Time to wrap this up.  Ms. Packratty will continue to post on http://a-packrats-progress.blogspot.com/ and retire this blog.  Her next trip is probably going to be rafting in the Grand Canyon in 2013, along with a return to Italy in December 2014, when she hopes to spend a few days in Firenze and then a week in Rome - hopefully back at Via Urbana centi venti tre.

How did my third grade German teacher

end up in a Roman museum. Gorgeous, eh?

a final picture or two

Shrines like this are all over Rome.



















Confetti on the sidewalk during Carnevale

More pictures

Pebble mosaic in sidewalk. Ornamentation pops up in even the simplest things.












Major street repair in central Rome. Three guys dig up the cobblestones and find the leaky pipe. Then they replace the dirt, tap the old mortar off those cobblestones and replace them. No heavy machinery, plenty of time to stop and chat or walk around the corner for un espresso doppio.










Swiss Guard - uniform designed by Michelangelo - painter, sculptor architect and couturier. All of them tall, handsome and able to speak three or four languages. And able to wear the uniform without cracking up, obviously.


















The pope's private staircase to the Sistine Chapel
























one of the famous cats of the Colosseum






















Newlyweds at Bocca della Verita

























Sant'Eustacio on the eponymous piazza. Yes, that's a deer's head with a cross between the antlers.

a lucky shot

Vaticano

Doorways of Monti

I really liked the variety of the ironwork in the (usually) half circle transoms over doors. I may have a few more on the camera but this is a good sample.