Colosseum

We went on a City Wonders Colosseum Underground tour on Thursday, May 15. This tour took us under the Colosseum arena floor, on the arena floor, and high up in the third tier of seats. (It also took us through the Forum and Palatine Hill, but that'll be another post.)

Walking onto the arena floor

View at floor level

(There used to be a floor all the way across, of course.)

Gus 

Contemplating life as a gladiator

Under the arena floor

Ground level

Looking down an old corridor

One of many underground passageways

 Third-tier passageway

People would walk through here to get to their seats.

View from above

 Another view from above

Gladiator pigeon plotting my demise

View looking northwest from the Colosseum

The Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II can be seen in the background 

(white with statues on top)

 View to the west overlooking the Forum

Pompeii, part 3

Note: Click photos to see larger versions.

 Another street shot

Tile entryway

 Pompeii's Forum

Columns in the Forum

 Temple of Jupiter

with Vesuvius looming in the background

 Temple of Jupiter

See the guy in the white shirt in the center?

Look directly above his head to see a sculpture of Jupiter's head 

Jupiter, close up

Pottery

These sheds are full of pottery found in Pompeii

Another courtyard

Murals

If you go through the doorway in the previous photo and turn left,

you'll see this wall of art

 Detail

Edge of town

This was the view when leaving Pompeii

Pompeii, part 2

Note: Click photos to see larger versions.

Details from the ceiling in one of the buildings

More ceiling detail

 Stairway to nowhere

 Empty street 

I have to confess that I *love* these shots that don't have any people in them. 

There were hundreds of people at Pompeii when we were there, 

so it felt like a triumph every time I was able to get a street shot without anyone in it!

 Residences behind bars

(Bars not original.)

 More homes and/or shops along the main street

Pompeii dog

Our guide said that this was one of the original dogs in Pompeii. :)

 View of the mountains beyond

 Ruins

A bed in the infamous Pompeii brothel 

Yes, that's solid stone. Even the pillow! Looks comfy, eh? 

They wanted customers to finish and leave quickly, so no soft bed for them! 

More turnover = more money.

Brothel Paintings

These are a few of the many paintings in the lobby of the brothel. 

Pompeii was a port city with visitors and traders from around the world.

Language was certainly a barrier to communication, so the brothel made it easy:

The "client" could just point to a picture of what he wanted, 

the owner could point to a sign showing the price, and no one would have to speak! 

Pompeii, part 1

This account of our May 14, 2014, trip to Pompeii is going to be pretty picture-heavy, so I'm going to break it into several posts!

Note: Click photos to see larger versions.

Our guide said this is the Gladiator School, 

but the map I have says that it's the "Quadriportico dei Teatri"

...and this is the "Teatro Grande"...

which overlooks said "Quadriportico" 

(looking to the left from the picture above).  

  

 Here's a view to the left of the previous shot, 

also taken from the top of the Theater.

Graffiti on a wall - two soldiers  

 Looking up the street

Looking down the street

A home 

Another home and its oven 

A large building on a courtyard. 

Check out the art on the wall!

Weather, part 2

And here's a look at the hail in the front yard!

Note: For some reason, the video quality on here is terrible even though I posted the same videos to Facebook and they're clear on that site.

Weather

We had a storm here today. I was in the grocery store when suddenly it started to hail. The sound was so loud it almost sounded as though the room was filled with gunfire!

Turns out we had golf-ball-sized (and larger!) hail.

And Gus took a close-up picture of the hail!

Sunroom flowers

Here's what I accomplished yesterday (hint: flowers!).

 We went from no plants or flowers in the sunroom to many!

I also did this:

Hopefully they won't all die.

Bay Window Reading Nook

When we bought the house, this was the view at the top of the stairs:

Wall. Small window. That's it.

Turn right, and you face our bedroom door. Turn left, and you'll find a bathroom and the other bedroom. 

Then, a couple months ago, Gus had a great idea! He asked Victor to knock out that outside wall with the window and build a window seat with a bay window and built in book cases.

Here's what it looked like after they knocked out the wall and framed in the new structure:

Note the two different sized windows. The short one on the right (the middle of three) was the original size Victor put in for all three windows. We took one look at them and said, "Those are too small! Make them bigger." So the next day, Victor picked up three bigger windows and installed them (starting with that left one). SO much better!

Here's what it looked like with all the woodworking done: 

Ignore the mess, please.

After that photo, we got the lights installed, blinds hung, shelves filled, carpet laid, and custom mattress made.

The only thing left was covering the mattress...somehow. I bought practically a whole bolt of fabric and planned on sewing it myself. Then I realized that both my sewing machine and my sewing skills were not up to the task.

I considered taking it to a tailor but wasn't sure that was the best option since the measurements on this thing are really weird (something like 5' x 10' with odd angles).

A couple weeks ago, I finally contacted a local upholsterer who offered free pick-up and delivery! They stopped by on Tuesday and picked up the mattress and fabric, and they returned it Thursday morning. The cover has a zipper all along the back so it's removable.

And here it is tonight!

 And in the daylight:

 Next up, I need to use some of the leftover fabric (plus complementary fabric) to make throw pillow covers. Those I *will* tackle myself.

Entertainment room makeover!

At long last, here are photos of the new entertainment room. :)

(Note: Click a picture to make it larger.)

It used to be a bedroom. This is what it looked like when we moved in:

 Pepto, anyone?

That open half-door leads to the attic.

Double doors on the left wall are closets.

Then we painted it white and didn't really know what to do with it. It sat like that for a long time.

Then: White and empty

Eventually we moved the TV and two recliners in, and put the TV along that non-closet wall in the photo above.

A couple months ago, Gus and I decided to rip out that closet (left wall in photo above) and have Victor build in shelves for our TV and DVDs, and have space for Gus to display all his fun nostalgia toys.

Here's that same view now:

Now: Built-in entertainment center, wainscoting, 

DVD shelves, new paint, new ceiling fan/light

And from a couple other angles:

Then: White and empty

Now: Home-theater chairs, ductless AC unit, more shelves, 

mini-fridge to the right of the chairs

 

 Now: View from the back corner.

It's so nice! Such a great upgrade from that old pink mess.