This is where I went to catch a bus to go to the Vatican Museum on my first day in Rome. It’s a vintage bus shelter, hard to date, but I’d guess post-war, maybe as late as 1950s. What you can’t see in the picture is that in the middle of the structure is a news-stand. Today it’s not so bad, but I wouldn’t want to have had to work there even as recently as the 1980s when diesel exhaust was much heavier than it is now.
Vintage Bus Shelter, Rome
That’s actually a sense-memory I kind of miss – you knew you were in Europe when you smelled the diesel exhaust everywhere. That and certain kinds of tobacco. It’s still a noxious odor, but the emotional context of it is so positive. I suppose geologists feel that way when they smell sulphur or biologists with methane.
While exploring St. Peter’s basilica, I saw this amazing light falling on the confessional booths, which were in themselves magnificent pieces of furniture. Something about them feels a little ominous, though, don’t you think? Or perhaps a touch funerary.
Confessionals, St. Peters
Even though I’m not myself Catholic, I don’t know that I’d want to give confession in that confessional booth- it would feel a little bit too direct.
I found this composition while walking the ramparts and courtyards of the Castel Sant’Angelo, which is a very easy place to get lost in if you’re not paying attention. There are so many levels and layers, both physically and historically. The building was built originally as the funerary monument for the Roman emperor Hadrian. Later it was converted into a fortress for the protection and safety of the Pope. A residential suite complete with reception rooms and treasury (three massive barred iron chests with multiple locks, each of which only one person had the key to, so it would require all the key holders to open each chest) and balconies with sweeping panoramic views of the city were put on the upper tier, and the burial chamber of the emperor Hadrian was converted into a dungeon where prisoners could be thrown to wither and die in darkness and misery.
This is a panorama I took of the bend in the Tiber river just in front of the Castel Sant’Angelo, from the castle’s ramparts. St. Peter’s is to the right, out of view. If you look at the bridge in the background, you can see the keyhole arches in the supporting piers which are there to help the bridge not get washed away in time of flooding. There are a number of bridges across the Tiber with this feature, including the famous “Ponte Rotto” (Broken Bridge), which you’ll see in some other shots I’ll post later.
This was taken with my Belair X6-12 camera. As you can see, it’s a pretty soft lens, combined with what was probably a pretty slow shutter speed (1/30th, 1/15th? with this camera, who knows- it sets it automatically for you and doesn’t tell you what it used). But it has a look to it, and the negative isn’t unusable.
This is something I’m working on doing more of- photographing people in the wild, so to speak. I do well in the studio, where people are expecting you to take their picture, and for that matter have given you some measure of control over the experience. But “street” photography, photographing people out and about doing things where they’re not expecting to be photographed, well, that’s an entirely different animal. I find it easier to photograph people who are performing or in some other way putting themselves out there to be observed. If nothing else it’s good practice for more elusive subjects.
Juggler, Piazza Navona
This young man was out on the Piazza Navona, juggling this glass sphere. He had a sign up with his busking bowl that described it as a particular kind of juggling – I forget the term, but he would roll the glass sphere up and down his arms, across his neck behind and over his head. Here he has the sphere on his elbow, then at the end of his fingers.
In 1625, then-Cardinal Barberini acquired a property from the Sforza family in Rome that had a vineyard and ‘palazzetto’. It was on this property he decided to build the Palazzo Barberini. He would go on to become Pope Urban VIII. He hired the famous architect Carlo Maderno to design and build his palace. Along with Maderno was his nephew, Francesco Borromini, who would go on to become one of the best known Baroque architects in Rome. He is largely responsible for the design of the facade, as well as the grand salon, and perhaps most famous of his creations at the palace, the oval staircase.
Borromini Staircase, Palazzo Barberini
Partway through construction, his uncle Carlo Maderno passed away. Completion of the project was then tasked to a new young upstart architect better known at the time as a sculptor, Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Bernini would design a second staircase for the palace, this time a square. The two, Borromini and Bernini would remain professional rivals until Borromini’s suicide in 1667.
Bernini Staircase, Palazzo Barberini
At the ground level, an arcade connects the two staircases. This shot was taken from the entrance to the Borromini staircase, looking down the arcade to the Bernini staircase entrance.
When I get finished processing all 79 rolls of film from this trip, I’ll have more of these to add, but until then, here’s a selection of public fountains. The Italians certainly love their water features and drinking fountains.
I’m certain I mentioned this before about the ancient fountain at the Colosseum, how you plug the bottom to get water to come out a hole in the top of the pipe so you don’t have to bend over to drink.
Ancient Fountain, Colosseum
Well, here you can see that in action, at a similar fountain in the Castel Sant’Angelo:
Drinking Fountain, Castel Sant’Angelo, Rome
And a full view of the fountain:
Acqua Potabile, Castel Sant’Angelo, Rome
Here’s a little fountain in the piazza in front of San Lorenzo in Florence:
Lion Head Fountain, San Lorenzo, Florence
The Cellini fountain and memorial on the Ponte Vecchio. The interesting thing about it is that the fountain and memorial are 19th century, and their placement on the Ponte Vecchio is a little disingenuous.The bridge today is occupied by goldsmiths and jewelers, true, but in Cellini’s day, the Ponte Vecchio was home to butchers. Other than picking up his Saturday prosciutto, he didn’t spend time on the bridge. The modern day jewelers are just claiming inspiration from him.
Cellini Fountain, Ponte Vecchio, Florence
A fountain at the Pantheon, under the obelisk in the plaza in front:
Fountain, Pantheon
Another public drinking fountain, on the Ponte Vecchio, in Florence. This one is actually a drinking fountain, whereas the Cellini monument is purely decorative.
Drinking Fountain, Ponte Vecchio, Florence
The fountain in the forecourt to the Palazzo Barberini, backlit by the afternoon sun:
Fountain, Palazzo Barberini
A fountain in the Villa Borghese park, directly in front of the Palazzo Borghese:
Fountain, Villa Borghese, Rome
A closeup detail of the Villa Borghese fountain:
Fountain, Villa Borghese Park, Rome
A fountain outside the Vatican, with the water spigots emerging from the heads of Papal keys, crowned by a quartet of Papal tiaras:
Papal Tiara and Keys Fountain, Vatican
A garden-variety public drinking fountain in Trastevere, the neighborhood where I lived in Rome:
Water Fountain, Trastevere, Rome
A fountain crowned with a pinecone finial in the Piazza Venezia, especially appropriate decoration as it sits beneath a canopy of the famous pines of Rome.
Here’s a shot I took of the oculus of the Pantheon with my Belair X6-12. The camera has its issues, one of which is the relatively low contrast from its plastic lenses. Most of the time. Here’s a circumstance where it works to my advantage- the interior of the Pantheon is so dark, and the main light source being the oculus, it’s very contrasty. The flat lens on the Belair helps bring out shadow detail where there wouldn’t be as much.
Here are a few shots of the fountains in the Piazza Navona. I chose to photograph details rather than try to take in the whole fountain because there were just too many people in, on, and around the fountains.
River God, Four Rivers Fountain, Piazza NavonaHorse, Four Rivers Fountain, Piazza NavonaTrumpeting Merman, Fountain, Piazza Navona
The piazza is pure chaos – think Times Square but shorter, with much better decoration. There are performers on the piazza doing everything from live music to juggling acts to “living statues” – there was a fake Fakir made to look like he was floating in mid-air, supported by nothing more than an off-center cardboard mailing tube. The fountains, though, are the real stars of the place. They moderate the heat in summer, and provide stunning visual delights in all four seasons. I know it seldom snows in Rome, but I’d love to see them blanketed with a layer of white.
One of the things I wanted to do on this trip was to see as many of the Caravaggio paintings as I could. I only missed four of the paintings in Rome – The Deposition of Christ, The Martyrdom of St. Ursula, Madonna of Loreto, and Saint Francis in Meditation. On this trip I got to see the three in Florence as well. It will take at least two more trips to Italy to catch the rest of them, as they’re scattered in Milan, Naples, Cremona, Messina and on the Island of Malta (which is technically a separate country, but it’s close enough you can fly there from Rome for under $200 r/t).
There are a few more scattered around the world, in London, Dublin, Berlin, Vienna, St. Petersburg, and one or two more European cities, plus two in the US I haven’t seen yet.
The photos here capture most of the ones I saw on this trip, but not all, as some were very poorly lit and/or too difficult to photograph because of placement. For example, the other tourists at the Palazzo Doria-Pamphilij who wouldn’t get out of the way combined with the lighting placement creating a glare spot on the canvas no matter the angle made it not worth attempting. The altarpiece and side pieces at Santa Maria Del Popolo were too high up, at a steep angle, and even with the 1€-per-5-minutes lighting, the space was dark and chapel rail put you too far back to get a good photograph.
BacchusThe Sacrifice of IsaacMedusaJohn the BaptistSt. JeromeMadonna of the PalafrenieriDavid and GoliathSick BacchusBoy with a Basket of FruitThe Calling of St. MatthewInspiration of St. MatthewMartyrdom of St. MatthewNarcissusJudith and HolofernesThe Fortune-TellerSt John The Baptist
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