We returned home from Italy with an array gifts and a mountain of memories. Here are a few pictures that include some of of the more unexpected sightings in Italy and Sicily.

The construction of these ancient structures remain a wonder. I was able to take a few pictures showing the lego-like shape of marble sections of the temples in Agrigento. Similar techniques were used at the coliseum and other sites. You can also see original lead added to joints in the picture below:

Another unexpected find also reaffirmed the genius of Roman architecture. Many of the temples were ravaged by people stealing the marble or even the metal elements in walls. Sometimes however Roman design won out. If you look closely at the columns below from the Roman Forum you will see circular cuts in the marbles from ropes or chains used by scavengers to try to pull down the columns to take away the marble. The columns would not budge even with the force needed to make these cuts in hard marble. If you wonder at how these columns remain standing, look at this picture:

I was also surprised to find a street that was largely dedicated to shopping priests and nuns — a type of Rodeo drive for the religious orders. The street leads to the Pantheon and it actually pretty swank with everything from lovely alter gowns to briefcases to scarves. Even Clergy bling bling! It may be the smallest niche market in the world but, as the home of the Vatican, it is clearly filling that niche:

I was also struck in Cianciana Sicily and Rome, Italy that the street sweepers used the same stick brooms that seemed little changed from the medieval times:

Speaking of cleanliness, I will never be satisfied with my shower again after seeing Nero’s bathtub in the Vatican (carved from a single piece of marble):

As a military history nut, I was delighted to find in the Sant Angelo armory a double flintlock weapon that I never knew existed:

A few of the unexpected finds were more . . . well . . . revealing like the suit of armor for a knight who either found battle quite arousing or was one of the earliest examples of bravado in male endowment (sorry for the quality but this was behind a glass case):

Then there was the goddess who seemed to maximize the particular fixation of certain Italian artists:

I love the chestnut roasting in both Sicily and Rome like this one in Syracuse (though I could not see how the man in Cianciana made enough to even break even):

I was particularly surprised to find not only that the angel on top Sant Angelo was the sixth or seventh in a series but the others had the poor tendency to attract lightning (including one that ignited the ammunition store at the castle). One of the earlier angels was down by Raphael, who later died after a night of excessive love making with his mistress Margherita Luti. His well-known insatiable appetite for sex proved his undoing and he may have died from syphilis. I went to see his final resting place in the Pantheon with the inscription by Pietro Bembo: “Ille hic est Raffael, timuit quo sospite vinci, rerum magna parens et moriente mori,” meaning: “Here lies that famous Raphael by whom Nature feared to be conquered while he lived, and when he was dying, feared herself to die.”

His angel from Sant Angelo however did not escape nature. Its bronze wings were hit for lightning but it still survives in a courtyard:

We are back now and already missing Italy and Sicily. I loved being able to share from of the many pictures that we took. As shown on the travel blog, I have a particular love for cherubs. However, there are other “faces” of Italy that I thought I would post as a final farewell to all of the new friends that we made in Italy — both animate and inanimate: