This week: Wedding cake monuments and more riots

The last three posts have all be done in the past hour, but its easier because blogger sucks at placing images.

This is the Vittorio Emanuele II (Victor Emmanuel II for those who like real words) monument, up close and personal. It's huge. I posted a further-away shot in an earlier post ("Walking the streets") but Google is probably the best way to find a good image of it. It's built on the side of Capitoline Hill, almost cannibalizing it, right in the center of Rome. It was constructed to commemorate the unification of Italy under this King, where before it had been a bunch of kingdoms under foreign rulers (Napoleon being one of them). Although stark in nature, this was built before the era of Fascism, the last monument before Mussolini took over.

Here's a picture from inside an Episcopalian church on the Via Nazionale, the street that leads directly to the Vittorio monument. Interesting if only for being a non-catholic church on a main city street. It's decorated much differently from Catholic churches, being a hell of a lot less ornate and more direct in its approach.

America, take note: this is how you tell your government you're pissed. Not by voting in rigged elections where you have the choice between two corporate-backed candidates, but actually hitting the streets and marching on your leaders (this demonstration was headed toward Silvio Bersculoni's place, the Italian Prime Minister). These were mostly students and teachers angry with the proposed cuts in educational funds. We walked through marching crowds of tens of thousands of people in order to get back home this day.

Halloween:

Me as Terry Kirk, next to a ninja turtle. That's a real 'stache.

Here's a photo of the real thing, for reference. I didn't go as far as shaving my head, but we'll just say I was a young Terry.

BRB, gotta go grow a beard (again). Next time I'll hopefully have an "everyday walk" post ready.

Churches, Fountains, and Riots

These are from before and after my weekend in Amsterdam, so I'll let you know which is what.

Two weeks ago for Art History (with the one and only Terry Kirk) we visited some more churches here in Rome, one designed by Bernini (a big deal) and another by Borromini (a rival who was economical in his geometric designs). The image that follows is the actual sculpture of The Ecstasy of St. Theresa, a saint who felt the spirit of god being pierced into her heart like an arrow.

At the end of this lecture we made our way to Trevi fountain, a popular attraction for tourists. The sculptures are magnificent, and the water that flows from here is from the oldest water source in Rome. The pope that renovated the basin wished to promote the idea of abundance and good health, personified in the feminine sculptural allegories standing to either side of (what I think is) Neptune. I forget.

 

This next photo I snapped while walking around the Campi de Fiori area. Demonstrations seem to be a national pastime here in Rome. It's refreshing to see a populace that makes demands of its government instead of taking what it's given and being told what's good for it (America: HI).

Amsterdam

It hasn't been my intention to make this a "only when I feel like it" blog, but time is a limited resource around here, apparently. So I'm sorry! On with pictures and stuff.

Last weekend, I made the train/tram/bus/plane/taxi trek to Amsterdam with my roommates Garrett and Tim. This was my first trip to Europe proper outside of Italy (Britain doesn't count, it's an island). Getting there involved a bus to Termini train station in Rome, another bus from there to Ciampino airport, a RyanAir flight to Eindhoven in the Netherlands, another bus to the train station there, a one-hour train ride to Amsterdam, and a few hours of confused walking around and giving up to take a taxi to our hostel, which sent us to another hostel since they had already booked our rooms. End result: we were worn out but upgraded to a place to stay right in the center of the city, about a two-minute walk from the main train station.

Amsterdam is a giant tourist trap, this I am now sure of. We were also located right next to the more touristy parts, so that wasn't so good. There was some sort of carnival/dance scene going on the night we arrived (Saturday), but we were too tired from our escapades to find it.

Canals everywhere here. That big red building in the background is the train station.

This is what most of the center of the city looks like.

Sunday we had planned to hit some museums and go on a bike ride in the countryside, but the weather chose not to cooperate with us that day. Instead we walked through the rain, and did get to a couple of the major museums. Those being the Rijksmuseum, home of The Night Watch by Rembrandt and the Vincent Van Gogh museum. The Rijks was interesting but kind of small, whereas Van Gogh had a large collection of Vincent's work, which I thought was impressive. The rain continued on through the night, and there wasn't much going on for a Sunday Night, despite it being Amsterdam, vice capital of Europe.

One of the busier roads. The trams go a decent ways but we didn't use them.

Monday morning was set aside for buying souvenirs and getting some photos, so all these you're seeing on this page were solely from this day. It was fairly chill that morning, somewhere in the 50s Fahrenheit. Thank god for fleece.

This train took us back to Eindhoven. Pretty sweet.