When in Rome

By the way this is the 650 post on this blog woot!





The Roman Forum is a huge area next to the Colosseum with a bunch of ancient ruins and was the center of Roman life.

Santa Francesca Romana church. You can see her downstairs actually

Francesca Romana is the patron saint of drivers since it's said that her path was always lit by anangel.  This is her skeleton in tiny claustraphobic room in the basement.  not creepy at all.



you can see up to the chapel ceiling through this grate in that claustrophobic room.







finally some pillars that look truely old.  did one of the gods have a hissy fit and swipe his claws along the tops of these columns?



some interesting trees in italy.



this was an ancient art gallery



some kind of meatball at Da Oio a Casa Mia in testaccio



oxtail and possibly some organs.  It's a Roman thing.



Byron the Newfoundland somewhere in testaccio.  we asked the owner to take a photo and the guy was nice but Byron didn't give two raviolis about that, he just kept strolling.  Imagine in your best italian accent and attitude, in the italian equivelent of words, the owner saying "Byron where do you think you're going, Byron! Hey! do you hear the words that are coming out of my mouth Byron!  these folks want to take a photo who do you think you are show some respect, come back here you a-hole Byron!" and on and on.  make sure in your imagining that you do all of the stereotypical italian up and down inflections and shoulder shrugging and neck gestations. 



Byron finally only stopped not because i cares but because he just didn't care to resist.  Our family has always had newfoundlands and they are rare to see, so finding one in Rome was cool.



running along some cemetary, behind me is a walled military facility.