And for once the weather people were right! RAIN!

 

Ciao!

I’m feeling a bit better about our hotel’s WiFi, as it was very, very easy and quick to post the blog and photos last night.  We did go out to get a couple of large bottles of sparkling water, and a few potato chips.  (One never knows…)  

Umberto I on huge horse w/helmet?

Galleria Borghese statute

Love the ceilings!

Actually a stunning mosaic

Bob & Stew - recognize?

A stunning Bernini sculpture

My favorite ceiling!

Pauline Bonapart with golden apple

David slaying Goliath

My favorite Bernini!

She's turning into a laurel tree!

Central courtyard of Villa Giulia

Outside corridor ceiling; loved the corn motif!

Etruscan artifact

An entire Etruscan tomb moved to Rome!

My favorite sarcophagus!

I think they look so cute together!

Another Etruscan sarcophagus

Inside the Pantheon

R's starter - mozzarella and artichoke

My bruschetta with truffle shavings

My pasta with truffle shavings

R's chicken

R's dessert minus the gelato ... which I got!

My chocolate mousse!

But we were both very tired after getting up at 4 am and flying to Rome.  So, I went to bed at 8 pm and I think Robert went to bed by 9 pm.  Up at 6 this morning, feeling very well rested and ready for a big day!

When I was planning our Rome days, I actually scheduled something like 4 or 5 separate things to do each day, knowing I was probably crazy – pazzo, as the Italians say!  And boy was I right!  Today we were starting at the Galleria Borghese which is in the beautiful Borghese park not too far from our hotel. According to my phone, it wouldn’t take long at all to get there, and our reservations were for when they opened at 9 am.  

First things first, we had breakfast here at the hotel. It certainly wasn’t particularly memorable, but the bread and cheese and salami were good, as was the coffee and hot chocolate, so we were both happy.  Down to the lobby about 8-ish as I HATE being late to something like this.  (As it turns out, one needs to pre-book the Borghese tickets, and as of right now, they are sold out through sometime this week.  They let people in in two-hour blocks – we could enter between 9 am – 11 am, and then our tickets would expire.  As we were leaving, we ran into a very large group of 11 o’clockers, who were unable to enter the museum until then.)

At the bus stop, it seemed like three different buses would get us where we needed to go.  R was holding out for the 53, but when we walked outside, it was into a downpour.  Yes, that 100% prediction of rain was actually accurate for once!  A 63 pulled up, and we inquired if it would get us to the Borghese.  One man said it would – another woman said not exactly.  At any rate, on we jumped, mostly because it was raining so hard! We only needed the bus for a couple of stops – we followed the Via Veneto up past Harry’s Bar (a famous location for “La Dolce Vita” in the old days!), through the old city wall and sprang out into the Borghese gardens. One nice lady on the bus told Rthat we needed to get off at the stop after hers, and it was just a few minutes walk to the Galleria – she herself was meeting some people to do a walking tour of Rome!  UGH!  Not today, Josephine!   (Sorry … that’s an old movie reference from Some Like It Hot!)

By this time, the rain had just about stopped (for the moment) so we had a nice walk through some of the pathways past a couple of interesting statues (Umberto I on a HUGE horse with what Robert says looks like a CHICKEN on his head; have to research that!) Reached the Galleria Borghese about 8:30 am and they were just opening up their facility.  We got in line, and made it inside by the start of the next rain fall.  Picked up our passes as well as audio guides, and got into yet another line to await the actual opening at 9:00.  Our particular group was routed up the stairs – and up more stairs – and up even more stairs – until we got to the second floor.  As Rick Steves advises, it’s best to start there, as most people go directly to the first-floor galleries, and it becomes very crowded.  

This was our second visit to the Borghese, and it is truly, amazingly a stunning collection of art work.  The Cardinal Borghese was the right-hand man to his uncle the Pope, and amassed quite a collection of art – some of it through bribery or threats of imprisonment – way to add to your collection, fella!  At any rate, moving through the rooms was not difficult, and we had plenty of room and time to see everything we wanted to see.  We are not the biggest fans of flat art, but do very, very much love sculpture.  This was a collection of both ancient Greek and Roman art, as well as work done contemporary to the Cardinal’s time – lots of work by Caravaggio and Bernini. Bernini’s Verite (Truth) sculpture was absolutely fabulous, and his depiction of Pauline Bonaparte as Diana with the golden apple, is wonderful. But best of all was Bernini’s sculpture of Apollo and Daphne, where she appeals to her father, who turns her into a laurel tree.  You can see the tree roots growing out of her toes, and her arm turning into branches. It is a stunning piece of work, and makes visiting the museum for that piece alone worth the price of admission!

We used up most of our two-hour time frame, and decided to rest for a few minutes in the small café at the museum.  Robert got coffee for himself and hot chocolate for me – but truth be told, it was more like eating liquid chocolate than drinking – and I’m certainly not going to complain about that!

Next on the agenda was getting to a tourist info office to pick up our Roma Passes, as my plan was to use them for 72 hours – Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  I had meant to pick them up yesterday, but somehow didn’t have the strength left to walk over to Piazza Navona and get them! So … we headed out of the Galleria and crossed the street heading back into town. It started to rain about then, but we were able to make it to the bus stop fairly quickly.  And, as we were waiting and I was looking at the bus routes, it turned out that we could take any bus that stopped at our pick-up point, as they all went to Termini where we could find a tourist office.  Rather grid-locky getting through the wall again, especially in the rain, but finally made it to Termini. Then came the fun part!  Finding the tourist office!  Turns out, there is work being done on the train station, and all sorts of offices have been moved around!  When we did finally find it, after probably 20 minutes of walking from one end of Termini (it’s the main train station in Rome) to the other, we got to the right place, and voila, had our passes in hand instantly!  Now we have free public transportation for 72 hours, as well as two free museums/sites and discounts at others.

As it was now almost noon, we decided to take advantage of Termini’s close proximity to McDonald’s, especially as we’re going out to dinner tonight and didn’t want to eat too much lunch.  Got Big Mac’s and fries which were fine for the moment, and then we were on our way to our next museum on the list (2 of 4 for the day…) the National Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia.

As Termini is also the starting/stopping/crossing point for both subway lines, we decided to take Linea A to Flaminio, which was just a few stops away.  From there, we caught a #2 Tram up to Belle Arti, and from there, it was a very short (albeit wet) walk to the Villa Giulia.  This is our third time there, and it was wonderful seeing some old friends and also some very interesting new spaces!  They have two new tombs excavated and redone in the building that were stunning.  The painting and the colors looked brand new.  So glad that some Etruscan tombs have been moved into safe places like museums. As we will be looking at a lot of Etruscan artifacts over the coming weeks, I am just going to post some photos now, and will talk more about things as we get going on our explorations.  

We took the 19 Tram to Lepanto from the Villa and then took Linea A back to Barberini, and voila, we were back at the hotel!

Robert received some information he has been waiting for in order to schedule telescope time, so he is needing the computer rather badly, so I am having to rush to close now.  More news later about our dinner adventure at my favorite Rome restaurant,  Armando al Pantheon!

Lots of love,

m

xxx

Hello again!

We are just back from a very good dinner at Armando al Pantheon.  Fortunately, it has stopped raining, at least for the evening, and while we did have our umbrellas with us, they weren’t needed at all.

We took the 83 bus from just outside the hotel down to the Corso/Minghalla stop.  From there, we just walked a straight line right to the Pantheon.  My app said it would take us 10 minutes to get there – and of course, they were correct; we were WAY early!  Walked around the Pantheon and then went inside and sat down to wait for a bit.  Finally, a few minutes before 7, we went to the restaurant.  There were quite a few people waiting around, and we joined the queue. A few minutes after 7, the door opened and we were asked for our reservations.  Turns out that most of the people in line didn’t have reservations – and they are taking NO ONE without reservations until sometime in JULY!  Incredible! 

We were seated at a banquette along the wall, and given our menus.  I think we were the first or second people seated, as by the time I got back from the restroom, we had dinner neighbors on one side.  Turns out, they were an American brother and sister – he, Phil, a mathematics professor from Long Island, she (Liz) a retired person from Oakland, traveling together for a few weeks.  They turned out to be very fun and interesting folks, and we have exchanged email addresses.  For starters, R ordered their special of the evening, which was fresh buffalo mozzarella and a Roman-style grilled artichoke. He said it was excellent.  I had their bruschetta alla truffalo nero – (bruschetta with black truffles). Great!  For mains, R ordered their chicken, which he very much enjoyed, and I had their pasta with truffles … surprise!  For dessert, R had their tiny strawberries (and I had his gelato) and I had their excellent chocolate mousse.  We washed everything down with a bottle of Montepulciano (just getting ready for wines to come) and an excellent Moscato with dessert.  Quick walk back to Corso and got a 160 bus, which deposited us at Barberini, which was just fine!  All in all, an excellent meal and a lovely evening!  

Now to bed!

m

xxx