Italy Photos 3

And now for all you cat lovers, a cat.
And another cat. There seemed to be many cats roaming around...
...the Area Sacra di Largo Argentina. Actually there is a no-kill cat sanctuary next to the ruins. The site was discovered during a construction project in the 1920's.
The Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II. It is a big audacious monument that sits on the Piazza Venezia at the end of the Via del Corso. It was built in honor of Vittorio Emanuele, the first king of a unified Italy.
Also on the Piazza Venezia is the Palazzo Venezia. The building has been lots of things including a papal palace, a residence for cardinals and an embassy. That balcony on the piazza is where Benito Mussolini used to make public speeches.
This is a cool little shopping arcade called Galleria Alberto Sordi.
An old building facade. Nothing more to add.
A view of the Vatican from a bridge over the Tiber. I have a wallpaper picture on my computer at work that is this same view but during better weather and taken with better photographic equipment.
On the Ponte Sant'Angelo, the ancient Roman bridge spanning the river from the city center to the Castel Sant'Angelo. Both were commissioned by Emperor Hadrian (of wall fame), the latter being a family mausoleum.
A statue of an angel carrying a large lower case letter "t".
A rock and roll angel. Looks like he's wailing on an electric guitar.
And across from the one angel is another one.
At the end of the Via della Conciliazione is the Vatican.
The Basilica di San Pietro, a place I would return to a couple more times on the trip, one planned and one not.
The 4000+ year old Egyptian obelisk in St. Peter's Square (which is round, by the way) has been in Rome for more than two millennia but has been here in the square since 1586.
The new pope, the first in modern times to come from somewhere other than Europe, is from Argentina. Here's a proud Argentine with his flag.
I was a day late (not a dollar short) of seeing the black smoke from this chimney indicating the election of the new pope.
There was a lot of media from around the world in Rome for the events of the week. Here's a guy doing a standup in front of the obelisk. I don't know where he was from, but he sounded American.
I just thought this was funny. Passa a wind. That sounds like farting. Heh heh heh.
Dinner first night was at Vito Edina. Daniele suggested it as something different from a touristy restaurant, although there were more Americans in there than anything else. But it was early. I think the locals eat much later. The waiter and I tried our best with each other's languages, but it was a bit of a struggle communicating.

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