Rome

Last week I was lucky enough to spend some time in Rome, as I was at a conference held near there. Never having been there before, nor to anywhere in Italy, I didn't know quite what to expect. So, here's some observations and pictures of where we went.

There's lots of ruins. Everywhere

At first I was excited, then you get a bit blasé about another roman pillar. Some of them are amazingly well preserved. The best has to be the Panthenon. A pagan temple originally, converted to a Christian church it's amazing. Completely preserved, circular, with an oculus (aka hole) in the dome letting light stream through. Apparently it's quite spectacular when raining or snowing as well.

Pasta is a staple part of the diet. Much more variety than over here, and so much nicer. I ate it once a day, sometimes twice. So how come young Italian women are so small.

The Coliseum is also spectacular. We saw it in the evening when the sun was setting and the light was really good. So big, and difficult to imagine what it must have been like when filled with 60,000 spectators watching gladiators, animal shows, and even reconstructions of sea battles. It was a day out, with wine, picnics and even BBQs on the seats. I was fascinated by the series of corridors, cages and hoists for the animals and scenery under the stage.

The Forum and Palatine Hill was huge, most not as well preserved, but I bough a great book called Rome Reconstructed which overlaid images of what buildings would have looked like with how they are now. We saw temples, the Palace of the Vestal Virgins, a garden and shops and markets.

Lots of street performers. Gladiators, some of them arguing loudly.

Buddhists (?) seemingly perking impossible feats of endurance. Until you realised they were everywhere and how it was done.....

The Trevi Fountain was beautiful and better than expected. Also very crowded. And I did throw three coins in it. I also had some Italian Gelato there, which was excellent.

The Spanish Steps also crowded, it worth seeing, and we did climb to the top to see the church and the view.

The Vatican is very rich!! I've never seen so much wealth n such a small space. St Peter's Square is dominated by the Basicila, which is spectacular inside.

We visited the museums, and luckily bought a ticket in advance as the queues were easily 2 hours long. At 20E a person, I reckon they were making about 200,000E a day. But, there is some amazing stuff in there.
Raphael's Transfiguration was particularly spectacular.

At every turn there was another Michael Angelo, Caravaggio, or another priceless piece of art.
My favourite was the map room with its amazing ceiling.

The Sistine Chapel was worth seeing, but a bit dark, and the guards constantly shouting at you to be quiet and not take photos were a bit off putting. I did get some photos though :-)

Apart from the ruins, the art and the lovely streets, the other observation is the wisteria - it was everywhere, and smelt beautiful.

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The Great Yorkshire Brewery Tour

I love Christmas, and this weekend we had a great reminder of it - we'd been given a Red Letter day experience which was a brewery tour, and we used it in Cropton, North Yorkshire. We set off early Saturday morning, and got to the pub in time for coffee - a lovely pub, The New Inn.

And then set off to the brewery, which had begun in the pub cellar but now occupied a couple of buildings close by. It was also undergoing a rebranding from Cropton Brewery, to The Great Yorkshire Brewery which was considered to be abetter brand for the international market.

As a former member of CAMRA, and a lifelong believer and drinker of cask ale, I was surprised to see some kegs outside

But our very entertaining tour guide Karl explained. The brewery produces some very fine beer which is put into casks and bottles, but they also produce some beer which is "craft kegged". This is for a couple of reasons - they are selling into international markets and cask beer doesn't travel, but also because they are producing lager, which needs to be kegged.  The brewery tour was excellent, and more informative than many others I've been on.  At the end we could choose three beers to sample, and I went for quite a mixture. The one in the middle is a red lager. very hoppy, and very much to my liking - I prefer hoppy, bitter beers to sweeter ones. The one on the left is flavoured with nutmeg and cinnamon, which I wasn't keen on and the other is a pale ale which was very nice!

 Of course, it would have been rude to only have one, so we forced another one down with lunch, but I went for the red lager again as it was so good. Having made the very sensible decision not to drive home after sampling 5 different beers, we checked into a room at the pub and had a lovely walk round the village. The sun was actually shining, and it was warm!  Got back to the room in time to watch the Grand National but no luck in the office sweepstake!  Great steak and ale pie in the pub for dinner, cooked in their beer of course!

Sunday breakfast was very fresh eggs on toast, then we drove to Helmsley for a coffee. But, we got seduced by the shops and didn't have time for a coffee. Then to Nunnington Hall, a National Trust property. A lovely house and garden:

and not over-restored. Very much left as it has been when it was last lived in between the wars. I like to get inspiration for my dolls house, and loved this dining room.

One of the attractions for me was a collection of miniature rooms, painstakingly recreated in many different styles. This is one of them - a Palladian Hall

The gardens had a ribbon tree, where children ere encouraged to tie and ribbon and make a wish, and it added some colour to the place - many spring flowers not yet out because of the very cold recent weather. There was also a peacock and peahen. He decided to display to here, and opened and shook his tail feathers - a beautiful sight, but she was not in the slightest bit interested, only going near him to pick up crumbs on the grass.

I did mange to get close enough to take this picture though, which shows the amazing detail and colour on his head and tail

Back home by 4, in time to cook Sunday lunch. A lovely couple of days, and thanks a lot to Tom and Fiona for treating us.

Porkpie, a bar and wet feet

Last weekend I went to Miniatura at the NEC - an exhibition of tiny things and Dolls Houses! We'd had about 48 hours of snow leading up to it, so was a bit apprehensive and it didn't get off to a good start when Stuart spent 10 minutes trying to get the car to the top of the road to take me to the station for an early train. No luck as it just spun and skidded, so I set off to walk. Unluckily I'd put the wrong boots on, and my feet got very wet! Got there OK, and had a great time, despite the wet feet.

On only the second stall I visited I saw this:

It's a Tall Bar, made by a company called Bespaq, and I've been looking for one for ages. So, I had to have it. Unfortunately, it cost more than I'd taken with me, so I ought to have left then. But didn't. I soldiered on, still with wet feet, and bought loads of little things. Some things I knew what I wanted them for - I wanted lots of stuff to dress the bar with so bought bottles, glasses and a beautiful cranberry glass punchbowl and cups:

Others I just buy because I like the look of them. Since the last Miniatura I'd wanted a very realistic salad from Mags-Miniatures, and as it was coming up to Easter I wanted something chocolatey, and was pleased to find a basket of chocolate eggs. I stopped to chat to a man who made miniature food, and fell in love with his pork pies - he very proudly showed me the jelly in them! And as I love beetroot I couldn't resist a board with all the ingredients for pickling beetroot. I even found a wobbly jelly and some rhubarb. He's my stash of food:

Eventually I ran out of money, and by now had trench foot, so trecked back to Birmingham New Street station when because I'd misjudged timings, I had an hour to wait. I hate that station. And it was freezing! But, got back home to find Stu had a whiskey mac waiting for me and a roaring fire to sit next to, so all was well. Here's what I came home with:

I've had fun the last few days putting most things in the house - and the bar looks great. This isn't a great picture, and I might redo it  this week but gives an idea of what I want to achieve: