Saturday, May 7, 2011

White Substance Instead Of Period

Ponte Vecchio - Florencia

Joining the two banks of the River Arno in Florence is the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge), a medieval bridge dating from 1345 in which are some of the most exclusive jewelry stores in the city.

In the next picture, you can see from the Uffizi:



The current stone bridge takes the place of a primitive wooden bridge built by the Romans around the year 980 and was destroyed several times because of floods, the most serious being that of 1333, when it was reduced to rubble.

Since rebuilt in stone in 1345, Ponte Vecchio has always been occupied by various shops and businesses that were originally butchers, blacksmiths or cleaners that were dumping waste into the River.

With the advent of the Medici family in the mid-sixteenth century, built a row of shops on the bridge that united the Palazzo Vecchio to the Palazzo Pitti, the famous Vasari Corridor .

Since that time, stores were evacuated from the bridge due to bad smells and bad aspect that gave the nobles of the time they used this corridor.

Most traders rebelled and the authorities sent soldiers to break down the establishments and benches in selling their goods, so it is believed that, hence the term "bankruptcy" (Italian for "bench rotta") and who had no other place to work and sell their products.

Locals did not spend much time without activity, since the place formerly occupied by butchers and tanners' shops were occupied by goldsmiths and silversmiths, the same type of stores that we see today.


One of the curiosities of this bridge are the buildings that hang on both fronts towards the Arno and are supported by wooden beams that rest on pillars.


Halfway through the bridge is an area with no shops from where we look out on the banks of the Arno and a great view of the city.
In this space there is a bust of a famous Florentine goldsmith, Benvenuto Cellini.


Finally, I leave two night views of the bridge, a must if you do night in the capital of Renaissance art.


Saturday, April 30, 2011

How Much Colloidal Silver To Put In Nose

Plaza Basilica de San Pedro y Museos

In the center of Rome near the Tiber, is the headquarters of the Catholic Church a walled compound that defines a city-state, the smallest in the world but also one of the most powerful and influential.


The most visited and interesting in this city-state is the Plaza and St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museums .

The easiest way to get lossless is guided by the dome of St. Peter's Basilica is visible from many parts of the city of Rome, and the most used route is to walk through San't Angelo Bridge or Vittorio Emanuele II Bridge, which leaves us at the door of the Via della Conciliazione, with which arrive directly to the Plaza de San Pedro, one of the wonders of the great Bernini created between 1656 and 1667.


The square has a diameter of 240 meters and is surrounded by 4 rows of 284 columns on which there is a balustrade topped by 140 statues of saints of 3.20 meters each.


After a walk around the plaza, we headed to the queue to enter St. Peter's Basilica, which is normally quite long and we had to add the strict security measures because in that moment was the visit by the wife of President Obama with his daughters.


After nearly an hour of sun queue and go through the metal detector, we are at the doors of the basilica, so play to look at the square from this position, with the statues of St. Pedro and San Pablo back to us.


Before seeing the inside, just to remind you that the entry is free and no reservation needed.
The posters that are in the tail area warn that under the rules, will not let you if you try to enter in shorts or bare shoulders, and are prohibited for flash shots.

No such restrictions were applied the day I left, since 90% of those who entered the basilica went in shorts (very typical in the hot month of July) and inside the basilica were bursts of flash every few minutes, even if that I saw the guards to call attention to the odd photographer clueless.

All information on the Basilica of Saint Peter, in his official website:
http://www.vaticanstate.va/ES/Monumentos/Basilica_de_San_Pedro/Basilica.htm

Upon entering, the size of the Basilica make you feel small, very small.
are nothing more and nothing less than 190 meters long and 45.5 meters high in the area dome, and distributed across the central nave and two more on both sides, is 58 meters.


As areas are opened after the visit of Michelle Obama and family, we went to see the sculpture of Michelangelo's Pieta, made of marble and shows the Virgin Mary holding the dead body his son, lies in the first chapel to the right as we enter the front door.


Then we headed for the central area of \u200b\u200bthe basilica, where the altar under Bernini's Baldacchino, with the entrance to the tomb San Pedro is located just below.


Just behind the Baldacchino and end of the Basilica, is the apse, with a huge golden throne that contained the remains of a wooden chair in the tradition that used the same San Pedro.
Above the throne, there are two angels holding the symbols papal tiara and keys, opening a round window with a dove representing the Holy Spirit and which is surrounded by angels.
Under this set, is a shrine called "altar of the chair", where the pope celebrated certain ceremonies.

Basilica de San Pedro About

Baldacchino is the dome, also the work of Michelangelo, the highest point of the basilica and you can access to see wonderful views of the city.
Again, thanks to the Obama family visit, the dome was closed and we had to make do with admiring the inside, which is not bad.


From this position, we look to the front door and proved the enormous size of the Basilica.


Before leaving, one of the chapels is the marble slab where the names of all Popes of history and year of death, from St. Peter to John Paul II.


Finally, we had booked a visit to the tomb of St. Peter and the necropolis beneath the basilica, but after more than 2 hours of waiting, do not let us in for security reasons, again " thank you "to the visit being made by several members of the G8 to the Basilica.

is a very interesting visit, but you must book before you go, so the link you leave then you have all the necessary information: Book

visit to the tomb of St. Peter and the Vatican Necropolis


Saturday, April 23, 2011

Teckdecklive.com Help

Vaticanos

The Vatican Museums are a private art collection of the Catholic church and having their origins in the private collection of statues that Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere was in the gardens of Belvedere Palace in 1503, the year he became pope under the name of Julius II.

Subsequently, various popes and wealthy Italian families were bringing more art and expand the facilities with new galleries and rooms to accommodate all this artistic treasure that we enjoy today thanks to this enormous collection of art is open to public.



The first is to indicate the entry since it is not accessed through the Plaza de San Pedro, but you have to give a "small" walk of about 10 to 15 minutes, so that the next map you can see way from St. Peter's Square to the entrance of the museum:


Once we reached the entrance, and even before, is very likely that we are with queue for the ticket, so I recommend taking entries taken from home.

may make a pre-booking of tickets through the website of the Vatican Museum where we can choose the date and time of our visit, but charge a fee of 4 €.

Entrance costs 14 € (summer 2009) and have to calculate about 3 hours for the visit.

What I did was to pre-book entry because it was not until we were paid a special box office showing where the email of the reservation and gave us the post itself.

How the day we went there was no line, we gain entry to the market price, thus avoiding paying € 4 charge and without showing the email of the reservation.

not know if this will remain the same, so to ensure you can see the latest prices, times and access to purchase online input from this link: http://mv.vatican.va/4_ES/pages/z-Info/MV_Info_Orari.html

With the entry into the hand, began a visit to the Vatican Museums for the gallery the carpets and maps.

As its name suggests, in these galleries we find large Flemish tapestries covering the walls, while in the gallery of maps, we can see about 40 maps of various regions of Italy painted on the walls of the gallery between 1580 and 1585.


Apart from the different regions are also represented major cities, such as this map of the city of Venice.


If we peer through the windows of those galleries, we can see the dome of St. Peter and Vatican part of the gardens:


The next area we will visit will be Raphael's Rooms, four private rooms of Pope Julius II who commissioned to decorate the famous painter Raphael Sanzio and where we see some wonders such as:

Room of Constantine (1517-1525):

in this room are depicted various scenes from the life of Emperor Constantine, the first Roman emperor recognizing Christianity and decreed religious freedom.

highlights the main mural, called the Battle of Constantine against Maxentius, where is depicted the Battle of the Bridge Milvio held on 28 October 312 and the victory of Constantine over Maxentius.
the central square of the dome, designed by Tommaso Laureti, represents the victory of Christianity over paganism.


seal Stay (1508-1511):

One of the world's most famous frescoes, and one of the most important Rafael is in this room, The School of Athens.


In it displayed great philosophers, scientists and mathematicians of antiquity as Aristotle and Plato in the center, Ptolemy, Euclid and Pythagoras or even a portrait of the painter with the right hand side of the painting.

Fire Room of the Borgo (1514-1517):

From this room would highlight two of its frescoes, The Fire in the Borgo and the coronation of Charlemagne.

The first, The Fire in the Borgo, Pope Leo IV is leaning to the former St. Peter's making the sign of the cross and miraculously smothering fire during the year 847 in a neighborhood near the old basilica.

fresh
The other highlight of this room, the coronation of Charlemagne, illustrates the time Charlemagne was crowned in St. Peter's on Christmas Eve the year 800, thus becoming the foundation of the Holy Roman Empire.


All these rooms, you can see the virtual tour that provides us with the Vatican Museum in http://mv.vatican.va/4_ES/pages/SDR/SDR_00_Main.html
After
Rafael stays, we get to the Sistine Chapel, the place where the great Michelangelo Buonarroti painted some of his most famous works.

Sistine Chapel:

The name of the Sistine Chapel comes from the name used by the Pope Sixtus IV during his papacy, and is located on the right side of the basilica of San Pedro.

I will just not copy the vast amount of information that can be found in books, films and internet about this place because it would be virtually impossible to summarize so much data. There are many places where they can read about the frescoes, its meaning, its authors ... and where further much as we like about this room and impressive paintings, so I leave the choice of each information search on the Sistine Chapel and I'll just tell you my feelings and experience here. Upon entering

impressive to see so many people and an annoying hum pervades the room as much as the two guards insist that we lower the tone of voice.
To this we add the few lights of some crazy tourists taking pictures with flash, despite the express prohibition (leaving aside by pure logic and common sense should not do to preserve the paintings).

Once I get to abstract from this hostile environment, I begin to enjoy the show that five centuries ago shaped in every corner of this space about 40 feet long by 20 high geniuses such as Michelangelo and Botticelli.

On one side of the nave, is the 13x12 meter mural painted by Michelangelo depicting the Last Judgement.


In the vaulted ceiling can see other masterpieces by Michelangelo, 9 scenes from Genesis, among which are the separation of light from darkness, creating the stars and plants the formation of continents, the creation of Adam, the creation of Eve, original sin, and several scenes of Noah's flood.


Without doubt, the best known is the image located in the center of the dome, representing the creation of Adam, at the time that God touches his finger to give life.
I apologize for the quality of photography, but from the dim light and the number of people giving pushing was quite complicated to achieve this focus on the vault.


located in the walls under the windows, we can see the frescoes of artists such as Perugino where scenes from the life of Christ and Moses, and they occupy the place which tapestries were located Rafael stolen during the sack of Rome in 1527.


is not surprising that this is the place chosen by the conclave to elect a new pope with the famous white smoke.

To finish the Sistine Chapel, just say it would be better that access was more restricted and permission to enter only 20 or 30 people at a time in the room to be able to enjoy a place like this.

Following the marked route, we arrive at the Vatican Library, which could not be accessed and can only see the rich decoration of these rooms apparently without a specific use.


then navigate to the Art Gallery, located in one of the last buildings erected in the Vatican in 1939 and where we can see about five hundred paintings of the best Italian schools in chronological order over eighteen rooms ranging from the twelfth century until the late nineteenth century.
Among his works are some of Leonardo Da Vinci, Caravaggio, Giotto or Ticciano.
As in the Raphael Rooms, you can make a virtual visit to these rooms at the following link:
http://mv.vatican.va/4_ES/pages/x-Pano/PIN/Visit_PIN_Main.html

would highlight the room with pictures of Rafael VIII as "The Transfiguration", where Jesus Christ is depicted at the time of his transfiguration into Holy Spirit soon after helping a child demon that tries to be healed by the apostles, but they fail to work the miracle that Jesus Christ.


After visiting the rooms of the Pinacoteca, we access the collections of Egyptian and Etruscan Gregorian Museum, where we can see many objects of everyday life Egyptian and Roman statues, reliefs, sarcophagi and mosaics excavations or donations from private collectors.


From here you access the patio of the Pineapple, where we with more Greco-Roman sculptures and the odd golden ball in the center.


Among the sculptures that stand out from the area of \u200b\u200bMuseums, is that of Laocoon and his sons, a sculpture of almost 3 meters high made of marble and dating of the first century
It shows the Trojan priest Laocoon, who first uncovered the deception of the Trojan horse, writhing in pain and about to die along with their children, victims of snakes emerging from the sea.


To end the visit to the Vatican Museums, leave the premises by a modern spiral ramp that will give us the main entrance.



Saturday, April 16, 2011

Small Folding Dog House

Otros lugares de Rome

See of Rome in 4 days is possible, at least as important, but there are many other places that maybe due to lack of time or because they are less known, the Most people spend long or not included in your itinerary for the Eternal City and are also worth a visit. Although there are many wonders to visit, these are some of the "Other places of Rome" that I recommend you visit.



Circo Massimo:

The day we were by the Roman Forum and the Palatine, we take a look from the heights to the remains of what was the largest venue for entertainment in ancient Rome, a huge space of 600 meters long and 225 meters wide, which could hold 150,000 people seated and nearly 100,000 More on the nearby hills, and is used for holding public games between highlighting the chariot races.

The track was divided in two by a medium called the "spina" decorated with various statues of gods and obelisks, one of which was transferred to the Piazza del Popolo.


today are only the remains of the runway and a small mound longitudinal in place of the spina, but I recommend walking through this solar imaginándoos in the same place 2000 years ago.

Boca Verità:

Near one end of the Roman Circus is the small church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, in which entrance porch is placed this curious sculpture that is 1.75 meters eyes, nose and mouth holes.

not really know who is (some say it is the god Jupiter, a faun, or even an oracle) which was not useful, since there are several options such as it was a manhole cover or a source .


If you are diligent, you will see always a queue to put their hands in the mouth, is that according to legend, if you enter the right hand and say some lie mouth shut, so beware if you visit this place lie !

Teatro di Marcello:

The theater of 130 meters in diameter is located very near the Capitoline Hill in Rome's Jewish quarter, the ghetto, where I recommend you sample the dishes or walking its medieval streets.


Along the theater, are the remains of the temple of Jupiter and Juno, and as the portico of Octavia, the synagogue or the source of the turtles.

Isola Tiberina:

Following in the area of \u200b\u200bthe Jewish quarter we reached the Tiber, the river that runs through the city of Rome and whose Isola Tiberina is one of the steps used to access the famous district of Trastevere.


This boat-shaped island built the Temple of Aesculapius which is hardly anything because it was destroyed to build the palace-fortress of Pierleoni Caetani (now headquarters of San Juan de Dios hospital) and the convent of San Bartolomeo.


To access the island there are two bridges, the Fabricio Bridge and Bridge Cestio, and the area near the convent, you can see the remains of the bridge Emilio, also called the broken bridge.

Baths of Caracalla:

These remains belong to one of the largest and most luxurious baths of Imperial Rome where there were several springs and ponds, a gym, shops and outdoor pools.

heat water for pools, spas were all furnaces at a lower level where the slaves always kept alive the flame at different temperatures depending on the thermal bath, using a system similar to the radiant floor.



The map on the bottom of the page you can see the exact location from which good views of the complex from the outside, even warning that it is a low traffic area and no sidewalks, so there to be careful. Pyramid

di Caio Cestio:

About 10 or 15 minutes walk from the Baths of Caracalla and guided by the remains of the Aurelian wall that borders the entire area of \u200b\u200bRome, we arrived at one of the strangest sights My visit to the city, the pyramid of Caius Cestius.


This pyramid 37 meters high covered in marble, dating from 12 BC and is the tomb of the Roman magistrate Cestio Epulone Caio.
Along with the pyramid we can see one of the gates of the Aurelian Walls, Porta San Paolo.

Piazza del Quirinale:

The Palazzo del Quirinale, the official residence of the head of Italian government, the name of this place located on the hill of the same name, from which there are good views over the city.

Across the square is the Palazzo Colonna, where temporary exhibitions.

In the center of the square is a sculpture group in which they appear the Dioscuri Castor and Pollux, which was added later an Egyptian obelisk 15 meters.


Triton Fountain (Piazza Barberini):
Bernini
This power is considered by many as the prettiest of the whole city and see it represented the god Triton squirting water through a conch shell standing on a giant supported by four dolphins.
is close to the Palazzo Barberini, home of the Gallery of Ancient Art.


halfway between the Piazza del Quirinale and the Piazza Barberini, is the Piazza delle Quattro Fontane (Plaza de las four sources), named for the four fountains that adorn each of its four corners.

Piazza del Popolo:

Another of the most symbolic places in the city is the Village Plaza, located on a site formerly occupied the north gate of the Aurelian Walls, Porta Flaminia marks the beginning of a of the city's main streets, Via del Corso, which is guarded by the twin churches of Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria in Montesanto.


In the center of the square is the 36-meter obelisk dedicated to Ramses II moved from the Circo Massimo. On the other

hand we can see the Porta del Popolo and the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo and close to it, one of the green lungs of the city, the Villa Borghese. Temple

di Adriano:

Walking between the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain and the Via dei Pastini, there are the remains of the temple dedicated to the Emperor Hadrian, of which there remain only the 11 Corinthian columns.
I recommend visiting the temple from the Piazza di Pietra at night.


In the streets around the Temple of Hadrian is the Column of Marcus Aurelius and the Palazzo Montecitorio, the seat of the Italian parliament.

Finally, here I leave a map with the location of all the places that have appeared in various articles on Rome and that you can find by clicking on: View all items Rome


View rome in a larger map