Rome, September 2022

 Rome, September 2022 

(Click on the photographs to enlarge them) 

We stayed at the Trevi Palace Luxury Apartments - not at all accurately titled but basically a three-star hotel. Comfortable enough and a good starting point for walks. It was just a few steps from the ever and very crowded Trevi Fountains. The fountains are indeed very impressive but the size and density of the crowding takes the edge of the experience.

Santa Maria in Aracoeli 

Piazza Madonna di Loreto viewed from the magnificent Il Vittoriano.

Il Vittoriano is the monument to Victor Emmanuel II and provides some of the best free views in Rome.

From Il Vittoriano looking towards the Colosseum.

Saint Bambino in Santa Maria

Santa Maria

Filling up the water bottle at the Baraccia Fountain at the bottom of the Spanish Steps

Spanish Steps with Trinita dei Monti at the top

The Temple of Antonius & Faustina in The Forum. A church has been built behind the facade of the ancient temple. 

In the Piazza della Minerva. A very small obelisk held up by an elephant.

The beautifully decorated Galleria Sciarra. 

The frescoes were completed in 1895 and depict Roman ladies' fashions of the period.

 

Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza. Beautiful!

Pasquino the gossiping statue

Piazza Navona. The unexpectedly cloudy morning gave us a break from the  35 degree heat.

The Pantheon. This is one of the best preserved ancient temples of the ancient world and now the church of Santa Maria ad Martyres. The dome is the widest masonry dome in Europe. At its centre is a 27ft diameter circular hole through which the sunlight, rain and, on very rare occasions,  the snow can enter. 

Il Villa Borghese

The Borghese is a relatively small but spectacular museum containing marvellous Bernini sculptures and a collection of paintings that includes some by Caravaggio.

The rape of Prosperina

Venus Victrix

Anointed by John the Baptist

Apollo & Daphne

Sleeping Hermaphrodite - positioned so that you cannot see the front!

St Jerome

The Vatican may be the world's smallest nation but it houses what has to be the world's most staggeringly huge collection of sculptures and paintings in its museums.

The entrance area to the museums is like an airport concourse and the crowds were enormous - sometimes uncomfortably so. There would be many casualties if an evacuation alarm sounded I am sure. 

You need to have a very good knowledge of the museums to be able to find and enjoy the key exhibits without a guide. Our guide, Pasquale, was excellent and the radio earpieces enabled us to hear his detailed commentary. Fact/fiction: If you were to spend one minute looking at each of the exhibits it would take you two years to complete your visit. We had a good 3 hours!

The bath of Nero. (Probably a fountain)

Claudius as Jupiter

Julius Caesar

Artemis. Now are they breasts or bulls' testicles?

St Peter's 

Vatican Guard. All Swiss ex-army.

Angels unaware - a memorial to refugees.

Via Margutta

Water clock in the grounds of the Villa Borghese

Villa Borghese

Piazza del Popolo

Ponte Fabricio

Torre della Pulzella

Piazza Fornese

San Carlino

Botanical Garden

Santa Maria del Popolo

Australia January-March 2022

 

We had a lot of domestic duties on this reunion trip, mainly involving taking the grandchildren to and from school.

However, we managed to hire a car and rent a lovely house at Inverloch in Gippsland for a week. 

The beach at Sandy Point

Lovely blue sky over Philip Island

Koala on Philip Island

Stepping into The Lume in Melbourne is an adventure into art. The digital gallery transforms Vincent van Gogh's wonderful art into gigantic sensory encounters. Light ripples across surfaces, sketches are animated and the masterpieces come to life. A brilliant experience.

Trainee Dutch artists.

I had a weekend in the High Country in north-east Victoria and managed a round of golf at Bright, some boulder hopping at Chalwell and a swim in the Buckland River on the Friday before the rains washed out Saturday's entertainment.

Buckland River

This skink would not move for me as I came down from the Monolith.

The Monolith - a precariously balanced rock near Mt Buffalo.

The Monolith circa late 1890s when visitors could climb a ladder to the top. No ladder now - health and safety rules don't you know!

Sunset at Myrtleford.

A day out on the Bellarine Peninsula - that's Melbourne on the horizon!

Port Lonsdale

Lunch at the Jack Rabbit winery on the Bellarine Peninsula.

At ArtVo in Melbourne. Great fun!

Before going out for a meal in Sandringham on the eve of Louise's birthday. Catboy and his assistant stayed behind.

Silo Art 

Silo Art is all about turning dull grey silos into beautiful pieces of artwork. Since the first mural was painted on a Western Australian silo in 2015, silo art has become a surefire way to draw visitors to small communities across the country. Many people, including us, now travel to towns and hamlets they would otherwise have never heard of to see these beautifully decorated silos. We travelled north and then north-west from Bendigo, Victoria to the small hamlet Colbinabbin and then on to the town of Rochester to see some of this hugely impressive artwork.

Colbinabbin

Rochester

Hotel in Rochester

Children having a swim in the River Lodden

Beautiful sky.