A trip to Rome - A church and lions

On our third day in Rome we started with a visit to a church.


This is the San Clemente.
It's special because this church is build upon another, older church, which in turn is build upon old Roman houses. Dominican monks excavated the older church and the Roman houses so you can visit them.

We weren't allowed to take pictures, so here's a couple of cards:


In the church itself there are some really beautiful mosaics.


This is a corridor of the older church. They put all kinds of stones and pieces of statues in the wall so you can admire them.

It was really cool to see how all these buildings were build on top of each other and how well the older buildings had been preserved.


Next we went to see the Forum Romanum. An area where they have lots of old stones and pieces of old buildings and such. We wanted to visit the Forum, but it turned out we had to pay not only for the Forum, but also for two other tourist sites if we wanted to enter the Forum. So we decided to just look at the Forum from a lookout point. As you can see there are lots of pieces of stone columns and such.


We went on to see the monument for Victor Emanuel II, the first king of united Italy.


Across from the monument is a square with the building where Mussolini used to hold his speeches.


Another lion!
I'll have to see that statue in close-up.


The monument has many nicknames. Wedding Cake and Typewriter are among those nicknames.


It's a very white building. The sun was shining brightly and it almost hurt to look at the building.


I managed to get close to one of the lion statues.


Isn't it cool?!


After taking pictures of the lion we fled the monument so our eyes could get some rest.

Then it was on to the Capitol.

Lions, Buddha & food spam

Yesterday evening we celebrated that my Owner's OtherHalf had finished a large work assignment that had kept him busy for a couple of weeks. And what better way to celebrate than visiting our favourite restaurant, where I posed with some Chinese Lions and a Buddha.









Today my owner's OtherHalf met us when we came out of work and he had brought food: A very special and tasty vegetarian Cheese Burger!! Yum.

News from Canada: Lots of Animals

I got another email from Moira to tell us all how she's doing.

I posted her story and pictures below:

Hi Sullivan and everyone! I'm having lots of fun here in Canada with Marie and Princess.

We went to a Petting Zoo with Princess' playschool class and they had lots of animals there, even some very exotic ones. Can you tell what kind of animal this is?

They also had lions! Don't you think they look cool?

I read that you had an encounter with some geese. well, I saw some geese too and I've been told they can be viscious, so you got a lucky escape.

The ducks were very friendly and curious, but still I was glad there was a fence between me and the ducks. You never know.

Turtles, or are they turtoises? I have to ask Marie as I keep confusing them. I think turtles are the landbased ones. It's easier in dutch as they're all called 'Schildpad' (meaning: shield or shell toad) no matter if they're on land or water.

And saving the best picture for last:

I had a nice relaxing nap together with a distant cousin.

Take care!

Moira