the allen family bermuda triangle: last of the rome pictures, 2011

i have a remaining collection of images from rome that aren't easily categorized...so here are my random pics that i have yet to share. enjoy!

fontana delle anfore, one of the most under-appreciated fountains in rome (it is at the end of via marmorata, just before you cross the tiber into trastevere). it had a collection of swastikas and homeless guys around it this year, just like last year. i would love to see this little piazza renovated.

full-frontal male nudity at the centrale montemartini...beautiful

molti nemici molto onore=many enemies much honor, one of mussolini's slogan fascisti. i wish i shot a better picture of it.

fascist art and architecture at the foro italico

60 italian regions represented by idealized marble men...

...shown with their olympic implements *ahem* and a reminder that fascists weren't exactly known for their subtlety

there's a lion nibbling on his toes...

...and an oddly placed fish used for compositional balance

i'm rather surprised this obelisk to mussolini still stands, but politics and atrocities notwithstanding i'm very glad to see it

ultimate bicep

the water is so mineralized at this fountain that deposits have reformed it to a completely different-looking object

fountain outside the newly-redesigned ara pacis monument

ara pacis processional and acanthus leaves

and this is what the front of the building looks like (from the inside)--i personally love it, but apparently the new mayor of rome was elected on a platform of "i'll-tear-down-the-new-ara-pacis-monument-and-return-the-piazza-to-its-true-baroque-roots." two points about this: a) the fascists screwed up the piazza before richard meier was even born and b) everything in rome takes 20 times longer to do than anticipated and involves 100 times more politics than expected, so hopefully it will never happen. i think meier did a fabulous job with the housing of the ara pacis--it is a beautiful space.

creepy collection of skulls, with names and causes of death of their previous owners, under the aptly-named santa maria dell'orazione e morte

(this is what the skulls look like when the cabinet is open and i completely overexpose them.)

signore squarehead, on the left...why is he square-haloed while the others are not? because he was alive when this mosaic was assembled--cool little factoid there.

skull and crossbones at santa cecilia--no matter where you go, rome doesn't let you forget your mortality for long

inadvertant (?) boobie fountain--no matter where you go, rome doesn't let you forget about gender for very long

two staircases going to two very different places: santa maria in aracoeli and the capitoline

this is the primary school that gus and sophie will attend when i run away from home and take them to live with me on the aventino

interior, bus

exterior, tiber

palm fronds at the orto botanico

i never knew there was a bamboo forest in the middle of rome, yet here it is--it covers almost an acre on the giancolo

palazzo farnese, which was actually open to the public (it's the french embassy, so it is rare to get in without a diplomatic reason) for an exhibition of its private collection--i went twice.