The amazing Vatican Museum

Ok. I am a bad tourist. I admit it... I don't remember by whom, of whom, nor the era of this statue (above). However, I do love it! It was in the octagonal courtyard just before the Map Room in the Vatican Museums

     This statue is of Cleopatra (my touristy-ness isn't a total lost cause;). You can find it in one of the first (of many) halls of statuary in this over-sized museum. My lovely companion didn't care for the rows of stone faces, figures, and fig leaves, but I adored it! 

Looking at this chiseled and ancient emotion, imagining the hands of someone's great-great-great-great-etc-great-grandfather shaping the stone into these somehow familiar faces, I feel as though the past were reachable and tangible -it is tangible!
     Ok, aside from the corny musings, I also love the way stone can look like fabric or skin in these monochrome carvings. 

Rome at Sunset

My favorite spot in Rome...

On our first day in Rome, Dustin and I took a walk near the Tiber River. After crossing the Ponte Sant' Angelo, parts of which were constructed by Hadrian in 126 AD, we stood studying the mythic muddy water. He asked a very sweet question... to which I gave a very sweet reply... Later I made him pose here, where he had proposed. <3

Vatican Museums

Viola two classic "must-take" photos from the Vatican Museums -the Map Room and the double-helix staircase. The staircase was purportedly designed to have horses driven up it. Not sure why the horses would be super interested in the Sistine Chapel, but who knows? :) A person could spend days in the Map Room and not see everything.

Italy 2010

 Dustin and I are scooping up a "free" wi-fi signal in a little piazza near our hotel in Ischia Porto, Italy. I haven't sorted/edited my photos yet, but here's a quick upload; more to come soon!

This is St. Peter's square with St. Peter's Basilica on the left in the Vatican. Lovely day, quick line, good people-watching. The Vatican is huge, impressive, and thought-provoking...