Rhodes, Roads, Doors, and Windows

“Every picture tells a story don’t it”

The castle.

The street of knights that leads to the grand masters palace.

Looking across Mandraki Harbour

Rhodes should be renamed, Cat Island. There are hundreds of well fed, wild cats and this man came up on a Vespa, opened canned cat food and fed all the cats sitting on the pier, then drove off down to the next spot, and then the next…..

Looking West, opposite side of Mandraki Harbour

Back inside the walled midieval city now, close to where I am staying.

Plaza’s are quite small here in Rhodes

Beautiful little archeological site.

Window to heaven.

Xmas time in Rhodes

Another ruins.

These were quite nicely designed and I believe they are sewage drainage covers, as they are everywhere along the roads.

Catapult balls inside the moat.

A walk inside the moat on a sunny day

Pasta lunch, with friends, on Ricardo’s beautiful excursion Gulet

Arrival Rhodes, Greece December 2012

Arrived Rhodes December 5th in the evening and took a bus to old town. Gioiella met me at the bus stop and we walked through winding, cobblestone streets to her cute house in the middle of ancient old town Rhodes. Gioiella had dinner prepared, which you can see, of fresh fish, yams and pumpkins, and green beans, and of course a nice bottle of wine. She hasn’t stopped cooking for me since I arrived. Beautiful salads, chicken, veggies, pork filet, pastas……In fact I may start a new blog and call it, “Cooking with Gioiella.” We have had so much fun since arriving, walking the town, going to the markets, riding her Vespa, meeting her friends and great conversation.

View from bedroom into midieval courtyard.

Gioiella and Federica

Mosque

Old town square

Outside old town walls

The moat. This midieval city has a double wall with a real moat!

D’Amboise gate entrance. Named after one of the most famous grand masters of the knights of Saint John

An historical Rhodes car

Saint Nicholas Fort in Mandraki Harbor

Stairway to heaven, with Turkey in the background.

Sunset walk last evening

Today’s walk…

I visited the Pantheon again today. The sun was shinning, with some scattered, billowy white clouds amidst blue skies. It was a brisk and cool day. I had to go to the book store in largo Argentina and the Pantheon is only a few blocks away, so I always go to visit as much as i can to admire such profound beauty, looking agin at the detail of everything. I again wondered why, at Raphael’s tomb there was an empty space for another bust. Had he planned on putting someone else there? I didn’t know but this was the second time, while viewing it I thought perhaps it wasn’t what he had in mind. It felt off balance. Maybe he had wanted his true love, Luti to be on the other side….who knows, but it does look like it is waiting for someone. I took a few more photos and felt very happy with these angles. I think you can see the oculus, with the sun shining through. This was taking from the 23 foot high bronze doors. I like this perspective. Someday. I’m going to sleep, on a warm summer night, underneath the oculus….maybe a full moon night. I wonder where I get that permit? So here are photos of inside the Pantheon, the Portico and the outside of the building. The outside of the Pantheon is such a contrast to the inside. And the first day I saw it I was just walking along, not really knowing where I was going. Suddenly I saw this huge structure with massive columns and I asked a couple walking next to me, “what is that?” The Pantheon, they said with a smile.

Then a few more photos of Ponte Sisto bridge with Saint Peters in the background. Loving the fall colors.

And the last pics are of an ancient wall, nearby my hotel, set against some more contemporary structures. It looked as if someone was living there, a foam bed at the bottom of the wall, some clothes hanging over the railing, but most of all I liked the wall art of the boys and also the more modern alter piece in the stone vestibule, the boot.

Churches and Fountains

I woke early this Sunday morning to the sound of church bells ringing. Every church in Rome has a bell tower and they sound lovely when they go off. I laid there, in bed, and somewhere between sleep and wake I wondered what it would sound like if all the hundreds of churches in Rome rang their bell towers at once. What a magnificent sound that would be. Photos below are just a few of the churches and fountains we visited on our church walk the other day. There hasn’t been one church I haven’t been in awe of, the religiosity ceremonies, the relictories, the crypts, the hugh frescos, and beautiful sculptures and reliefs. And of course to see the work of so many famous artist, free, for all to see! Last night I heard two different concerts inside two churches. One was a more modern version in English with some “kum by ya my lord” stuff at the church in piazza del popolo and the other was way out at San Pauolo basilica outsider the city center. 12 priests were singing and chanting in chorus while mass was being performed inside this monstrous church with hugh columns that spanned almost, what seemed like, a football field. Earlier in the day, a very friendly bus driver asked me to “take” ( Italian translation to have) a coffee with him, on his break, while we waited for the bus to start up, and we were talking about the beauty of the churches and our mutual love for the Pantheon when he told me Basilica San Pauolo was, in his opinion, the most beautiful church in Rome. So I took the metro out to see it and it was quite stunning, and then to have the acoustics of the all male priest choir was amazing, while the bells were tolling. It was spectacular. I will post those churches later. I believe these two churches below are Minerva and Luigi…..shortened because I can’t remember the entire name……housing Carravagio original and Bernini, plus many other great schools of artist.

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