I took the train to an Italian beach in a town called Viareggio. The beach was very nice, the water was warm enough to swim in, and the scenery was great-- Viareggio is at the base of the Apuane Alps, so if you notice in my pictures, you can see snow while you're swimming in the ocean, which is pretty cool.
Afterwards, we ate at a pizza place in Viareggio that was very good-- probably the best pizza yet.

http://picasaweb.google.com/TigerColby/Viareggio#

From viareggio

From viareggio

From viareggio

From viareggio