Vatican City

  • digital photos,  Italy,  sketch,  Travel illo,  Vatican City

    Sketchings of Vatican City

    I am continuing with sketches of Vatican City now. I think I have enough sketches of Rome already.

    I like to observe buildings and I take a lot of photos when I traveled to Italy last year. Took many photos of historical buildings with magnificent architecture. Though I can’t draw all the details precisely, I think for sketches, main details are good enough.

    Here’s one on St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City; unfinished. Will continue whenever time permits.

    sketch of statue on top of St Peter's Basilica

    This is the photo I captured; cropped it out as this is the part that I am interested in. A lot of shading work. I like.

  • Italy,  TRAVEL/HOLIDAYS,  Vatican City

    Blogging from Italy: Day 02 – Vatican City

    Linda and me, we both woke up early and went downstairs to get our morning treat of latte.

    Linda and me having our lattes

    Later, as planned yesterday, we went to visit the Vatican City. We walked to the Roma Termini (Bus & Train Terminal) and took bus No. 40 to the Vatican City. We bought our tickets (€1 each) from a news stand nearby the termini. The owner of the stand noticed that we speak Malay and spoke “satu, dua” to us. We were very surprised and asked how did he knew the language. He said he can speak a few. That is so good to know! Hidup Bahasa Melayu!!! 1Dunia!

    The termini is the one in middle. I wanted to take picture of the guy who speaks Malay but we were so in a hurry to catch the bus!

    The bus ride was a pleasant one and we hop off the last stop and had to walk about 10 minutes to the St. Peter Square. It was a pleasant walk as well..we weren’t sweating at all!

    St. Peter Square

    St. Peter Basilica

    Linda with her favourite angels

    A Vatican City winged permanent resident

    After Vatican City, we went to the Fontana de Trevi (Trevi Fountain). The Trevi fountain was the setting for an iconic scene in Federico Fellini’s film La dolce vita starring Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni. Part of the fountain is replicated at the Italy Pavilion at Epcot in Walt Disney World, USA.

    A traditional legend holds that if visitors throw a coin into the fountain, they are ensured a return to Rome. I did not throw a coin, i want to go elsewhere next! lol!

    Just right in front of the fountain, we found two interesting men…

    a funny man and a chestnut man

    Not far from the fountain, along Via Delle Muratte, we found a group of watercolor artists selling original paintings of Rome.

    Later, we try to make our way to Palazzo de Quirinale (current official residence of the President of the Italian Republic) on the Quirinal Hill, the tallest of the seven hills of Rome, but we got lost. We walked about two hours but still couldn’t find the place.

    Lost in Rome

    But worry not, it was a pleasant lost! Haha! We got to see interesting buildings along the way. We later had our lunch and returned to the hotel. Tomorrow we’ll be going to the morning market at 7am and checking out of the hotel at 10am and later take a train to Bologna. Maybe…maybe we’ll do Florence after that if we’re not to tired.

    Till tomorrow, buonanotte! (goodnight in Italian)