Lily's photographs

Lily brought her own camera to Europe and took many photos.  Here are a few.

This is the skeleton of a person that perished in the volcanic eruption.  You could see their bones and the skull.  It was fairly gruesome, as the skull was split open because of the intense heat of the eruption. It had literally cooked them from the inside out, and they died instantly.

Street view in Pompeii.  They have been actively excavating the site for over 200 years.

This was part of the men's bath house, with the original flooring and some images on the walls.

Julia at the Bay of Naples with Vesuvius in the distance.

The forum in Pompeii.

The forum in Pompeii

Our apartment was one block from a small museum devoted to Leonardo da Vinci.  This and the next photo are from that museum.

Italian police ready to roll.  We thought they looked like they were ready to play catcher in a baseball game.

This is a bridge in Paris where lovers write their names on locks, lock them onto the bridge and throw the key into the river.  Locks of love.

Lily took many photographs of artwork.  This is called Odalesque, and it was in the Louvre.  There were so many works there that were from our history books.  

John the Baptist by Leonardo da Vinci.  Through our travels we were able to see his works in Rome, Florence and Paris.

Winged Victory of Samothrace

Lily outside the main entrance to the Louvre.  If you ever go to the Louvre, don't go through the main entrance.  Go through one of the side entrances, and there is one that you can get through that is attached to a mall under the Louvre.  That is where there is a large food court.  It takes you 5 min. to get through security instead of the 45 minute wait at the main entrance.  Why the employees at the Louvre don't tell people about the other entrances is a mystery to me.

This is from one of the sculpture gardens in the Louvre.

Lily was able to read Latin and Egyptian inscriptions throughout our trip, as we saw many objects from Egypt, and many of the churches have Latin inscriptions.  She was surprised that she could decode so many of the inscriptions in different languages, and she made many connections to what she studied in books back home.

Europeans have different sensibilities about nudity than do Americans, and that was a running theme throughout our trip.  When one visits these different museums, one should expect to see many images of nude men, women and children.  We have a running debate on the difference between what constitutes 'nude' and what constitutes 'naked'.  Lucia is a strong advocate 'naked', and her most frequent criticism of the art was 'Those people need to put some clothes on.'

This image is entitled The Fall of Corinth, I believe, and it shows the Romans taking over the city.  Lily was able to take this image discretely, as no photos were allowed in the Orsay Museum.  This painting is about 45 feet long and 25 feet high.

Massive clock in the Musee d'Orsay (the building was once a train station) that looks out onto the Seine.

Again, this is a massive painting, perhaps 25-30 feet high.  It is from an art movement from the late 1800's that is not often studied in the U.S.  This shows a knight in shining armor standing in a sunny field of flowers, surrounded by perhaps a dozen nude women admiring his virility.  There was another called The School of Plato, I believe, and it was along the same lines, except there were 12 nude men surrounding Plato and listening to his lecture.  Again, different sensibilities in Europe and America.  It was quite an education.