You came back for more?  Andiamo!

When I had wandered around the Palazzo Reale for maybe an hour, going in and out, hither and yon, and following the red carpets and staying behind the stanchions and cords meant to dissuade visitors from entering certain rooms, I successfully re-engaged my jaw so that I could close my mouth (after being jaw-droppingly impressed from my post yesterday, remember?), I re-encountered the guarda who had let me enter without a ticket.  I know she could tell I was a happy camper.  I could not help but remark to her, in my best italiano, that the palace was amazing.  Si, si, she smiled in reply, it is a very impressive place.  I told her I worked in art museums in the US and she conspiratorially asked me if I wanted to see the palace’s formal dining room.  Vero! I exclaimed!  May I?

I followed the lovely guard as she moved stanchions and signage and led me to this dining room.

My jaw hit the floor again.  “Here,” she said, “is where the king and queen dined and entertained their special guests.”  I nodded in agreement and amazement.  She invited me to take pictures.

Again, I wish I’d had a real camera with me, but the iphone does a pretty good job in a pinch.

After thanking the kind guarda, I encountered another piece of good fortune, for the custodian was just then unlocking the armory for visitors at precisely 14:00.  2 p.m.  I am not usually very interested in the art of war-making, but perche no?  Quando en roma, eh?  So I followed the other 5 tourists who were more or less in sync with me (but they didn’t get to see the dining room) by this time, and pretty soon I was snapping iphone photos of, of all things, suits of armor.  Because honest to god I have seen a lot of things in my life, way more than the average bear, and yet I had never before seen an intact suit of armor for a child.  But I did yesterday!

Unfortunately, these 2 pix don’t capture the scale of the child next to the horse and rider.  SInce I have my trusty Piedmont pass, I plan to go back and get better pictures of the child-sized armor suit because it is really quite something to see.

One of my goals in life seems to be to capture photos of some of the bizarre things I encounter as I make my way through this lifetime.  These next pictures belong in that category.  See the small sign between the knight’s feet?  Here we have a complete suit of polished armor mounted high on a wall in an armory (again, scale is not shown well here), with a little sign between his feet telling you you can stop at this point for an audio explanation of the suit.  That just slays me.  The internet and computer age inserted into a Renaissance palazzo’s armory.

Okay, that’s enough for today, so come back next time if you want to hear the Pepsi story.  It’s funny.