Just PERUsing: Centro de Lima

Greetings readers!

I know I don't have to say it, but I am loving Lima more and more every day. Even though each still brings new challenges, I felt this past week that I am really getting the hang of it and fitting in well to life here in Perú.

So this past Friday I finally made it out of the seaside area to Centro de Lima, which is where all the government buildings are found as well as the majority of Lima's historical sites. El Centro is also home to more museums than even the most experienced traveler could hope to visit in a month. We visited two on Friday: the Italian art museum and the museo del congreso y de la inquisición. I realize that for many people, the only thing more boring than actually visiting a museum is reading about a museum so I am going to try to succinctly hit the highlights with a few pictures:

MUSEO DE ARTE ITALIANO:

This is my favorite sculpture: Retrato de la Señora Ada Niccolini (1918) de Libero Andreotti

This is my favorite painting: Venecianos en Chioggia (no year) por Ferruccio Scattola

The museum and the lovely ladies I enjoyed it with

MUSEO DEL CONGRESO Y DE LA INQUISICIÓN

Ceiling of the sala de sesiones del congreso: made of 30,000 hand carved pieces that are fit together like a puzzle (no glue or nails were used). The wood used for this is from the "Cedro" tree which I posted a picture of from my trip to Pozuso.

Auto de Fe: a public reconciliation display for those convicted during the Peruvian inquisition. This painting takes place in the Plaza de Armas, which still exists today in the Centro. I was hoping to get there on Friday to get a present day picture, but we didn't get to it :(

Various tortures inflicted on subjects of the Peruvian inquisition. The only method used on women is water boarding (shown in the last picture). All the others were used exclusively on men.

"Here was victimized the 16th of November of [Year a long time ago] President of the Senate don Manuel Pardo, founder of the civil party and president of the republic [another year a long time ago]

Looks like someone had some bad luck here...

After visiting the Italian art museum, we popped into the Plaza of San Martín to enjoy some coffee and try not to get pooped on by any of the 348,000 pigeons. The monument pictured below was the centerpiece of the plaza. We must have had "gringa" written somewhere on our clothing because about 15 people tried to sell us crap; they even spoke to us in English, which is a first since I have come to Lima.