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addPhoto('images/pantheon.jpg',"In the piazza just in front of the Pantheon.");
addPhoto('images/pantheon2.jpg',"The Pantheon is a building in Rome which was originally built as a temple to the seven deities of the seven planets in the Roman state religion, but which has been a Christian church since the 7th century AD.");
addPhoto('images/pantheon3.jpg',"The original Pantheon was built in 27-25 BC under the Roman Empire, during the third consulship of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, and his name is inscribed on the portico of the building. The inscription reads AGRIPPAˇLˇFˇCOSˇTERTIUMˇFECIT, Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, consul for the third time, built this. It was originally built with adjoining baths and water gardens.");
addPhoto('images/pantheon4.jpg',"It is the best preserved of all Roman buildings and the oldest important building in the world with its original roof intact. It has been in continuous use throughout its history.");
addPhoto('images/pantheon5.jpg',"The building is circular with a portico of three ranks of huge granite Corinthian columns under a pediment opening into the rotunda, under a coffered, concrete dome, with a central opening, or oculus, called the Great Eye, open to the sky. A rectangular structure links the portico with the rotunda.");
addPhoto('images/pantheon6.jpg',"Closeup of the fountain at the base of the obelisk in the Piazza outside the Pantheon.");
addPhoto('images/pantheon7.jpg',"The buildings consecration as a church saved it from the abandonment and spoliation which befell the majority of ancient Roman buildings during the early medieval period.");
addPhoto('images/pantheon8.jpg',"Since the Renaissance the Pantheon has been used as a tomb. Among those buried there are the painters Raphael and Annibale Caracci, the architect Baldassare Peruzzi and two kings of Italy, Vittorio Emanuele II and Umberto I, as well as Vittorio Emanueles Queen, Margherita.");
addPhoto('images/pantheon9.jpg',"The Great Eye, in the center of the dome ceiling. The interior of the roof is intended to symbolize the heavens. The Great Eye, 27 feet across, at the domes apex is the source of all light and is symbolic of the sun. Its original circular bronze cornice remains in position.");
addPhoto('images/pantheon10.jpg',"Inside the Pantheon. The Pantheon is still a church and Masses are still celebrated in the church, particularly for weddings.");
addPhoto('images/pantheon11.jpg',"Facing the main altar in the Pantheon.");
addPhoto('images/pantheon12.jpg',"The height to the oculus and the diameter of the interior circle are the same, so the whole interior would fit exactly within a cube. The dome is the largest surviving from antiquity and was covered with gilded bronze plates.");
addPhoto('images/pantheon13.jpg',"Looking out towards the piazza from the portico of the Pantheon.");
addPhoto('images/vatican.jpg',"St Peters Square in Vatican City. The open space before the basilica was redesigned by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, from 1656 to 1667, under the direction of Pope Alexander VII, so that the greatest number of people could see the Pope give his blessing, either from the middle of the facade of the church or from a window in the Vatican Palace.");
addPhoto('images/vatican2.jpg',"At the center of the oval stands an Egyptian obelisk, forty meters tall to the cross on its top. Bernini had no influence in the erection of the obelisk, he did use it as the centerpiece of his magnificent piazza.");
addPhoto('images/vatican3.jpg',"A fountain by Carlo Maderno. Bernini made the fountain appear to be one of the foci of the oval embraced by his colonnades and eventually matched it on the other side, in 1675, just five years before his death.");
addPhoto('images/vatican4.jpg',"The obelisk, of the 13th century B.C., was moved to Rome in the 1st century to stand in the central spina of the Circus of Nero, which lay to the left of the present basilica.");
addPhoto('images/vatican5.jpg',"Built in Egypt during the reign of Augustus, the obelisk was moved to Rome by Caligula who placed it in the Vatican Circus. In 1586 Sixtus V ordered Domenico Fontana to relocate it in front of St. Peters.");
addPhoto('images/vatican6.jpg',"Looking up at the obelisk and St Peters basilica.");
addPhoto('images/vatican7.jpg',"The classical style of the piazza is expressed in the colossal Doric colonnades, four columns deep, which frame the trapezoidal entrance to the basilica and the massive oval area which precedes it.");
addPhoto('images/vatican8.jpg',"The Palace and obelisk. The obelisk was moved to its current resting place in 1586 by the engineer-architect Domenico Fontana under the direction of Pope Sixtus V. The engineering feat of re-erecting its vast weight was memorialized in a suite of engravings.");
addPhoto('images/vatican9.jpg',"Closeup of the south collonades around the square.");
addPhoto('images/vatican10.jpg',"Bernini had been working on the interior of St Peters for decades, now he used the Tuscan form of Doric, the simplest order in the classical vocabulary, not to compete with the palace-like facade by Carlo Maderno, but on a colossal scale to suit the space and give more emotion.");
addPhoto('images/vatican11.jpg',"The trapezoidal shape of the piazza, which creates a heightened perspective for a visitor leaving the basilica, is largely a product of site constraints.");
addPhoto('images/vatican12.jpg',"The colonnades define the piazza. The oval center of the piazza, which contrasts with the trapezoidal entrance, encloses the visitor with the maternal arms of Mother Church, in Berninis expression.");
addPhoto('images/vatican13.jpg',"Looking north towards the obelisk and south fountain, with the buildings of the vatican city behind the north collonade.");
addPhoto('images/vatican14.jpg',"The south fountain in St Peters Square.");
addPhoto('images/vatican15.jpg',"The south fountain and obelisk, facing north.");
addPhoto('images/vatican17.jpg',"Two of the Vaticans Swiss Guards. The Swiss Guard is a small force responsible for the security of the Apostolic Palace, the entrances to the Vatican City and the safety of the Pope. The force is specifically limited to one hundred soldiers and currently consists of 4 officers, 23 NCOs, 70 halberdiers, 2 drummers, and a chaplain, all with an equivalent Italian army rank. Although the guards are fully trained and equipped in modern weaponry and tactics, they also receive instructions in using the sword and halberd.");
addPhoto('images/vatican18.jpg',"Above the main entrance is the inscription IN HONOREM PRINCIPIS APOST PAVLVS V BVRGHESIVS ROMANVS PONT MAX AN MDCXII PONT VII, In honor of the prince of apostles, Paul V Borghese, pope, in the year 1612. On top are statues of Christ, John the Baptist, and eleven of the apostles. Two clocks are on either side of the top, the one on the left is electrically operated since 1931, with its oldest bell dating to 1288.");
addPhoto('images/stpeters1.jpg',"Between the facade and the interior is the portico. Mainly designed by Maderno, it contains an 18th century statue of Charlemagne by Cornacchini to the south, and an equestrian sculpture of Emperor Constantine by Bernini to the north.");
addPhoto('images/stpeters2.jpg',"Just inside the main entrance of St Peters Basilica.");
addPhoto('images/stpeters3.jpg',"Michelangelos Pieta, located immediately to the right of the entrance. After an incident in 1972 when an individual damaged it with an axe, the sculpture was placed behind protective glass.");
addPhoto('images/pieta.jpg',"The Pieta is a sculpture depicting the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Christ, carved in 1499, when Michelangelo was 24 years old. It is the only sculpture he ever signed.");
addPhoto('images/stpeters4.jpg',"Over the main altar stands a 30 m tall baldaccinno - a processional type of canopy -  held by four immense pillars, all designed by Bernini between 1624 and 1632. The baldaccinno was built to fill the space beneath the cupola, and it is said that the bronze used to make it was taken from the Pantheon.");
addPhoto('images/stpeters5.jpg',"Underneath the baldaccinno is the tomb of St. Peter.");
addPhoto('images/stpeters6.jpg',"At the apse of the church is the Triumph of the Chair of Saint Peter, 1666, by Bernini.");
addPhoto('images/stpeters7.jpg',"The triumph is topped by a yellow window in which is a dove, portraying the Holy Spirit, surrounded by twelve rays, symbolising the apostles. Beneath it is the bronze encasing of the relic of the chair of St. Peter, given to the Vatican from Charles the Bald in 875.");
addPhoto('images/stpeters8.jpg',"The roof of St Peters basilica, above the Chair of Saint Peter.");
addPhoto('images/stpeters9.jpg',"Closeup of the Chair of St Peter. In the 18th century, an ancient wooden chair inlaid with ivory was  traditionally held to be the Episcopal chair on which St. Peter sat as he instructed the faithful of Rome. In fact, it is a throne in which fragments of acacia wood are visible, which could be part of the chair of St. Peter, encased in oak and reinforced with iron bands.");
addPhoto('images/stpeters10.jpg',"Looking from just inside the entrance to St Peters towards the altar. Notice the red porphyry disc on the floor at center, where Emperors were crowned by the Pope.");
addPhoto('images/stpeters12.jpg',"The disc comes from the old basilica, where it was located near the main altar. Kneeling on it, the Emperor Charlemagne was crowned Emperor by Pope Leo III, at Christmas in the year 800. Another 21 emperors subsequently knelt on this same disc to receive the crown of the Holy Roman Empire from the Popes hands.");
addPhoto('images/exelsior.jpg',"The Excelsior Hotel in Rome where we stayed. A beautiful and classical hotel. Oh, with an amazing breakfast. And yes, its a Starwood property.");