The Boerewors Emergency Medicine Chronicles: Roma

Saturday, 20 June 2009

Roma - part three : the Vatican

So I just wanted to Giotto down some thoughts on the Vatican art treasures...and ...'yes'...that is probably the worst pun you'll read this month !

The first thing that struck me,as I walked from the Ottaviano metro station towards the Vatican was the very large lingerie shop called 'Intimissimi' .

(Have a look at their latest advert at http://vimeo.com/4197532)

Now given that the Clergy supposedly have vows of poverty and abstinence it seems like a really cruel and inhumane punishment for them to have to pass this shop on their way to work...of course,its entirely probable that some of the Nun's...and perhaps even some of the Priests, do in fact shop there...the mind boggles.

Secondly, the queues for the museums are long...loooooooooooooooong...its estimated that at least 30 thousand visitors a day pass through the turnstiles paying an adult ticket price of Euros 14...about £12/$20
Now I have to say that you get to see a lot of art...more than you could realistically see in six months apparently...but given the amount of revenue that is generated,I do think that they could buy something a little more modern...really ...they can't afford a Picasso??

Anyway...the three statues included below are apparently were all crucial in the development of Michelangelo's work...the head of the first was the inspiration for both his 'David' statue and for the painting of 'Adam' in the Sistine Chapel.
The second was the template for the figure of God in the Sistine Chapel.
And the last sculpture apparently changed his style forever...incidentally,he is supposed to have made the apophrycal statement that 'no one who ever painted a ceiling became famous'!!

Finally I include a copy of the museum ticket which rather bizarrely features the middle section of "The School of Athens" painted by Raphael.

The two men are those well known Christians ,Plato and Aristotle...elsewhere in the painting you will also find Socrates...now the painting is allegorical and full of hidden meanings and codas which frankly are too much for a boy from Johannesburg.

And on the way out from the first art gallery part of the museum, don't miss the stunning Caravaggio representation of the Crucifixion...it is mind blowing.

He was the first painter to popularise the chiaroscuro technique...

I had always thought that it was a type of cured pork sausage from the Iberian peninsula!!

(Please note that there is no copyright to the photos as I took them all myself-although they were helped immeasurably by Picasa)

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What I do and where I do it

Naturally...naturally... this blog is a complete work of fiction.Of course it is... None of the people (or their relatives) or any apparent colleague or indeed any event mentioned within the blog, exist, or have ever existed. Really..no..really...Honestly..trust me..*right*

If you think that you recognise yourself, -particularly if you are a clinician or an ex-girlfriend-, then you have a narcissistic personality disorder.

However if any part was true then the introduction might read something like this:-
I work as an autonomous Emergency Nurse Practitoner serving a charming English seaside town called Little-Ghetto-on-Sea, on the East coast, closer in fact to Europe than to London.
We treat a wide range of minor illness and injury , with admitting privileges to St Vulva's, the main academic hospital some 20 miles away .
It is apparently one of the UK's most densely populated city's...and fits Littlejohn's discription in the Daily Mail when he says,"most British seaside towns are run-down dole-claimant dormitories,which seem to take a perverse delight in driving people away through a combination of rip-off prices , tatty boarding houses and disgusting food and draconian parking regimes" . It often feels as if it is the setting for 'Little Britian' which most foreign readers will know is more social commentary than cutting-edge comedy.Indeed most of the male patients are typically shaven headed pierced,inked,dirty-fingered,dull eyed ,baseball-cap wearing, unemployed smokers with prodigious drinking skills. The women have a limited vocabularly, ranging from "innit" to "my (human) rights" with not much else inbetween.Invariably they have several children from different consorts (love that word!) and walk through the town talking on their cell phones and ignoring their children.There are few vegetarians and even fewer graduates.

DISCLAIMER

This site is for entertainment purposes only.

Any patient interactions or cases that are posted here are not based upon any single person ,living or dead ;or any specific event.

Conversations in quotes and remarks that appear to be quoted verbatim are not necessairly true. All patient details are changed to make identifying them impossible, far exceeding the minimum standards for de-identification of patient information.

However , occasionally , ECG strips ,photographs,or x-ray images that are of clinical interest are posted and are subject to that particular patient having given me written permission for the image to be published;and no original NHS images or materials are used,removed or uploaded from any of the hospitals in which I work.

Under no circumstances should any reader assume or think that any nursing or medical advice is being dispensed.

No nurse/patient relationship,- or indeed any theraputic relationship of any kind-,will be established by you reading and/or commenting upon this blog.