More from the Vatican Museums

You may have noticed that these are all exterior shots. Tom lent me his Olympus, and while I know how to focus it, I have yet to determine how to disable the flash. I didn’t want some angry priest running after me for flashing my camera. So here are my outside favorites: masks, two sphinxes, and I believe David with Goliath’s head.

The Vatican Museums: Hadrian’s Contributions

One thing I’m much more aware of now than I was on my first trip to Rome in the 1980s, is how much stuff the Church appropriated from the Romans. So I was not particularly surprised to learn that some of my favorite pieces of sculpture in the Museum were from Hadrian’s Villa: this lion, one of two; the giant pinecone; and the Bacchus-like spigot.