Photo of the Day 07/29/10 - Such Great Heights

Piazza San Pietro, or Saint Peter's Square, in Rome is a fascinating place. One of the single most visited places in history, it's undoubtedly one of the most photographed as well. It's nearly impossible to get a shot that doesn't have throngs of visitors (unless you're working for the Vatican, of course, and then it's just a matter of making it happen), but I felt lucky to have found an angle of my own. That Egyptian Obelisk in the center is massive, and the scale is thrown way off by the angle ... it's 25.5 meters tall! The smoothness of the cobblestones betrays the shear number of feet that have trod those simple stones; they are nearly glass smooth to the touch. It's a place that must be visited to be understood, and in all likelihood, it's a place that demands multiple visits if one is to truly understand its impact on the world.

They will see us waving from such great heights 
"Come down now" they'll say 
But everything looks perfect from far away
"Come down now" but we'll stay 

-The Postal Service

Larger version available here: Such Great Heights

Photo of the Day 01/29/10 - To the Victor Go the Spoils

The Vatican is a treasure trove of art, architecture and rarities. This is but one of millions, Gabinetto Del Laocoonte or Laocoön and His Sons; from Wikipaedia:

The statue is attributed by the Roman author Pliny the Elder to three sculptors from the island of Rhodes: Agesander, Athenodoros and Polyclitus. It shows the Trojan priest Laocoön and his sons Antiphantes and Thymbraeus being strangled by sea serpents.