Villa Borghese and Piazza del Populo

The next day we had reservations for the Villa Borghese, easily one of the world's greatest "small" museums, and living proof that while you can never have enough Bernini, it is possible to have too much Caravaggio. The Borghese collection has not merely a no pix policy; they actually confiscate your camera as you enter. So there will be no pix from me. Nevertheless, you can go to www.galleriaborghese.it to see photos of the major works. Vicki actually likes the Caravaggios; I liked his David and Goliath, and The Fruit. We both liked Bernini's Apollo and Diana, the most exquisite sculpture I have seen, and Canova's Pauline Bonaparte. I liked all the Bernini works. The museum has timed admissions and a two-hour limit, every minute of which we used. [See posts from later years...when they finally decided to permit fotos].

Pines of Rome, in the Villa Borghese park; Respighi has always 

been my favorite Italian composer

Villa Borghese

In the giftstore, Caravaggio's The Fruit

Back in the park, a very eclectic place

Nice Goethe statue, among many others

And everywhere you look, another obelisk;

Rome has nearly as many obelisks as churches

From the Belvedere, the King Victor Emmanuel monument,

a celebration of the newly united Italy's first ruler (1861),
completed in 1911, built over  both Roman ruins
and Catholic churches (the unification was completed
when Garibaldi's and Victor-Manny's armies defeated
the Papal armies; many Romans don't like Il Vittoriano

Looking down on the Piazza del Populo, from the Belvedere

In the Piazza; nice symmetry, huh?

Looking back to the Belvedere

Arch of the Via Flaminia, northern portal to the city

Palatine

While we had visited the Forum on earlier occasions, we had not ventured up the nearby Palatine Hill (whence comes our word "palace"). Its best known attractions are the views, the vestiges of earliest Rome and "Romulus' hut," Augustus' palace, and the emperors' stadium.

Looking down the hill toward the Coliseum and Arch of

Constantine

And in the distance, the Vatican

Post-holes like these go back to the 8th century BCE, the

time of the traditional founding of Rome; thus, what was

reverred even in ancient times as Romulus' hut

Model of mud-hut Rome in the Palatine museum

Interior of remains of Augustus' palace

Ceiling vault

More interior decoration

Ditto, detail

Top of Palatine Hill

Emperors' stadium

Foro Romano

The next day we undertook both the Forum and the adjoining Palatine Hill, which I will treat in separate posts.

The Arch of Titus, commemorating...

Victory over the Jews (who resisted desperately in the 1st

century)

One of my favorite views, the ruins of a late empire

basilika, actually just one of its wings...a domed building

the size of a football field

Looking up toward the Palatine Hill

Remains of the temple of the Vestal Virgins

In the sanctuary of the Vestal Virgins

Site where Julius Caesar's body was cremated; evidently some

people are still grieving

Looking toward the Temple of Saturn, the Arch of Septimius

Severus

One of the later Senate buildings

The Arch of Septimius Severus

Remains of the Temple of Saturn

Looking back to the Arch of Titus, across the length of the

Forum

Coliseum

We have visited the Coliseum a couple times before, but it never fails to impress. Knowing a bit more of ancient engineering, construction, culture, et cetera, as we do now, made it even more interesting than past visits. Plus, as we have seen throughout Italy, the interpretative signage is getting very good. And in Engish too.

It's colossal

Aerial view of ancient Rome; the Coliseum is there in the

upper left corner (we chartered a time-travel helicopter)

Interior view, nave and crypt; the Coliseum wasn't quarried,

like most of ancient Rome, since some Christians had been

killed there

Us, there

More interior, including the travertine fourth level; travertine 

was the lightest of building materials (?)

Counter-weights for the 30-some lifts, used to

haul animals and other things into the arena

Roman graffiti

The nearby Arch of Constantine

To the Coliseum

From St. Peter in Chains we walked down the hill to the Coliseum and environs and toured what is probably Rome's best known sight. Of course, getting there, as they say, is half the fun, and in an area like this, there is no lack of interesting things to see.

In the 1930s Mussolini had these over-sized reliefs done on

the huge wall outside the Forum, showing the growth of the

Roman empire; evidently trying to inspire his vaunted "eight

million bayonets"

In early Republican times

At this point, everyone, including me, is taking

pix of the couple here, who are clearly into

geo-political cartography

And here is the situation at the end of Republican times...

And here, during Hadrian's reign; let's see, Mussolini invaded

Ethiopia in 1936; sent war planes to help Franco in Spain in
1938; invaded France in 1940; Greece and Albania in

1940; Italians marched all the way across North Africa,
almost to Suez and Alexandria, with Rommel

Finally, I ask them to pose, which they did;

Vicki and I are re-considering our Ex Officio/

Magellan/REI wardrobe style; but probably

these people are not camping...

"Please help! Need ticket back to Cairo!"

"Look, Rufus, if I have told you once, I have told you M times,
it's thrust, parry, thrust"

April Update

Despite the narrative, still only at March 29, it is really April 11, and we are settled in Palo Alto, at the guest apartment of Rebecca's colleague Holly. We are all looking forward to the birth of the baby grand-daughter, now one day over-due (according to one prediction). The weather is sunny, if not exactly warm, but it is a beautiful place to be, and we are much looking forward to visiting longer-term next year.

Baby-gear shopping in Silicon Valley

We now return to our regularly scheduled blogging....

St. Peter in Chains, 2011

We took Monday off. Rain was forecast, and after so much walking Sunday, we needed a rest. Tuesday was Vicki's birthday, and we celebrated at a restaurant called Ostaria da Nerone, then took in the nearby St. Peter in Vinculi (St. Peter in Chains) church, then headed down to the Coliseum.

My antipasti; Vicki had her favorite veal piccata

Domenichino's liberation of St. Peter; in St. Peter in Vinculi

The church's major attraction, Michaelangelo's Moses

Closer up

The associated Rachel, done by M himself (not his shop, 
students, whatever)

At the altar, the chains that held St. Peter; or possibly the chains the Byzantines 
stretched across the Golden Horn...?

7th century mosaic of St. Sebastian, sans

arrows

Tomb of Nicholas of Cusa, Renaissance philosopher (left),

imploring St. Peter...