Piazza Navona

 10-Dec-22

We crammed everyone into the car to go downtown to Piazza Navona for their Christmas Market. It was a bit rainy.

KC and the Tiber River.

Shortly after parking and making our way downtown, the rain really started to come down. We hid under a restaurant tent for a little while waiting for it to ease up.

We tried a few places for lunch, but they either only had outside seating, or even that was full despite the rain. We finally found a little enoteca that also had some food options.

Had this artist ever seen a lion? I think yes.

We made it to Piazza Navona!

Fontana del Moro (Fountain of the Moor) - completed in 1654 by Giovanni Antonio Mari.

 

There was a carousel and it's ALL KC wanted to do.

So we did.

Several times.

This is the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers) designed in 1651 by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. It represents the four major rivers of the four continents through which papal authority had spread: the Nile representing Africa, the Danube representing Europe, the Ganges representing Asia, and the Río de la Plata representing the Americas. Thanks Wikipedia!

We were there!

It also has this armored alligator man thing.

It was starting to rain again, so we popped into this church.

St. Agnese in Agone was started in 1652 and finished in 1859. Apparently St.Agnese's skull is on display in here somewhere.....which is not unexpected, but still weird. Agnese is usually depicted with her hair down and holding a lamb and sometimes a sword. She is the patron saint of those seeking chastity, purity, young girls, and the girl scouts.

I liked the suspicious dove mosaic on the floor.

Looking up into the dome.

St. Agnese (Agnes) had a sister named Emerenziana, who is also a saint. I feel like it's unfair to have one child be Agnes and one be Emerenziana. Emerenziana is usually depicted with stones in her lap and is invoked for colic and stomach aches.

The rain stopped so we went back to the carousel. This time with a lollipop.

Statues of saints, popes, and other religious figures are often on top of buildings.

They also make excellent bird stands.

Walking back to the car we passed this statute. It's of Nicola Spedalieri an Italian philosopher and presbyter aka priest.

His crest, or whatever, has a giant snail on it. 

The face with three legs is a symbol of Sicily.

The sun came out a little bit on our walk back.

The market wasn't as interesting as we had hoped, but we got out and did a thing, so that was good.

Odds and Ends: November-December

Random things from the end of November into mid December!

20-Nov-22

KC has batman pjs, so naturally we got her to say this.

After the Batman situation, KC got dressed and helped me take our trash out. I heard a man yelling "attenzione! ATTENZIONE!" I looked up to see cinghiale aka, wild boar!

They were merrily making their way down the street. KC wanted to go pet them, and I had to explain that we generally want to leave wild animals alone. She still wanted to pet them.

25-Nov-22

Happy Thanksgiving!

We kept it pretty small. Dan invited his French counterpart Stéphane, and his wife Agnes, over for dinner. I really enjoyed the evening. I hope they did too.

26-Nov-22

Someone got a chocolate cookie for breakfast...

Grooving to Dvorak. Like you do.

27-Nov-22

Everyone in the hammock!

29-Nov-22

Max is home sick today (turned out to be the whole week. She got super daycare crud AND has three teeth coming in at once.) I took her out for a walk in our neighborhood today and saw this neat gate.

29-Nov-22

Dan was down in Naples this week. Hi Mount Vesuvius!

02-Dec-22

Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

04-Dec-22

Don't play computer games, pay attention to me!

08-Dec-22

KC's preferred position for watching TV.

Dan's parents, Sherrie and Jim, arrived today to visit over the holidays.

I guess I'm only getting one slipper tonight.

Tuscany Adventures: Grosseto

 19-Nov-22

It is supposed to be rainy all day today. We decided to try to explore some of Grosseto's inside offerings.

But first we need to go play for a bit after breakfast.

It's hard to tell, but this church is pale pink with rose colored stripes. 

It's the Cathedral of San Lorenzo.

We went to the Natural History Museum, which was small, but nice. I liked this room that had a big wall of all types of living things. And in blacklight! 

Octopus! and Snail! 

A tardigrade for my mom.

Frog!

There were some nice habitat exhibits.

A dung beetle for Erin.

A corner for my mom.

It was raining pretty hard so we wandered around the museum a second time. Then waited awkwardly in the lobby hoping the rain would let up.

A fun door knocker.

We grabbed lunch at a bar that I'm not sure was actually open for lunch, but they fed us anyway.

We also tried to go to the archeology museum, but KC was bored and over it and so we only quickly walked through it. 

I guess if we wanted to go in the church, we should have done it earlier.

Weird Jesus sculpture. It's from a collection called the Biennial of Waste by Rodolfo Lacquaniti. It's made from old terracotta making machines and various agricultural implements.

Quaint Italian alley!

Street art.

More street art.

We had exhausted the indoor options that Grosseto (at least that would be of interest to KC.) It was still raining, and it was supposed to rain for the rest of the day and into tomorrow. Not really looking forward to two young kids locked in a hotel room for another night and morning, we decided to head home a little early.

On our way out, I wanted to try again to get up to Montepescali. We tried the other day, but the way Google took us was up a pretty rough and rugged "road." I'm not sure it was actually fit for cars, so we gave up. I found another way today that was definitely a road.

Even with the clouds, it's still a nice view. I was open to stopping at anything interesting on the way home, but the rain got pretty bad so we went straight back.

Tuscany Adventures: Elba

18-Nov-22

The weather isn't supposed to be great today and we have no specific plans. We decided to take a car ferry to the Island of Elba. We looked it up, Napoleon spent about a year on Elba in exile after he failed to invade Russia. He was later exiled to and died on St. Helena - which is in the middle of nowhere in the Atlantic. Like...really nowhere. There's nothing near it.

Anyway, we took the car ferry from Piombino to Portoferraio, which we call Little Lead Town and Port Ironworks. (Piombo is lead and ferra is iron in Italian.)

We were pleasantly surprised that the lounge of the ferry had a ball pit and obstacle course/jungle gym/play place thing in it. KC loved it. Max was less sure. At some point the ride got pretty rough. KC thought it was fun. Max, who only recently figured out walking, was not a fan. She would get her balance just in time to fall down again. 

Off we go! 

We plan to just drive around and see what we can see.

KC and the crashing waves. (good band name)

We stopped here to try to get lunch. It's off-season and Google wasn't correct about the number of things that are actually open. We finally found a spot, had lunch, let KC run around the playground in the nearby park, and then went on with our drive.

This is mostly an adventure of lovely views. Padulella beach is down below.

Looking out along the north west side of the island.

We weren't hopeful, but tried to go to the cable car that takes you to the top of Monte Capanne, the tallest peak on Elba. It was closed until the weekend. But we stopped in Marciana to look at the view.

It's quite lovely. The beaches are supposed to be amazing and less crowded than other Italian beaches in the summer. We will definitely have to come back during the on-season.

On our way back to the ferry, we stopped here to try to find a geocache. We were unsuccessful. I was intrigued because this monument clearly has an American flag on it. After some translating, I discovered its a memorial to those lost during Operation Brassard from WWII.

The return trip was much fuller than the trip out.

I didn't know it had a double decker option.

The trip back was smoother, but busier. 

Not a super exciting day, but it has definitely put Elba on our list of places to revisit/investigate more in season.