I made an error when I was writing about the nimbus on the heads, too early for the coffee to start working. The round nimbus means they were dead, the square nimbus means alive when the mosaic was made. Thus, only Theodoro has the square nimbus. (I cannot believe I made such a stupid error in my original post)

dave

Dave,
Thanks for the tips.

Ackislander,
If it rains we will have umbrellas. It seems every time we are in Europe it rains. The first 4 days of our 5 days in Paris were rainy. Then, our next trip to Germany, it poured for 3 of the 4 days we were down around Fuessen. I now expect rain on all of our non-tropical vacations, that way I'm not disappointed.

Very interesting post, Dave. Three of my favorite out of the way places are Santa Croce in Gerusalemme and St. Paul Outside the Walls and the Mausoleum of Santa Contanza.
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/i...santa-costanza

In Florence I especially like the San Marco Monastery.

tarquin, I really can't agree with you about David, but to each his own.