exotica to photograph
on vacation in rome

Curious iconic objets d'art on sale in little town of Galle, an hour's drive from Rome. Even if you're only on a short vacation in Rome, or especially if you're staying longer, or will be living there, we recommend you hire or buy a car and try to get out of town more, because there are some fascinating places to see in the surrounding areas of rural Italy.

More Catholic Heavy Metal in Galle. Scary stuff. How they ever built a popular religion on this, I'll never understand. They must have scared away more children from church with this than Freddy Kruger. Not exactly the 'Good News', is it? If you're looking for Jesus, I don't think you'll find him here. Give me the plain old Bible and a plate of hot waffles and syrup for prayer breakfast any day over this stuff.

Try to look up more when you're out and about in Rome. I had to climb a ten foot wall to get this shot, on the north side of Via dei Fori Imperiale. I'm not suggesting you do thesame, but this picture is illustrative of the incredible richness of architectural ruin and heritage there is to be seen in Rome.
For centuries, the practice here was not to demolish and rebuild but to just build on top of, or adapt, what was already there. Thus, all around you can see myriad evidence of this in eerie little forgotten crumbling nooks and crannies of dark and decaying gothic fascination. This scan can't do the detail justice, but try to look closely at this photo and you'll see incredible detail. Architectural mouldings and fresco keystone frieze detail perhaps at least a couple of hundred years old, and the vine tree branches actually growing through the wall.
So keep your eyes peeled in Rome for many fascinating details such as this.

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