binoculars for Rome - good idea?
Nov 17th, 2004, 04:40 PM
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binoculars for Rome - good idea?
Hi all,
I'm trying to both pack light, but take things which enhance the trip too. (gotta take two cameras, one dedicated to B&W film, etc.)
are binoculars a good thing to take along to Rome? I am thinking if we don't get rock star seating at the Papal Audience, to be able to see all those gorgeous painting on high!
ix-nay or pile 'em in? (I am actually going to try to only take one suitcase this time. we'll see if I can...)
I'm trying to both pack light, but take things which enhance the trip too. (gotta take two cameras, one dedicated to B&W film, etc.)
are binoculars a good thing to take along to Rome? I am thinking if we don't get rock star seating at the Papal Audience, to be able to see all those gorgeous painting on high!
ix-nay or pile 'em in? (I am actually going to try to only take one suitcase this time. we'll see if I can...)
Nov 17th, 2004, 04:57 PM
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Discreet opera glasses might make you look like Dame Edna. But big binoculars -- like those field glasses my grandfather brought back from WW1 -- might be awfully heavy to carry around all day.
If you were one of those ladies who posted latterly on the thread about how to avoid getting hit on in Latin countries: carrying binoculars in a city seem to proclaim "I'm a tourist, so fair game for all you low-lifes."
Unless you want to pass yourself off as a simple Roman voyeur (voyeuse?)...
If you were one of those ladies who posted latterly on the thread about how to avoid getting hit on in Latin countries: carrying binoculars in a city seem to proclaim "I'm a tourist, so fair game for all you low-lifes."
Unless you want to pass yourself off as a simple Roman voyeur (voyeuse?)...
Nov 17th, 2004, 05:09 PM
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Tedgale - very funny!! how about if I bring a spyglass instead then?? 
nah, these are little, discreet Bushnells. they are smaller than most digital cameras, even. we'll see. If I am stuffing anything into the suitcase at the end, out they go.
nah, these are little, discreet Bushnells. they are smaller than most digital cameras, even. we'll see. If I am stuffing anything into the suitcase at the end, out they go.
Nov 17th, 2004, 05:20 PM
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I took a small(but powerful!) set of binoculars to Rome, and I was glad I did. I've also used them in Paris(great to see details of the Chagall ceilings in the Opera Garnier), and London. If you have them, I say take them!
Nov 18th, 2004, 05:05 AM
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We did the Piero della Francesco trail this year, saw others using binoculars to see the higher up frescos (freschi ?) better & were sorry we hadn't thought of that. We will take them when we visit Italian cities in future.
Nov 18th, 2004, 10:02 AM
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Mrs F claims that she received precisely one piece of useful advice during her university course on the history of art: always carry a miniature pair of binoculars and a lightweight torch.
If only she followed that advice (though she never follows anyone else's), we'd have enjoyed every holiday in Italy a whole lot more.
If only she followed that advice (though she never follows anyone else's), we'd have enjoyed every holiday in Italy a whole lot more.
Nov 18th, 2004, 10:26 AM
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Amelia, thank you! it was both a relaxing, and an educational experience! still not done with the report, I hope to finish it tonight as I leave tomorrow.
Flanner - thank you for the reminder! I do happen to have a small mini-mag torch, I keep in my flight bag. It's going in my suitcase tonight.
Flanner - thank you for the reminder! I do happen to have a small mini-mag torch, I keep in my flight bag. It's going in my suitcase tonight.
Nov 18th, 2004, 10:26 AM
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<b>Skyhawklette -</b>
May I ask a slightly impertinent question? Why do you want to take a camera for monochrome film? Do you load some special Ilford Pan or the like (for those Ansel Adams moments)? Or is there some other technical reason?
The reason I ask is because you can always make really outstanding BW prints from <u>color</u> negatives - even better than a broad-spectrum monochrome film - because <i>all</i> of the chrominance and <i>all</i> of the luminance information is registered, and you can take away the part you don't want with Photoshop.
I used to carry two OM-1 bodies, one with a slow professional color for daylight, the other with ASA2000 BW for available-light stuff at night.
May I ask a slightly impertinent question? Why do you want to take a camera for monochrome film? Do you load some special Ilford Pan or the like (for those Ansel Adams moments)? Or is there some other technical reason?
The reason I ask is because you can always make really outstanding BW prints from <u>color</u> negatives - even better than a broad-spectrum monochrome film - because <i>all</i> of the chrominance and <i>all</i> of the luminance information is registered, and you can take away the part you don't want with Photoshop.
I used to carry two OM-1 bodies, one with a slow professional color for daylight, the other with ASA2000 BW for available-light stuff at night.
Nov 18th, 2004, 10:29 AM
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Tedgale - funny thought - I meant to add to your suggestion - didn't even occur to me that I have BUSHNELL binocs... as in the writer Candace Bushnell... hmmmmmm, maybe I'll spy some nice fustos after all. 
Nov 18th, 2004, 10:48 AM
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Robespierre,
One camera is a digital, and it takes fabulous shots. The other is my old carbuncle Canon AE-1P. It's been on many a trip with me and I've always been pleased with the results - as a matter of fact many of the prints in my home are enlargements of my trip photos with the doorstop.
I took it with me (with only color film) in June and was really happy I did as my adaptor broke and I was digicam-less for 3 days.
This trip, I took off the wide angle zoom, put back the original 50mm lens (oooh, going practically naked! I'll have to work a shot, not just zoom in and out!) and bought B&W film and red and yellow filters (and a little teeny tripod, etc.) I think of this as an experiment.
I did get good b&W film, but it isn't Ilford. Not sure actually, is there a TRi-pan X of some sort? I'll have to check the boxes later.
One camera is a digital, and it takes fabulous shots. The other is my old carbuncle Canon AE-1P. It's been on many a trip with me and I've always been pleased with the results - as a matter of fact many of the prints in my home are enlargements of my trip photos with the doorstop.
I took it with me (with only color film) in June and was really happy I did as my adaptor broke and I was digicam-less for 3 days.
This trip, I took off the wide angle zoom, put back the original 50mm lens (oooh, going practically naked! I'll have to work a shot, not just zoom in and out!) and bought B&W film and red and yellow filters (and a little teeny tripod, etc.) I think of this as an experiment.
I did get good b&W film, but it isn't Ilford. Not sure actually, is there a TRi-pan X of some sort? I'll have to check the boxes later.
Nov 18th, 2004, 12:15 PM
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Take your binoculars to the Roman Forum. The main Forum entrance from Via d. Fori Imperiali is a scaffolded covered ramp between the Basilica Aemilia and the Temple of Antoninus & Faustina.
You will have this view
http://wings.buffalo.edu/AandL/Maece.../ac822606.html
What is most interesting about this site is that history has left a visible timestamp regarding the Fall of the Roman Empire. Fused coins on the floor of the Basilica.
These coins were fused in the floor on Aug 24, 410AD when Alaric and his group of merry Visigoths pillaged and torched Rome.
The blazing wooden roof collapsed on to the floor and fused the coins in different floor sections of the bldg.
Why were there coins on the floor? No one ever says but I have a very good guess
.
After laying seige to Rome for ~18 months, someone opened the gate. The Visigoths storm the city heading for the Forum/Palatine area because that's where the money is.
On the Via Sacra side of the Basilica are the moneychangers/banker's shops with 3 doors connecting into the Basilica.
The Visigoths come storming into the Forum and the bankers grab their money and run into the Basilica.
Now they either drop coins in their haste escaping or they seek refuge there and are finally robbed and some coins are dropped/spilled in the violence that ensued.
Look at the photo and you will see 4 column stumps going left to right (1 2 3 4) in the foreground.
~1m past the 2nd column stump and directly in front of it are some of these fused coins. So it's on the farside of the stump in a direct line of you, the stump and the bldg in the distance.
Stand behind the 3rd stump so you can view it from a higher angle on the ramp and without the 2nd stump blocking the view.
You will only see discolored circles in the pavement the size of the coins like these
http://www.vroma.org/images/forum_pr...ages/money.jpg
The twenj.com did have an actual photo of these fused coins but it's offline now
.
You will see a small dark piece of broken pavement (in front of the 2nd column) with a small white marble natural line like this \ going thru it, it points to the coins just past it.
The day that those coins fused into that pavement was like the minute the Titanic hit the iceberg. She hadn't sunk yet but the outcome was inevitable, the Fall of the Roman Empire had begun.
St. Jerome said of that day "The city which had taken the whole World was itself taken".
Regards, Walter
You will have this view
http://wings.buffalo.edu/AandL/Maece.../ac822606.html
What is most interesting about this site is that history has left a visible timestamp regarding the Fall of the Roman Empire. Fused coins on the floor of the Basilica.
These coins were fused in the floor on Aug 24, 410AD when Alaric and his group of merry Visigoths pillaged and torched Rome.
The blazing wooden roof collapsed on to the floor and fused the coins in different floor sections of the bldg.
Why were there coins on the floor? No one ever says but I have a very good guess
.After laying seige to Rome for ~18 months, someone opened the gate. The Visigoths storm the city heading for the Forum/Palatine area because that's where the money is.
On the Via Sacra side of the Basilica are the moneychangers/banker's shops with 3 doors connecting into the Basilica.
The Visigoths come storming into the Forum and the bankers grab their money and run into the Basilica.
Now they either drop coins in their haste escaping or they seek refuge there and are finally robbed and some coins are dropped/spilled in the violence that ensued.
Look at the photo and you will see 4 column stumps going left to right (1 2 3 4) in the foreground.
~1m past the 2nd column stump and directly in front of it are some of these fused coins. So it's on the farside of the stump in a direct line of you, the stump and the bldg in the distance.
Stand behind the 3rd stump so you can view it from a higher angle on the ramp and without the 2nd stump blocking the view.
You will only see discolored circles in the pavement the size of the coins like these
http://www.vroma.org/images/forum_pr...ages/money.jpg
The twenj.com did have an actual photo of these fused coins but it's offline now
.You will see a small dark piece of broken pavement (in front of the 2nd column) with a small white marble natural line like this \ going thru it, it points to the coins just past it.
The day that those coins fused into that pavement was like the minute the Titanic hit the iceberg. She hadn't sunk yet but the outcome was inevitable, the Fall of the Roman Empire had begun.
St. Jerome said of that day "The city which had taken the whole World was itself taken".
Regards, Walter
Nov 18th, 2004, 01:17 PM
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Also for the morbid side of the Forum be sure to visit the small Roman Forum museum.
In the last small room which will have a large lead container in the middle of the floor.
There are 2 skeletons by the window, these are of a man and woman.
They date to the 7th-C BC and were a human sacrifice. They were found in the center of the Roman Forum next to the large fenced-in hole (a modern excavation). Also nearby this hole was found the bodies of a man, woman and child tied together. The Forum was once a marsh and this trio was thrown in and drown. Also the banks of the marsh was used as a pre-Roman cemetery and a few of the remains are also in the museum.
The Forum Museum is near the Arch of Titus. On the side of the Arch are a half-dozen *long* steps and at the other end of the top step is the museum entrance. The sign will say 'Soprintendezia Archeologica di Roma'.
The museum is sometimes closed esp in the afternoon but just walk right in, the woman in the booth will tell you if it is open or not.
Have a Wonderful Trip! Regards, Walter
In the last small room which will have a large lead container in the middle of the floor.
There are 2 skeletons by the window, these are of a man and woman.
They date to the 7th-C BC and were a human sacrifice. They were found in the center of the Roman Forum next to the large fenced-in hole (a modern excavation). Also nearby this hole was found the bodies of a man, woman and child tied together. The Forum was once a marsh and this trio was thrown in and drown. Also the banks of the marsh was used as a pre-Roman cemetery and a few of the remains are also in the museum.
The Forum Museum is near the Arch of Titus. On the side of the Arch are a half-dozen *long* steps and at the other end of the top step is the museum entrance. The sign will say 'Soprintendezia Archeologica di Roma'.
The museum is sometimes closed esp in the afternoon but just walk right in, the woman in the booth will tell you if it is open or not.
Have a Wonderful Trip! Regards, Walter
Nov 18th, 2004, 01:21 PM
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I say yes to the binoculars, yes to a mini torch, and yes to lots of 2 euro and 1 euro coins to operate some of the lighting machines that will be the only way to illuminate some of the paintings in churches. The coins are also needed if you want to operate the post card vending machines. The 2e and 1 e coins seems to cover most required payment combinations.
Nov 18th, 2004, 01:31 PM
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I guess it can't hurt to have a small pair of binoculars. My big regret was that i did not have a small, good quality tape recorder with me in Rome. We took the Scavi Tour and also two tours with Scala Reale and would have loved to use a tape to refer back to information that the guides gave to us.
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