From Keats to Shelley to Roman baths

Blogger of the day: Peter

I know that Dear Jacob blogged about the trip to the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican
Museum yesterday, but how could we not post this photo of the two boys with the
 Pope? We've been joking about this photo for the last 24 hours. Doesn't it look like
Isaac and Ezra were finalists for Vatican Idol, but that Isaac was declared the winner?
Must have been his rendition of "Some Nights" by fun. It's a favorite around here.
At any rate, like our cousin, Gabe, wrote in response to this photo,
"I can't tell if I find this awesome or terrifying. Cannot look away."

Me, either. 

Today, we got away from the Pope and visited a Protestant cemetery where Keats and Shelley are buried and then visited the ancient Roman baths of Caracalla. We arrived at the cemetery just as the heavens were about to open up. We found sanctuary under an overhang and ate dried apricots and crackers while we waited for the rains to stop. While snacking and waiting, we noticed a sign that reminded parents not to leave their children unattended in the cemetery. Who would do that? I'm going out for milk. You wait in the cemetery until I get back. That seemed absurd. But then the boys got restless. Jacob began digging in the puddles that had formed and Isaac was throwing pebbles at a grate, missing wildly and nearly hitting other visitors who had sought refuge nearby (Ezra was willing to eat all of our food -- he gets hungry when he is bored!). So we allowed them to run up and down a hill. You wouldn't believe it, but the caretaker came out, in the rain, to see if the children belonged to anyone. This must be a real problem for them! The rain subsided and we found both graves. After paying our respects to these two influential poets, we set out to find the ancient baths. We had read about them in the guide book and I had been pushing for them more than any other person in our group, but I do think that what we discovered was so worth it. The baths at Caracalla were AMAZING!! The size of the ancient structure alone gave us some idea of what these public meeting places must have been like. The mosaics and some of the capitals/columns that have been preserved were also a sight to see. We remarked that the rain that came earlier in the day really gave us a better idea as to what the mosaics must have looked like in the bath house. They were bright, colorful, and simply gorgeous! I'm rereading the word 'bath house' but that doesn't do it justice. Imagine something like the Coliseum or a football arena or an opera house. It was that big! We spent a good part of the afternoon exploring the site before heading back to our apartment. Elizabeth and the boys had some pasta and pizza for dinner and after getting them squared away with the pizza, I met up with my cousin, Paul, and his girlfriend for a drink at the Piazza de Popolo. We caught up for a bit and bid farewell. He's off to Nice, France in the morning to accompany an orchestra as the narrator for The Carnival of the Animals (Le carnaval des animaux). It was really nice to spend some time with him. Tomorrow, Ezra will continue the chronicling of our trip together. Two days until we start all over in Athens. Wish us luck!  

Ezra and Jacob posing in front of Keat's grave. We placed a stone
on top of the headstone to mark that we had visited him.