Roman Numerals

For this week's Photo Hunt topic of "Old School communication," I decided to go with this shot from our Coliseum tour.
There are 80 arches around the exterior of the Coliseum (actually, the "Flavian Amphitheater" is its proper name), and each one is numbered. Ancient Romans were issued tickets directing them to a specific # arch for entry to the stadium.
The original numbers are still visible on the exterior, such as #53 above.

More shots from our Italia trip on my Flickr page.

Truth in Signage, Part II

There was a lot of expensive shopping in Italy. Especially in Roma, where we found this store that didn't mince words!

I'm using this as my entry into the JorjDotOrg Photo Hunt subject "Sign Language."

For "Truth in Signage (Part I)," click here.

24-Hour party people

Something we saw often in Italia were old 24-hour public clocks. With just one hand to indicate the hour, they were simple yet fascinating.
TOP - the clock in Piazza San Marco in Venezia (Venice). The round face is the 24-hour version, above that a more modern digital readout with hours (in Roman numerals, though!) and minutes. The winged-lion statue up top represents San Marco (St. Mark), who is the patron Saint of Venezia (he's buried in the cathedral there).
2nd - Detail of the 24-hour face, showing the Sun on the "hand" circling the central Earth - obviously a very old clock!
3rd - Clock on the exterior of a church near Ponte Rialto. At least they've got the sun in the correct position here...
BOTTOM - Inside the Duomo di Firenze (Florence Cathedral) was this clock - as plain as the rest of the interior (it's the exterior that's amazing - coming soon!). It's only ornamentation is the faces of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John at the corners.

Interesting how the Venetian clocks have the numbers positioned in the same place (with midnight at about the 3:00 position), while the Florentine clock is differnt.