Return to Vatican City

We had an 11:30 Friday morning admission to the Vatican Museums and were on the bus and in a thick traffic jam by 9 AM. When we got to the Laurentina Metro station, it was closed: a Metro transit worker strike! Perhaps the gods really don't want us to see the Vatican Museums, we began to think. But we joined forces with a Swedish couple who had found a bus, already quite crowded, headed into the city center, and hopped aboard. An hour later we hopped off, within walking distance, we thought, of the Vatican.

The bus passed right by the Pyramide, a monument put up by

an emperor or general in the later Empire

Interestingly, one does see Mussolini's name here and there

And everywhere in the old city, there are plots well below

street level, filled with ruins

This one, the "Sacred Area of Largo Argentina," is a whole

city block; four temple ruins

We have become far more discriminating about

whom we ask for directions; Vicki figured

these ladies might know which bus went to

Vatican City

The bus they recommended took us right to St. Peter's

And after another walk, the Vatican Museums,
and, no lines!



Finally, we're in, stopping at the first of many, many gift

stores

Santa Maria del Populo

On the northern side of the Piazza de Populo is the church of St. Mary del Populo, one of Bernini's architectural creations, where many of the era's elite Romans were buried, and also home to two more very famous Caravaggios.

Santa Maria del Populo

The dome

(Annibale) Caracci's Assumption (we like

the Caracci bros)

The church has two Caravaggios, facing each

other in a closed chapel, maybe 12 feet apart;
hardly viewable, and no pix, too (this and others

snagged off of Wikipedia); this is his crucifixion
of St. Peter; again demonstrating Caravaggio's
fondness for butt-shots

And this his "conversion on the road to

Damascus"; a horse butt-shot; I rest my case

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