Isis' Europe trip

On the 8/11 we went to Matera. Matera is in Itaty and is a town where all the people lived in caves called sassi, until 1952s when the government gave them houses. The people shared their caves with their animals, i.e horses, chickens and pigs. The average of six children slept in various places including the chest of drawers. In one 'church' there is still evidence of paintings.

Some sassi

Inside a sassi that has been furnished

Painting in a sassi church

On the 9/11 we went to Pompeii. In Pompeii, there were lots of roman baths. I learnt how they worked. First you went into a waiting room. It had cubby holes to put your stuff. There you waited for your turn in the baths. Then you went into the frigidarium. This was the cold room. You had a cold bath then went into the tepidarium. This was like a sauna. You went in here to warm up. It was heated by fires. After that you went to the calderium. This was like the hottest hot pools in Hanmer springs. It was heated in the same way as the tepidarium. Literally. The heat from fire in the tepidarium came under the floor, which was raised on small brick pillars, and through the walls, which were hollow. We saw a beware of the dog sign. It wasn't plastic, it was a mosaic of a dog! It said 'Cave Carnem' (Ca -[as in cat]- ve Car-nem). All the roads in Pompeii were badly cobbled and had what we think are ancient zebra crossings. They were raised stone blocks across the roads. We went to an exhibition of the body casts. I found it kind of creepy. The mountain is called Vesuvius. http://blog.degreed.com/top-10-facts-about-mt-vesuvius-and-pompeii/ - 10 interesting fact about Pompeii.

A road in Pompeii

Some bodies

Pompeii from above

A street

Beware of the dog

On the 11/11 we went into Rome. We went to St. peter's square and saw the pope. Did you know that St. Peter's square is a giant sun dial. There is an Egyptian obelisk in the middle that acts as the gnomon (bit in the middle of the sun dial). We then went to the Vatican museums. There was an actual mummy that you could see and lots of hieroglyphics. We saw lots of statues of men. They originally had rude bits but one pope didn't like that so he got someone to carve fig leaves over them. There was a room with animal statues including a hare, a toad and even a giant camel head! There was a tapestry room with a couple of tapestries that were disturbing. There was even a room with all the maps painted on the walls! Last of all we went in the Sistine chapel. I saw the famous pointing statue. Personally, I don't think it's as great as people say it is We saw lots of ridiculous guards in stupid outfits. We queued for St. Peter's Basilica and then went in. It is HUGE. The bronze used to make the high altar was taken from the Pantheon. There is a secret code of the pope that illegitimately had a child. The crest on the pillars has a woman's face and the crest gets fatter and on the last one the lady's face turns into a baby's face.