Their first stop seems to be Piazza di Spagna, or The Spanish Steps. In the seventeenth century, it was called Trinita dei Monti after the church sitting at the top.
Piazza del Campidoglio where a statue of Marcus Aurelius stands. The website says that it is a replica and that the original stands in the Palazza Nuovo. I wonder if this is the orginal.
The Temple of Antoninus and Faustina was built in 141 A.D. and was transformed into the Church of San Lorenzo in Miranda in the Middle Ages. The ladies are having a look at the gardens.
Next on the tour was The Coliseum whose real name is Flavius amphitheatre. They also viewed the Arch of Constantine.
It is amazing to me that the ruins of these fabulous structures seem to be at the same stage of decay as they were a hundred years ago.
Tomorrow the ladies will continue their visit to Rome.
15 comments:
love these shots - so intriguing
Quite a few less tourists then, weren't there?
I wonder who took the photos and carried all the camera equipment?
Fascinating photos. They do look like pics today Photoshopped with sepia! (Duh... I guess that is where the idea of sepia came from!)
Maybe these girls were royalty from some unknown country of say ... Luthansia. The people of Luthansia had just recently discovered that the whole country was sitting on rich oil fields. These newly-rich princesses wanted to bring culture back to their tiny, art-starved county. So they started making offers to buy many of the landmarks in Rome. To their great disappointment, however, the only thing that they went home with was the picture album you now own, hoping to build their own monuments. But alas, their unlucky streak prevailed. Upon arrival at home they discovered that their country had been taken over by Saudies and all of the oil that had once been underground in Luthansia had all been pumped to the middle east. The poor royal princesses had to sell everything they owned including their cherished picture album.
(Nope ... believe it or not, no alcohol passed through my lips tonight!!!
I just am fascinated by the mystery of the album!)
Wow, CottageGirl, you go!
I was way less imaginative and could only see Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn in "Roman Holiday" fifty years after these shots.
Too bad the ladies didn't have their picture taken standing on a pedestal among the Vestal Virgins, the way my brother did in 1969.
Sanna makes a good point, Who had the camera equipment?
Isn't it a little sad that no one else in thier family thought to save this album to covet and enjoy as much as us "strangers"?
I see a little Picasa symbol under each photo...did you re-touch them in any way?
Ohhh, another non post related question. Your blog layout. It's not a blogspot layout is it? Your header is way cool, mine is all large and big and large....and I can't get the posts to take up the entire page, it's all skinny. No matter what template I use, it's all skinny. Any suggestions?
Char, I'm glad you're as intrigued by them as I am.
Sanna, I'll say! When you compare these photos to the shots on the website, there is no comparison. Of course, there are about 4 billion more people in the world than a hundred years ago!
Good question about the photography equipment, cause you know that camera had to be a whoop-dinger! They must have had a lackey to carry around their things.
Wow, CG, that's some story you got goin' there! Thank goodness the album fell into my hands instead of those darn furiners!
Ruthie, wait till you see the next group of pics from Rome. You'll really think of Gregory and Audrey then!
All the ladies should have had a shot among the Vestal Virgins. I'm pretty sure the young girl probably is one and the old sourpuss broad doesn't look like she ever got.....uh, never mind!
Jackee, maybe the family line died out with them and there was no one to inherit it. Why oh why didn't one of them think to write a name or something inside the album!
I didn't retouch anything on the pics. What you see is what you get! The only thing I did was crop out the unnecessary black album edges. The quality was actually pretty good, I think.
As for your blog question, I use the Blogger template Minima Stretch. When you upload your blog header picture, be sure to click the option that says "Instead of title and description" and also "Shrink to fit".
Instead of using Blogger's fonts to do my title, I do that on Picasa and then click on File and choose "Save as..." before uploading.
luckily i visited all these sites as a young girl. my 18 year old self traveled through Europe with a girlfriend with the obligatory backpack via Eurail. I haven't yet been back and I wonder now if I'll get to go again. Everyone should try to go once.
I see the Picasa logo at the bottom of your photos. I'm going to experiment with that as you suggested.
Cali Girl, oh what fun you must have had! I could never have imagined doing something so daring when I was 18! If only we could go back in time to have that experience.
I think you'll like Picasa. Ruth likes Picnik. You might want to look at that one before you decide.
These photos are so fantastic. I would have to fiddle around in Photoshop for hours in order to get them to look this way; that is, IF I composed and exposed them as well as these.
dutchbaby, whoever the photographer was did an excellent job of capturing this journey.
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