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The vatican museum from the top. It is the large building with the central courtyard. the rectangular building in front of it is the Sistene Chapel.
11/22/2004 - Monday: in Rome Roma, the Vatican, train to Florence Firenze

tags: italy



Monday Reality



Left hotel a bit late...not too bad. Tried to get on the subway but there was a line up the stairs. We were going to take a bus, but then we got a cab. 10 euros to take a cab two metro stops...I sort of think that wasn't strictly kosher...but maybe it was. it was still fun. We got to go under a tunnel that we saw yesterday during our ordeal march of being lost.



the idea was to catch the capucin crypts on the way to the vatican. But they were closed...still. so we slipped down back into the subway. We had used our single use tickets when we were turned back by the line at the Termini station, but we decided that the moral constraints were met, so we slipped through and re-used the tickets to get to the vatican. AFter all, we had gone through the gate, but we hadn't gotten on a train...



so the train left at 4:48ish, maybe 4:47...basically right on time ...



Off we rushed to the Vatican museum. We arrived at 10:00...and the english tour was at 10:30, so just enough time to get oriented and rest a bit before the ordeal by marbel floor!



We had a nice tour guide. First she showed us a sort of parchement view of the sistine chapel-two rulls of text and pictures with details of the different scenes. She would wind it down to get the next view.



This was fascinating...I am phenomenally underinformed of art and cultural matters...it is almost a cliche to say that, but egads it it true.



on the other hand, there are things we know today that were unknown 200 years ago. Amazingly...apparantly the whole forum area was under dirt until 18-something. So much dirt that only the tops of the columns were exposed. and even now much remains.



The archeologists cringe over the techniques used to clear what is now exposed. There have been several recent archeological 'campaigns' among the ruins of palatine hill that have excavated pre-roman huts. one of the write ups discussed the findings of 27 flakes of flint, indicating tool maing. So infering thngs based on bits of things found...which is the whole point of archeology.



And it made me realize that they are not done excavating Rome Roma...an odd thing to realize, since only a moment's consideration would reveal how obvious that is! There are Indian mounds that the archeologists are intentionally leaving alone for now, with the expressed plan of letting future archeologists examine them when they have better techniques.



my ears are popping...and the gps lost its lock...I then look out and realize we are going through a tunnel. ah...sense is made.



maybe...perhaps it wasn't a tunnel...I can't tell. several more episodes of pressure changes are occuring.



There are sliding head rests on the cabin walls in back of the seats. they are padded and have vertical supports so that you can lean on them to sleep without falling into the window, or onto your neighbor. they slide up and down to allow you to adjust to your preferences.



We didn't see the capucini crypt, because it was closed, and it was getting dark as we got on the train, but we are doing pretty well.



The vatican tour took two hours...and it seemed that we were moving much of the time. they have these slick radio receivors so you can hear the tour guide even if you are in the next room back.



I had a strong response to a tapestry depicting the slaughter of the chilidren by herod. One baby is being held, barely, by its mother and a soldier has a dagger to the child's heart. The baby is about to die. Other mother's are using their bodies to shield their infants. it is truly horrible.



damn! the pressure changes are really frequent, and amazingly annoying.



I downloaded a bunch of stuff from 'hex'-a friend of Jo and Schuyler's. I'm reading

how to build a reality that doesn't fall apart two days later...file:///Users/admin/wa/web/downlode.org/etext/how_to_build.html



I'm on the train...fighting sleep. I need to pee, but to do that I worry I'll have to wake the gentleman seated in front of the door to our compartment.



passing through orte...at 5:27:00---possibly even got a track point. I had a signal for a moment.



well..more than a moment, but not too long. there is crying in the hall....



The GPS showed us going 115 mph, for a bit. not just one observation. interesting. fast.



The hall of maps was cool because I realized it was, or could have been, not about art and instead was about the simple matter of managing an empire.



I enjoyed the museum, duh, and the Sistine chapel...and then we climbed the dome! I loved that! I truly loved it. We got to the top and I could see radio vatican and the quiet parts of the vatican and various 'stuff.' I don't know why, but seeing vatican radi

Description of Historic Place:

The Colony Farm Bunkhouse is a one-storey wood-frame rectangular-plan building with regular fenestration, located adjacent to the main north-south axis, Colony Farm Road, at Colony Farm in Coquitlam. The house sits perpendicular to the road, with the front facing towards Lougheed Highway. This is one of two original buildings remaining at Colony Farm, the other being the Manager's Residence; both are located across from the original Village Green that was a central grassed feature of the site.

Heritage Value of Historic Place:

The Colony Farm Bunkhouse is valued as one of the original buildings constructed for the Coquitlam Hospital for the Mind (now known as Riverview Hospital), for its ties to the province's psychiatric health initiatives and as part of a model farm developed by the province. Colony Farm was purchased by the province in 1904 as the location for a new psychiatric facility to relieve the overcrowding at the original lunatic asylum in New Westminster. The lowlands of the farm were developed to provide opportunities for the inmates to work in a healthy, supervised setting and also to provide food supplies for the hospital complex. Upland from the farm, a campus of buildings for chronic patients was designed, based on the best and most humane practices of the time. The complex, which came to be known as Essondale after the Secretary of Health, Henry Esson Young, strived for self-sufficiency while providing occupational training for the mentally ill. Opened in 1910, the facilities at Colony Farm were conceived as more than just an adjunct to the mental institution, but rather as a provincial demonstration farm with high quality farm and living quarters, ultra modern farm equipment and pristine grounds.

The farm was partly staffed by patients, who were paid a small salary to work and live at the farm. The Bunkhouse was originally constructed as a Pump House; one of the two earliest buildings constructed at the farm; the other being the Engineer's House (now demolished).Visible from the entranceway to the farm, the one-storey Pump House had a central three-storey water tower that served as one of the landmarks in the initial development of the farm, along with the Arena and the Workers’ Cottage. A coal-fired, steam-driven water pump propelled over 492,000 litres of water into the tower on a daily basis from three sand points, 5.5 meters deep. The water was used both for farm purposes and for the site’s fire protection system. The water tower was not used for long as the sand points silted up, and the farm site was connected to the New Westminster water system. Rooms for workers were located on each side of the pumping tower. During the farm's period of decline after the end of the Second World War, many buildings were deconstructed or demolished.

In the 1930s, the tower was removed and the structure was re-roofed and re-sided. The existing rooms, shared bathroom, kitchen pump pit, windows and doorways were retained, but the remainder of the interior was demised to allow for more rooms for use as a bunkhouse.

Additionally, the Colony Farm Bunkhouse is significant as part of the original grand plan of the Essondale complex. The original 1908 competition for the design was won by Victoria architect J.C.M. Keith, but its initial phases were executed by prominent architect Henry Sandham Griffith (1865-1943) who was also responsible for the design of the West Lawn building, which still exists uphill from Colony Farm. Significantly, the original marble showers and mosaic tiled bathroom floors, imported from Italy, match those in the West Lawn building. The Bunkhouse and the West Lawn building are the two oldest surviving structures from the original Essondale complex, and the Bunkhouse is the oldest building that survives from the establishment of Colony Farm.

Character-Defining Elements:

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Colony Farm Bunkhouse include its:
- setting within historic Colony Farm, adjacent to the Colony Farm Manager's Residence and across from the Village Green
- orientation, facing Lougheed Highway and east of Colony Farm Road
- vernacular functional design as expressed by its modest one-storey wood-frame structure, with low-pitched hipped roof
- substantial cement foundation that reflects the original location of the central tower
- wood-frame construction, with wooden drop siding (over the original wooden siding), corner boards, water table boards and cedar shingle roof
- regular fenestration including double-hung, 6-over-i wooden sash windows
- interior details such as high ceilings, wooden window and door frames, cast iron radiators, marble shower stalls and ceramic tiles in the bathroom

- Donald Luxton & Associates, March 2007