Marotta / Griesgraber in Italy
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Mon March 7, 2005 - Rome, Italy
Our last full day in Rome today, and another day off. Jerry and I spent the day doing more sightseeing, then joined the PG Tribute band and some other friends for a final dinner.
For the sightseeing portion of the day, we visited two more Basilicas; St Paul's and St John's. St Paul's is believed to be built on the grave site of his tomb. Compared to the number of tourists at St Peter's it felt almost deserted, but was still very impressive. Apparently it was destroyed by fire in the 1800's and rebuilt along the same design with contributions of materials from all over the world. Because of this I guess it was probably the "newest old building" we visited.
St John's was located closer to the center of Rome and is I guess the official Cathedral of Rome (St Peter's being part of the Vatican, which is technically another country). It felt and even looked in some ways like a smaller version of St Peter's. It's most interesting feature to me was a set of stairs just outside the Basilica. They are called the "Holy Stairs" and are supposedly the stairs from Pontious Pilate's Praetorium in Jerusalem, where Jesus would have been sentenced. While there are numerous holy relics in Rome, some would seem impossible to verify the origins of, but.. I couldn't help but think that it would hard to take twenty some giant marble stairs from a palace and not know whether or not they were the right ones!
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Entrance to St Paul's Basilica
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interior - St Paul's
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statue of St Paul
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dinner with PG T. Band
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last dinner in Rome
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Crazy power problems tonight for me. Despite several attempts before the show, about 2/3 of my gear just wouldn't behave with the club's electricity. Soo... I essentially rebuilt my rack before the show, taking out all the culprit gear and winding up with more or less an "unplugged" version of things. Ironically it proved to be a fun set for us! Not thinking about effects changes, and mixing all the various elements of sounds I usually deal with allowed me to focus more on just my strings and fingers, relying totally on dynamics, vibrato and other "natural" effects.
After the show, the PG Tribute band took us to a local coffee/sandwich/pastry shop (they call them "bars" here), for an informal "end of tour" celebration.
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Marotta/Griesgraber and the PG Tribute band
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aftershow coffee and nutella
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soundcheck in Velletri
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I was also happy tonight to see my friend Ted from San Diego! He works for the Marines as a camera man and drove up from Naples for the show. Marco and Rosanna drove up from Milan as well and it was great to see them again.
Fri March 4, 2005 - Rome, Italy
We've had three days off in Rome now, and I/We've been doing a lot of sightseeing. Today though it's rainy, and frankly my feet are tired from all the walking he past three days, so.. a good day to stay in and catch up on the diary. I still haven't been able to get my laptop online, so it looks like whenever this gets posted to the site, it'll probably be a big update!
Tonight we played in a club in Rome called "Aquafono" which I think means water sound? It was another great audience, and one of the best "band meals" yet from a venue. Late last year I got a new Stick and Emmett Chapman put glow in the dark fret markers in it. The club tonight had some sort of black lights on the stage which made the markers look incredible. Too bad nobody got any pictures of it! I was so fascinated by it that when Jerry handed me the mic so I could say hello to the crowd, I made mention of it... but I don't think anyone knew what I was talking about!
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load-in at Aquafono
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... another great audience!
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Th March 3 - Rome, Italy
Still more sightseeing! Today was another day off in the schedule, and I realized that if I was going to get back to the Vatican to see Peter's tomb and for that matter the museum and the Sistine Chapel, today was the day! I had heard that the tomb was only open from 8-9am, and knew the museum closed about 2:30, so.. I got an early start. I wasn't sure if Jerry was even up, and I knew he had some other plans for the day, so I just set out on my own.
Entering the Basilica again that early in the morning was almost a surreal experience. There are maybe 25 or so altars in the main section of the basilica, and I found that more than half of them had priests saying mass at the same time, and while most were probably in Italian there were many in other languages including English. I made my way downstairs again and found that indeed a gate was open that hadn't been open when Jerry and I first visited it. I went through and found myself in a curving hallway which I was surprised to find had chapels on either side, all with more masses being said! It really felt like a scene out of a movie. Near the end of the hall I found what sounded like an American priest saying mass. I wound up talking to some women from the States who said Peter's tomb was part of an excavations tour. Well.. to make a long story short, after talking my way through some Swiss guard and visiting the excavations office, I found out you had to make an appointment 3 weeks in advance to go on the tour. Oh well.. next time!
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St Peter's Basilica
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another gated off tunnel in the basement
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Basilica floor with mention of Los Angeles
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Swiss Guards outside the Basillica
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a courtyard in the museums
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doorway art (is that the US depicted?)
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this way to the secret archives (shhh!)
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bottom of a gift from Nixon to the Vatican
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moonrocks (top of gift)
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inside the colosseum
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a modern centurion at rest outside the colosseum
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a view from the Colosseum
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arch of Constantine
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more old stuff
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On the Palantine hill
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part of the Italian government (?)
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St Peter's chains
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Moses by Michelangelo
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negotiating a "Jer-cut"
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Jerry and I set out on sightseeing adventures today with the first stop on my list being St Peter's Basilica and the Vatican (center of the Catholic Church). Having been Catholic for all of my life, I'd seen photos and images of some of the buildings and art for years, and actually prior to this trip, it was always at the top of my traveling wish list to go there. Jerry and I rented audio guides at the Basilica and spent several hours there. First we climbed the stairs to the massive dome. A walkway spans around part of where it joins the rest of the roof . It gave an incredible view of both the inside of the Basilica and outside of the city of Rome.
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viewing St Peter's dome
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looking up at the dome
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St Peter's square from the basillica's roof
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a tourist on the roof
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more from the dome
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ext. of the dome, from the roof of St Peter's
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Another Italian Toilet (Toilet series - pt IV) - roof of St Peter's
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Michelangelo's Pieta
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behind the Papal altar
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beneath the basillica's floor; St Peter's tomb
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Don't we have a show tomorrow? (Splendore and JM)
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a living room jam
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live at Linux!
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posters at Linux
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lookit him go!
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great audience at Linux!
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Linux' door with a different kind of art
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hotel view in Roma
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Marco and Rosanna drove us from Cluny to Torino (just inside the Italian border). We were worried we might miss a train there, so Marco drove as only an Italian can! We actually went through a few red lights, and sometimes even swerved into the wrong side of traffic to get around cars stopped at the light! But.. we made it and were soon on our own with a train ride to Milan, then a switch to a train to Rome.
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Jerry learns to use the pay phoes (w. local help)
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Milan Station (catching a train to Rome)
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Train from Torino to Milan
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Back seat (driving from Cluny to the train in Torino)
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Front seat
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Want more stories and trivia? Check out the website archives for past tour diaries. ![]() |