ciao beautiful babies!

Do you remember that movie Swingers?  Good movie!!  I went to an AWESOME movie last night, The Artist, I think it came out a bit ago in the states.  It is a... French (?) black & white, silent movie.  Really old timey & really good!!!  Loved it.

I've been laying low this weekend, not sightseeing too much.  The weather has been warm, nearly 60 degrees I'd imagine, but overcast & rainy.  I have been reading a pretty good book, Between the Assassinations, by Aravand Adiga.  He wrote White Tiger, which was excellent!  This book is not nearly as good, it is a collection of short stories about characters in a fictional village in south India.  I love reading books set in & about India.

I learned about some Italian holiday traditions recently.  We had Thursday, 12/8 off as a national religious holiday of some sort & this is the traditional day that families put up the christmas tree & also, if desired, set up the "presepe" or, nativity scene.  Italy is huge on the nativity scene, there are particular shops that sell only characters & pieces for the nativity scene.  When I was in Napoli there was a whole street that sold nothing but nativity stuff.  On Piazza St. Pietro in Vatican City there are some big construction barriers up in the center where workers are busy prepping some amazing life size nativity scene complete with a stone stable or something.  I can't wait to see this thing unveiled!  :)  Also, a massive christmas tree went up there last week.

Another cute tradition is "la befana" she is a witch that comes to your house on January 6th to fill the stockings of children with dolci (sweets) & small gifts.  After this ritual it is customary to take down your tree.  You can buy cute little befana witches on brooms around town also.



Many streets are tastefully lit with white/blue lights.  I've been forgetting my camera & will have to take some pics!  Also, my roomie & I put up our cute little tree yesterday & adorned the home with other christmas decor, it was fun!

Here I will display some recent photos of notable sights, etc.

I walked over to la chiesa di San Giovanni in Laterano, the oldest christian church in Rome!  It is the seat of the bishop of Rome, whom I think is the pope, right?  It is a beautiful & huge basilica.

the piazza & baroque facade 

the statues in the niches lining the nave are HUGE!  They are the 12 apostles.  The ceiling is ornate!  And for some reason there are no nice wooden pews but, crappy plastic chairs.  People were getting seated for a mass to start.  

special papal chapel

fancy mosaic floor & REALLY old!!

I'm still fascinated by bronze doors!  This one was taken from the Curia bldg. that housed the roman senate in the ancient roman forum.

An adjacent building houses the "la scala sacra" the sacred stairs, an ancient wooden staircase that was brought to Rome from Jerusalem.  Apparently, they were sanctified by Jesus during his passion.  ( I'm not sure what that means but, did you see that movie the passion of the christ?  whoa!)  The story is that these were the very stairs Jesus walked on or crawled on.  So, the faithful today crawl up on their knees.  The atmosphere in here is heavy!  I felt sort of bad but, I had to get a photo of this!!  :)  There was an adjacent stairway that heathens such as myself can just walk up.  I was raised Lutheran but, these days am not a practicing christian.  I am practicing yoga & meditation instead. :)

But, as you can see I still find any religion quite interesting!

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I thought this was cool, in an adjacent, octagonal chapel some art restoration was in progress on these ancient frescoes.  Here you can see some white squares drawn.  This is a technique.  (haha, I don't have any more details.)

 I told you I took another visit to the Vatican Museums, right?  Love that place!  There were several wings open that I hadn't seen before!

a river god with about 15 little cherubs crawling on him.

 I don't know too much about Egyptian myth & theology.  In all the sculpted figures the positions are all so rigid & stiff.  Look at that second picture, it looks like the "guy" is carrying heavy buckets.

the egyptian wing!  

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ankhs & scarabs

view of Roma from inside the Vatican

sculpture of the god Mithras.  he is always slaying a bull.   The so called "tauroctony"! 

here is where I like to take bike rides out into the countryside to clear my head!

Nothing to report about work, nothing positive that is.  I just ordered some of my own private business cards to promote my chiropractic practice independently of my "business manager".  The need for this was never in the plan so... maybe that will give you an idea of how things are panning out.  Ugh!  My Italian is holding steady but, honestly, I get really nervous when I have to talk about chiropractic, xrays, optimal nervous system function and such in Italian.  Double ugh!

Fortunately, my friend Elysia is coming to save me!  Just kidding, but it sure will be fun to see my friend.  In under one week!  Take care everyone, hope that your holiday prep work is coming along.  Send a good thought my way, will you?

Buona serata!! :)

xx