Most of this next batch of photos is from our little trip to Santiponce where the Roman city Italica is located. I found all of this to be extremely cool. I like old places. Places with real history, and except for driving by Stonehenge, this is the oldest man made thing I've been around. I think. The ampitheatre was the most intact structure in the city. We could walk through and around much of it, though large sections were off limits. I found a video on YouTube that is supposed to be a 3D rendered recreation of the ampitheatre. I also recorded some video while I was there, so if you like, check out part 1, part 2, and part 3. You might notice a pattern when looking through the videos, I like tunnels. I took pictures down tunnels and into sewers. I'm actually not sure why I like these settings, especially considering I am the slightest bit claustrophobic. Something about the a tunnel, though, just makes it feel older. I can't explain it.
From the ampitheatre we walked up the road pictured to the left and found (discovered!) what basically amounts to the foundations of several buildings in the city. Several of these buildings featured mosaics like the one seen here. I was extremely impressed by these mosaics. I mean, I had heard about Roman mosaics, sure, but there really is an enormous amount of detail and craftsmanship that went into these, and when I think of them just being in people's houses... It's amazing stuff.
From Italica we went back to Seville and once again visited the Plaza de Espana in an attempt to catch it during daylight hours. Unfortunately, it was more like dusk by this time, but there were still opportunities for some very nice photos, right Sander? In the second picture here you'll notice the ceramics. This sort of stuff was everywhere. There were tiles set into the walls that gave the buildings a feeling of extremely ornate carvings (that weren't) and the railings all around the entire plaza were made of this ceramic and tile. The building itself was pretty much a facade, made only more apparent when I tried to sneak peaks through the windows on the main floor. Inside it looked just like ordinary offices and cubicles and the like. I was very disappointed.There were also these very ornate little alcove things all around the inner wall of the plaza. It looks like they memorialize various Spanish victories by providing a map of where the battle took place and some heroic scene or something or other. There are benches and little shelves for I don't know what, but it's very nice. There were also kitties, both at Italica and at the Plaza.
There are a lot of pictures in the full set, but most of them are of the same sorts of things, so I don't feel a need to explain them here individually. Enjoy!
