Central Italy (4/7)

 

A friend invited us to stay at his holiday home in Umbria during June 2003.

  

 

 

 

 

 

I managed to take a good photo of the front of this Trenitalia train as it entered the station.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we arrived at Rome there were many people waiting for taxis so we walked from the station to start our sightseeing tour. This is Trajan's Column with its fascinating spiral of roman carvings. Mark and I had seen a plaster cast replica of this in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London just a few weeks earlier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the monument to Victor Emmanuel II built at the start of the twentieth century. It is also known as the wedding cake. It required a huge amount of marble which coincidentally came from the constituency of Italy's then prime minister.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This elephant was sculpted by Bernini, more famous for his sculptures in Saint Peter's square. The elephant has rather short legs but Bernini may not have seen one. Behind is the great dome of the Roman Pantheon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Built 2000 years ago but extensively rebuilt by Emperor Hadrian in AD125, the Pantheon has long served as a Christian church.

 

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