A Roman adventure - part 5

After eating pizza outside the Colosseum Laura went around the outside of the Roman Forum which she had visited the day before.  It was raining so she peeped out from inside her girl's raincoat to see the splendid sight of the ruins in the rain.

Laura saw the Roman Forum from the Via del Fiori Imperiali

This building, now a church, was once the Curia where the Roman Senate met

The Roman Forum with the Monument of Victor Emmanuel (known as the wedding cake) in the background

Round the front of the Monument of Victor Emmanuel was the tomb of the unknown warrior.  Laura discovered this was guarded day and night by Italian soldiers.

On the side of a huge building on the Capitoline hill Laura saw the mother wolf with Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome

Laura admired the Roman Forum from the Capitoline hill

Laura decided to go and see the Vatican, so she traveled by bus with her girl.  It was still raining when she reached it and the queues were very long, snaking all across St Peter's Square.  It was too late in the day to join the queue to see inside St Peter's Basilica.  Instead she admired a shop window near the Vatican which was already decorated for Christmas.

The Christmas decorations, including an animated nativity scene in a shop window near the Vatican

Laura realised that Pinocchio was important to Italians when she saw this collection in the shop window

Laura walked towards the river Tiber and looked back at St Peter's Basilica from the river bank

After crossing the river Laura walked through the narrow Roman streets where the tourist buses couldn't go, she found a long street called Via dei Coronari.  It had a lot of quaint little shops and artisan workshops.  She saw a stonemason/plasterer's workshop, then came to a lovely antique and traditional model shop.

There were plenty of model soldiers in one window of the shop

In another window Laura saw a jointed wooden doll or model, it reminded her of a new friend who had come to join the doll family at home recently.  Unfortunately the glass window made it almost impossible to take a good photo of this girl.

And then Laura found the best ice cream shop in Rome - Gelateria del Teatro.

The amazing flavours of ice cream at Gelateria del Teatro

The ice cream shop had a window onto the street showing the kitchen where they made fresh ice cream daily using proper ingredients rather than sugared syrup flavourings.

Gelateria del Teatro kitchen window with ingredients on display

The ice cream shop was beside a little piazza on the street

It was very hard to choose from the enticing range of flavours which included unusual combinations such as Lemon and Rosemary, Tiramisu or Lavendar and White Peach.  Laura had a delicious chocolate mint ice cream on a cone.

Laura loved her Italian ice cream

Laura watched the ice cream chef mix up a strawberry ice cream, he was pleased to see that she was enjoying her ice cream and gave her a thumbs up and a big smile.

Laura discovered a wonderful antique shop with the best display she could wish to see - some wonderful porcelain dolls, a toy horse and many interesting objects were on display

The beautiful antique porcelain dolls in the shop window on the Via dei Coronari

There was even a dollshouse family on their wooden double bed

There was a shop with Murano glass on display

Laura loved the narrow street of the Via dei Coronari, on the map it looked like a main road and it lead Laura to a large piazza

At the entrance to the Piazza Navona was an amazing toy shop with magical window displays. The shop was founded in 1945.

Laura was delighted with this beautiful toy shop window display, all dressed for Christmas

Another display window of the toy shop showed a Noah's Ark with cuddly toy animals

There was also a display of elegant artist dolls

Another window of the toy shop had some antique items, part of a private collection belonging to the shop.  Inside the shop, which was on two levels (via spiral staircases) Laura saw more of the private collection alongside many toys for sale. 

Upstairs was a huge collection of toy animals for sale, including Steiff bears.  

The fountain in the middle of Piazza Navona included large carved statues and mythical figures

Through a couple more streets Laura found the Pantheon, a Roman temple to the gods which had been converted to a Christian church, hence its survival. 

The Pantheon was so impressive and monumental

There were enormous columns at the front of the Pantheon

Inside the Pantheon Laura could clearly see the Roman features of the building, in this side chapel behind the columns the wall was no longer lined with marble, the holes in the brickwork showed where the support pegs for the marble lining would have been.

This side chapel in the Pantheon was still lined with marble

Laura gazed up at the large (9 metre) hole in the concrete coiffured ceiling of the Pantheon which was letting through the last of the daylight at dusk and making the ceiling shine with a soft glow

She took a photo of the main altar in the Pantheon

Laura was very impressed with the Pantheon

In the Via Aquiro she saw a Pinocchio workshop, filled with enticing toys and models.

It was getting dark as Laura and her girl went through the streets of Rome to find their way back to the hotel. It had been a very long and fascinating day in Rome, Laura was very tired but happy about all the things she had seen and experienced.

(see also Part 1 of Laura's adventures in Rome and Part 2 when Laura visited the Palatine Hill, Part 3 when Laura explored the Roman Forum and Part 4 when Laura discovered the Colosseum)

Sasha girls in Scotland - part 4

Laura and Florence complete their blog about our May half term to Scotland (see also Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3):

On the second Saturday of our visit to Scotland we joined the family on an outing in Edinburgh.  In two days they had already explored the Museum of Childhood, had an open top bus tour, visited The Elephant House cafe where the first three Harry Potter books were written, been inside St Giles Cathedral, seen Blackfriars Bobby statue and grave, visited the University of Edinburgh Art Degree Show and had a private pre-arranged tour of an important no longer open to the public building in Edinburgh as part of a history project.

We walked from our B&B all the way up past the Castle to the Camera Obscura on Castle hill.  After viewing the Camera Obscura show of the city (10 minutes in the dark with a birds eye view of the city projected onto the large white dish table) we went outside onto the viewing decks for a magnificent fresh air sunny view of Edinburgh.  Wow!  It was so impressive.  DollMum looked at the list outside of other camera obscura's around the world (not many) and realised that she had also been to the only one in the Southern Hemisphere in Grahamstown (SA) and the one in Aberystwyth (Wales), apparently there are three others in Scotland.

The Camera Obscura sign on the tower

Florence and Laura view Edinburgh from the Camera Obscura

View of St Giles Cathedral (in the distance down the Royal Mile)

After that, we worked our way down the several floors of the museum exploring all the optical and scientific exhibits which taught us quite a lot about optical illusions in a fun way.

Mirrors played tricks on us in the Camera Obscura museum

Singing Cats and Piano playing dog automata in the Camera Obscura

Singing Cats and Piano playing dog automata in the Camera Obscura

Laura's left eye magnified 50x in the Camera Obscura

Laura's right eye magnified 50x in the Camera Obscura

Laura played with coloured light shadows

There was an amazing optical illusion room which tricked your eyes into believing that relative sizes were different from reality:

DollMum's younger daughter is only double the height of Laura!

DollMum's elder daughter is a giant, Laura is tiny

DollMum's younger daughter is bigger than her elder daughter

Laura is tiny compared to DollMum's younger daughter

Laura is tiny compared to DollMum's younger daughter,
while her elder daughter has short legs for a change

DollMum's daughters are the same size, while Laura is tiny

When we had finished at the Camera Obscura we walked all down the hill to the moat gardens, past the galleries by Princes Street and sat in the gardens eating ice cream in the sunshine.

Eating ice cream on a slope in the Edinburgh park

Eating ice cream and watching the world go by

We really enjoyed our day in the sunshine in Edinburgh (Laura had more fun than Florence who spent most of the day strapped to the side of DollMum's camera case rucksack watching everyone).  On Sunday we had the long drive home and were pleased to get back to all the others in the doll and bear family to tell them all about our adventures in Scotland.