10 Things to See in Rome, a guest post by Diane Frisch

Dome of St. Peter's Basilica.  Photo by Diane Frisch.

If you are lucky enough to have any time at all in Rome, there are a few things you really need to see. Ideally, I would recommend at least 4 or 5 days to get a nice feel for the city. Once, we visited Rome for just a day trip excursion from a cruise, and it was very unsatisfactory. Too much traffic, too many crowds, and not enough time! If you truly have just the one day, it will be worth it to hire a private tour guide with skip the line access to take you around the Eternal City. You will be eternally grateful (haha!).

When in Rome, there are certain sights that you really should not miss. These are my top picks.

1)  The Colosseum - This may be the first image that comes to mind for most folks when we think of Rome. It is spectacular! Located in the center of the city, this is the largest amphitheater EVER built and dates back to around the year 80AD. We really enjoyed having a guide take us through and explain the place to us and the bloody spectacles that went on there. It was not pretty.

Interior of the Colosseum.  Photo by Diane Frisch

2)  The Forum/Palatine Hill - Located not far from the Colosseum, the Forum was once the center of all things in Rome, and later as Rome's influence spread, it was the center of the civilized world. In this area you will find, Palatine hill and the Forum. It is chock full of ruins that span about 1000 years. There are "layers" of ruins built upon top of ruins. It is fascinating and a little bit hard to follow without a guide to explain it all to you.

Roman Forum.  Photo by Diane Frisch

3)  St. Peter's Basilica - Technically this is in a whole other country, the Vatican, located in the center of Rome. - This is the largest church on the planet, and it is FULL of very important art. Highlights are the Pieta by Michelangelo, the dome, also designed by Michelangelo, Bernini's huge canopy over the altar, The 13th century statue of St. Peter which pilgrims line up to rub or kiss the foot of, Bernini's Apse, the Crypt where St. Peter is buried, and so much more. TIP: Remember that modest dress is required for admittance to the Basilica as well as most other churches in Italy. Shoulders and knees must be covered. In the heat of summer, I brought a large scarf to cover up.

Interior of Saint Peter's Basilica.  Photo by Diane Frisch

4)  The Sistene Chapel - This is also located in Vatican City, adjacent to the Vatican museum and is known for the spectacular frescoes painted by Michelangelo. It was recently restored and now looks as good as new (almost!) There are also frescoes by Perugino, Botticelli, Ghiriandaio, Signorelli, Rosselli, Fra Diamante, and more. 

Sistene Chapel. Photo from museivaticani.va

5)  The Vatican Museum - Technically includes the Sistene Chapel, but houses 4 miles of collections and also requires modest dress. Highlights include the fantastic collection of Greek and Roman statues, and the frescoes in the Raphael Rooms.

Hallway in the Vatican Museum.  Photo by Diane Frisch.

6)  Piazza Navona - This is a beautiful and very large Piazza. In the center is the Four Rivers Fountain, designed by Bernini in 1651. All around you will find beautiful buildings, and churches with art by Caravaggio and Rubens. In this area you will find a center of pubs, cafes, nightlife, and a personal favorite, delicious gelato

Bernini's Four Rivers Fountain in Paizza Navona. Photo by Diane Frisch.

 Lunch break with the kids at Piazza Navona.

7)  The Fountain of Trevi - Recently restored, this is another iconic symbol of Rome. Tradition holds that if you throw a coin in the fountain, you will guarantee a return to Rome. This is a bustling tourist spot, but definitely worth a visit while in Rome.

Trevi Fountain.  Photo from trevifountain.net

8)  The Spanish Steps- This is a great place to people watch, enjoy some street music, and shop in the Piazza di Spagna district at the base of the steps.

Spanish Steps.  Photo by Diane Frisch.

9)  The Pantheon - The most notable thing about this ancient church, in my opinion, is the wide opening in the center of the dome. It lets in an abundance of natural light, and also rain, depending upon the weather. The dome is the widest masonry dome in all of Europe, at 142 ft high, and 142 ft wide. This building was built in AD 118 by architect Hadrian, as a pagan temple. It was donated by Emperor Phocas to Pope Boniface IV in 608. It still serves as a Catholic church.

The Pantheon.  Photo by Diane Frisch.

10)  The Catacombs- Here you will find the burial tunnels of Rome's early Christians beneath the roads leading out of town. A guided tour will show you a subterranean chapel, tombs and even some frescoes and engraved slabs from the burial sites of the early Christians. I found this extremely interesting to visit with our knowledgeable guide, but I will warn you that some folks find the tunnels a bit claustrophobic

Photo from Wikimedia.org

11)  EAT! Gelato! Pasta! Pizza! Vino! I know this isn't a place to visit, but Wow, everything is so delicious. Eating your way through town is a BIG part of any visit to Rome! Ask locals for recommendations or just look around and see where the locals are going. This city is a feast for all of your senses, INCLUDING taste. In the photo below, I am at a lovely little restaurant just off of the Piazza Navona, da francesco. I recommend it!

IMPORTANT TIP: The Colosseum, Forum, and all the Vatican sights get very crowded. Buy your tickets in advance or take a "skip the line" or VIP access tour to save wasting hours in line. If it is possible, consider visiting in the "shoulder seasons" of spring and autumn to avoid the big crowds. 

Please visit my Blog to follow me on more travels near and far! travelswithdianeblog

Nathaniel Danes's Guest Post: Seeds of Imagination

Here's a great guest post from Nathaniel Danes, a fellow writer:

I can't speak for any author other than myself but I find the world ripe with seemingly insignificant scraps of information begging to be nurtured, grown into a story. I look at my ordinary life with the goal of finding hidden adventure.

I'm low vision, functionally blind in most situations. As you can guess, my degrading retinas restrict what I can do in the real world. I love skiing, scuba diving, and a host of other activities I can no longer do, or do how I want to do them. This fighting retreat has been the story of my life since being medically discharge from the Army at the old age of seventeen, following my diagnosis.

Simply put, I can't live the life I want to so my imagination has become my keep. My final impenetrable stronghold, impervious to the ravages of my affliction. I can go anywhere and do anything. It's an escape I utilize regularly.

Maybe it's just me because my mind is so desperate for new material to chew on but I'll grad ahold of a minor piece of information and build an entire universe around it. That's how my latest novel, BattleMaster was born.

Several years ago I saw a short segment on TV about the US Air Force's experiments with craft controlled by a pilot's brainwaves. The pilots were hooked up to simulators but the results were still very interesting. A female subject remarked that initial findings suggested women were better at this method of operation.

The seed had been planted.

That fact whispered in my ear for years and I combined it with others I picked up. Such as, knowledge the female brain is wired to maximize multitasking while males are superior at focusing on a single objective. Both have their advantages and are likely a result of survival demands dating back millennia. Men hunting and providing protection while woman cared for the young and performed any number of important tasks.

Theses two bits of information are what formed the roots of BattleMaster. I asked myself, if women are better at multitasking and the future of warfare is drone based, wouldn't they one day reign supreme on the battlefield? My imagination went from there and the story blossomed until it found its way to the page.

So, pay attention to the world around you. Seeds of imagination are adrift everywhere. 

Nathaniel Danes is a self-diagnosed sci-fi junkie and, according to his wife, has an over active imagination. Mostly blind, he writes to create universes where he has no limitations. He lives with his wife and daughter in the Washington, DC area.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nathaniel-Danes/1528587637363979

Website: www.nathanieldanesauthor.com

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/nathanieldanes

Click to buy BattleMaster,military science fiction. Book one of The BattleMaster Corps Trilogy.

Behave, by Andromeda Romano-Lax

This is a strange book.  In a good way.

The writing is evocative, the setting and time period rich and convincing. The tone and style are nearly perfect for the era and subject matter.

I found it very engaging...even though I usually disconnect somewhat when I don't admire any of the characters. While I sympathized with Rosalie, and found myself wanting to like her, I couldn't quite get over some of what she allowed/condoned. I didn't like John Watson much at all, but he was a undeniably fascinating character. This complexity kept me interested, kept me thinking about it even after I finished.

I do rather wish I had read the author's notes at the back first, because I read the novel assuming that it was based on known facts about Rosalie with details filled in by the author, when it turns out most of Rosalie's story was pure invention. That always confuses my sense of truth and makes me doubt the parts that really were based on fact. However, this is just my own personal problem with historical fiction. Besides, we all know how accurate our “true” histories are.

What follows is not exactly a criticism of the book. It's a criticism of Watson, Rosalie, and all their associates. Okay, here goes: those real-life experiments with infants were unbelievable. Bad enough was the sheer cruelty of it: practically torturing unwilling and defenseless subjects in the quest to permanently leave them negatively conditioned. Um...unethical? 

 But even if you accept that Watson was an unethical man, or a man with twisted Machiavellian ethics, I had a hard time believing his scientific method (or lack thereof). He was supposedly a great scientist, as was Rosalie, but their experiment structure was so flawed that I—not a scientist—saw the giant problems. For example, with the Albert B experiments: One subject? Really? Tests that change more than one variable at a time? And then you modify the experiment midstream to try to get the result you want? So unscientific. And it's sickly irresponsible to base entire child-rearing theories on insanely small sample sizes of relatively short duration that—even if they were more scientific and duplicatable—wouldn't prove as much as you claim they prove. So why did no one really question his methods at the time? 

 I think the novel could have more fully explored these issues, really examining the psychology of seeing what you want to see instead of what really IS, of letting yourself get swept away in bad science for some imagined greater good or because of the authority-in-a-white-coat phenomenon or because you're in love or in lust. And what about dealing with the guilt when you finally understand what you did? All of this is addressed to a degree in the book, some of it quite elegantly, but I would have liked to have seen less of the romance in favor of a deeper treatment of these and other more interesting topics.

It's a compelling book. I would certainly read more by Andromeda Romano-Lax.   

Four Stars

Guest Post: Alaska Cruising Highlights

Check out my guest post on the Page Turner, Vicki Goodwin's site.  It's an article about some of my favorite experiences cruising Alaska.  And it's got pictures.

Alaska Cruising Highlights

While you're there, check out some of the Vicki Goodwin's posts about books and authors.

If you want to know more about how to see Alaska for yourself, 

check out my books on Amazon:
Cruising Alaska on a Budget
Hiking Alaska from Cruise Ports