AAR CSS: Day 12

Praeneste

Bus left at 7:30 this morning. (I was on it. Not necessarily awake, but on it.) We stopped briefly at the Tomb of the Baker:

(The spicus of an aqueduct next to the tomb):

...and then at the Ponte di Nona - not your grandmother's bridge, but the bridge at the ninth milestone from the golden mile marker in Rome:

In Praeneste (now Palestrina) we saw the general shape of the Forum, which is now the main piazza; the Duomo, which is pretty much built right on top of an old temple; and the Antro delle Sorti, where one can still see remains of the mosaic floor and grotto finishing on the walls. But first, we saw a baby stick its head half its body out of the window of a (parked) car:

Ancient temple under the church in the main piazza (Santa Regina Margherita - which means "pizza queen," as far as I can tell :P):

The grotto bit of the Antro delle Sorti:

Detail of mosaic floor:

View down from Praeneste:

Museum of Praeneste:

Erin pretending to be a column:

View from the museum of Praeneste:

Model of ancient temple of Praeneste:

The Nile Mosaic (click for larger image):

Detail:

Detail with lion hunt:

The only extant sculpture of the Capitoline triad (Minerva, Jupiter, Juno with their respective birds):

Surprise! He's a little cross-eyed:

Returned to Rome for lunch.

At 3 we had a lecture by Rabun Taylor (rhymes with raven - don't ask; we think it's a family name), who nearly put us all to sleep by talking about the Aqua Traiana, Trajan's aqueduct. Then we went into the hallway of the basement of the AAR and got to climb into the spicus of the Aqua Traiana.

Tom climbing down up, actually:

The spicus:

Pretty sure that spider is plastic:

After Seth played "bad cop" and got us moving, Katherine Rinne walked us to the Fontanone (Acqua Paola fountain), where she talked more about aqueducts.

Dinner: Linguine al pesto Trapanese | Calamari fritti, patate e carciofi gratinati | Gelato (pistacchio & hazelnut - I ate both)