Month: December 2016

A photo diary of my trip to Rome and Vienna

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Piazza Navona – named after Rome’s most famous food group – the pizza. It can be a little confusing as a tourist because for some reason Romans think it is a good idea to name all their public squares after their pizza. These Romans are crazy.

piazzo-navona

Fountain of Neptune is not the most famous fountain in Piazza Navona. I, like most tourists came to the piazza to see the Fountain of the Four Rivers – to admire the genius of Bernini and to secretly pinpoint the exact location of the murder of the fourth cardinal from Angels and Demons. Great plan, except there were so many people in front of the fountain, I could barely see it. Fountain of Nepture was devoid of people and my philistine eyes can’t tell the different between Bernini and Porta. It was beautiful.

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Palazzo Colonna had many a masterpiece but the most mesmerizing piece of all was the cannon ball embedded in its marble staircase. The cannonball had found its way into the palace in 1849, when the French Army hired stormtroopers to manage their cannons during the period of the Roman Republic. There are two reasons why I took this picture –

1. After living in America for 6 years, I have become accustomed to having every hazard surrounded by a small army of orange cones. Romans live reckless cone-free lives. This picture proves it.

2. People weren’t as into the cannonball as I was…which meant, in this busy museum, I had a slice of history all to myself.

Palazzo Colonna cannon ball.jpg