Day 71.

The last day in Ravenna has passed by and I found, to my great joy, an exhibition on Stabia which is one of the towns from 79 AD (Together with Oplontis, Pompeii and Herculaneum).


A lararium from Stabia. A lararium is a household altar where the domestic divinities are celebrated.


A fresco depicting a boar hunt.


A stucco from a bath in Stabia. It's lovely to see it close up for once.


Another stucco, I couldn't resist to post another one.

Day 69.

Ravenna. A beautiful city in the northern Italy, a jewel from the medieval Italy. I've now spent three days there and returned to Rome and I will post the pictures as soon as possible. Other than that, I'm dead tired, but eager to return to my explorations of the past, and some rest is going to be needed before tomorrow.




A mosaic from the San Vitale in Ravenna, depicting the emperor Justinianus who reigned the (eastern) empire 527-565 AD.


An on the other side was his empresses.


The bishop seat in the same basilica. Kinda looks like a throne, doesn't it? It's probably very intentionally.


The paintings in the dome, redone during the baroque.


One of the many round campaniles in the city which makes for an excellent shot.

Day 67.

Well this has been an interesting day. I started off by walking to the “local” market, a claustrophobic place filled with people. Needless to say, I left very quickly. And why shouldn’t I? The Capitoline museum was way more fun. I also snuck down to the mithradeum at San Clemente – the labyrinth of rooms down there is amazing! Too see another mithradeum look here.
Things have been interesting back at the institute as well, I was called to a spontaneous Latin lecture in the middle of my very hasty dinner. However the power went down after about an hour, something that wasn’t very much to worry about back then – my food is slowly melting now however, six hours later. It’s also been very interesting to see how people get paralyzed by the loss of electricity. We always spend a few hours at the balcony drinking wine eating but now nobody knew what to talk about since we had no power…

Anyway that is why these pictures are a little bit late. I hope that you enjoy then none the less.



The dying Gaul is a classical motif. It is connected to the Guals being defeated by Pergamun in the 3rd century BC.



Didn’t anyone tell baby Hercules not to play with snakes?



Thanks God this is from late antiquity. The technique is called Opus sectilum and you find further examples of this here from day 24.



A mosaic from the villa of Hadrianus (now in the Capitoline museum).



A statue. I cannot quite remember how the museum interpreted it unfortunately. It could be an Amazon as one breast is left uncovered, but they normally have short dresses. Artemis would be a good guess, but she also wear a short dress and there are normally animals in the composition. Venus should be all naked so it's probably not her and it can't be either Athena nor Hera. Hygienia is possible, but it doesn't look like her and her attributes are missing (snake and a vessel). The nine muses are normally all covered up and carry the instruments of the arts. It could of course be a minor goddess or simply a mortal female, something that always make those interpretations very difficult.

Day 66.

Another busy day in Rome, or actually outside of Rome as I've been to Tivoli visiting the Villa of Hadrian and Villa d'este. I could easily post a hundred pictures from today but you will have to live with five!



The very famous Maritime Theater, one of the many fabulous places in the villa. I might add that the villa probably is as big as Herculaneum.


A beautiful column.


A (medieval?) castle in Tivoli that I passed by randomly.


Things were very much different 500 years ago. Priests weren't supposed to be humble, just look at this private waterfall in the garden of Villa d'este at Tivoli, build by a cardinal.


A painting (one of many, many, many) in the same villa. No expense saved. Notice that it's depicting Hercules as a "warrior" in the front scene and a herdsman in the background scene. The later is a ancient interpretation of Hercules, which was very strong in Tivoli.

Day 65.

Today I've followed the Via Tiburtina from Tivoli to Rome, taking a a special look at some sites.



A church next to the Aqua Alexandrina built to celebrate the jubilee year 2000 (and to give the area a new church).


The inside of the church.


The Augustan gate in the republican walls where the Via Tiburtina comes in to the city. Unfortunately is only one out of three vaults preserved.

Day 62.

It's been a long but awesome day. I started off by going to the Swedish embassy to vote (The European elections) and then went on a spontaneous excursion to EUR to spend some time among the fascists remains.

Arriving at the institute about 30 seconds before our lecture started I sat down and stared taking notes and 13 min after the lecture we went to see the Priscilla catacombs. No pictures from that site though as the nuns very friendly asked us not to.

To see some more Fascist monuments in Rome take a look at day 50 and 44.


This is fascist building which soon got known as the Colosseo Quadrato due to it's unusual shape. It was originally planned to hold statues in every niche of great Italian and Roman leaders something which was cancelled with the fall of the fascists.


A relief depicting great moments in the history of Rome. Notice Romelus and Remus in the top left corner, Caesar on a horse, Augustus in the center, Titus and the spoils of Jerusalem (the Menorah, the seven armed Jewish candelabra), the church state, and at last the glorious (?) rule of Mussolini himself.



A obelisk, not a monolith lite this one but yet.

Day 61.

Another hot day in Rome. The temperature was at 37 degrees C 11 am, but I had the distinct feeling that it was way hotter 3 hours later in the Forum.


Champions league is, as you may know, coming to an end for the year. The final game is in two days, I can't wait!


The Vittorio Emanuele monument should be recognized by anyone who have followed this blog for some time now. Here's a night shot of the building from day 52 and a day shot from day 9, complemented by a close up on the Italian flag.


The view of the Corso. This is where the old Roman Flaminia would go through the city towards the Capitoline hill.

Day 47.

Another day in the library, completed with a walk in the valley of the dogs (not a joke)and a drink close to the Spanish stairs. I have great hope about tomorrow though as I'm going to see the Ara Pacis!



The Valley of the Dogs. If there is such a thing as reincarnation and if I'm reborn as a dog, this is where I want to spend my life!


Hopefully I'll be as happy as these fellows!


This is how the Italy and southern France will look in my mind forever. I cannot explain how much I enjoy this shot!