All Roads lead to Rome

Pieta by Michelangelo

 Yes! I was there. My nose was right up against the glass (now protected because years ago some deranged geologist repeatedly struck it with a hammer and broke Mary's nose. They fixed her with a piece of marble from her back). It was hard to walk away. The folds of the gown fascinated me and the rib cage of Christ and skin on the face of Mary- and this was made early in Michelangelo's career.

above the entrance of the Vatican- Belini and Michelangelo on either side of the
Papal Tiara and coat of arms

tapestry in the Vatican Hall of treasures

"I am still listening to inner sounds, still divining, trying to get a hold on Italy. Instead, the hold - part poem, part dream, all enigma- is on me..... there will always remain something unknowable about Italy" - Camille Cusumano

Looks carved but it's not. It's trompe! 

I had no idea about the treasures housed in the Vatican! It would take you years to see everything.

The trip was beyond my expectations. The only regret was that I couldn't linger, couldn't grasp everything, couldn't understand all the things we walked by without explanation.

But I just tried to stay in the moment. Hear, smell, feel, touch when I could so that I could bring the image back in my head and follow whatever path it may take me from here.

I will bring you more. But it all started in Rome.

"All roads indeed lead to Rome, but theirs also is a more mystical destination, some bourne of which no traveller knows the name, some city, they all seem to hint, even more eternal"  - Richard Le Gallienne