Another fabulous museum!

 

Ciao!

Up this morning about 6 am and down for breakfast about 7 am.  As I wrote before, not a great breakfast, but better than some as they do include cheese, ham and salami, which I love for breakfast.  Also, this time, the croissant that I thought was plain happened to be filled with Nutella!  A surprise, certainly, but not a bad one!  R said he was thankful that his croissant had nothing in it – imagine!

Vittoria Emanuele II Monument

Me with foot!

R with hand!

Stunning rooms at the Capitoline!

Boy with Thorn in his Foot

Painted Etruscan figure

Panel from Etruscan tomb

New atrium featuring Marcus Aurelius

Roman/Etruscan temple

Me on patio next to cafe

View from patio; note Roman columns

Underground passage with tomb markers

HUGE statue/fountain

The Dying Gaul

Overlooking Forum!

More Forum!

I loved this carving!

My vegetable tempura -- YUM!

R's sashimi

R's fish with dried beet slices

My world's biggest ravioli - with BACON!

Odd dessert - eclair?

Front top of Spanish steps looking at St. Peter's

More Spanish steps looking toward Corso

LOVE this doorway!

Obelisk at top of Trinita Dei Monte

We were planning on two museums today, the Museo Capitoline and Crypta Balbi, both on my hit list.  Arrived early (what else!) at the Capitolineand sat in the sunshine for a bit until it was time to go in.  As we are using our Roma Passes, we didn’t have to wait in a ticket line and were the first folks admitted.  There were, however, several school groups of kids ranging from elementary school (they all wore red hats) to high school – lots of giggling girls.  And what we discovered basically took up the entire morning and part of the afternoon!  WOW!  I don’t remember the Capitoline being such a fabulous place to visit!

First of all, we enjoyed the inner courtyard with the various “pieces” of statuary over the years. There are two hands and two huge feet, as well as what R thinks is a nose and piece of leg.  Like I said, miscellaneous – but great fun.  They provide free lockers to put things in, so we were able to park the umbrellas and our jackets and the camera bag.  

Our first stop was in the “old” museum, and included many, many Etruscan works!  Who knew?  I certainly didn’t!  Robert keeps telling me that I have to start talking about the Etruscans so that the very title of our blog makes sense to people.  So…I’ll give it a short summary here.

The Etruscans were inhabiting the area basically from Viterbo (about 50 km from Rome) to Bologna (near the Po river valley in the north) before the Romans.  Their origins are lost in the mists of prehistory; some (Herodotus) say they migrated here from Troy, others say they came from central Europe but the fact is, nobody knows.  They were already here when anybody noticed.  For sure, though, they dominated their area from about 700 - 100 BC. They lived in city-states, and their language is non-Indo-European.  Because of a lack of long inscriptions, it has only finally been translated thanks to the finding of gold plates that had an inscription in both Etruscan and Phoenician, rather like the Rosetta Stone and hieroglyphics.  

The Etruscans were known as good sailors, and were in trade for many years with another ancient sailing power, the Phoenicians.  Additionally, the area that they inhabited was very rich in minerals, and mining was a large part of their culture with many skilled craftsmen working in many different materials.  As per Wikipedia:  Particularly strong in this tradition were figurative sculpture in terracotta (particularly lifesize on sarcophagi or temples), wall-painting and metalworking (especially engraved bronze mirrors). Etruscan sculpture in cast bronze was famous and widely exported, but few large examples have survived (the material was too valuable, and recycled later). In contrast to terracotta and bronze, there was apparently little Etruscan sculpture in stone, despite the Etruscans controlling fine sources of marble, including Carrara marble, which seems not to have been exploited until the Romans. Most surviving Etruscan art comes from tombs, including all the fresco wall-paintings, which show scenes of feasting and some narrative mythological subjects.

It turns out that the very first Kings of Rome were Etruscan, and their culture was eventually absorbed into Roman culture.  One of the most important points about the Etruscans is their treatment of women. Unlike Roman women, who were expected to remain at home and not appear publicly unless properly escorted, Etruscan women seemed to have equal rights with men!  What a concept!!  They were allowed to own their own property as well as make their own decisions, and widows were respected as heads of households in their own right.  And, at this particular time in world history, that seems to me to be a really great way to live!  

So … there were many Etruscan artifacts arranged in the Capitoline, but what was really startling was the fact that a very large area had been enclosed by glass making part of the garden into new display space. It was beautiful; so well done! And at this point, while there are Etruscan artifacts all over the place, the central figure is a huge Marcus Aurelius on horseback!  Fabulous! Additionally, the space enclosed included a temple originally built by Tarquinius Priscus and his son, Tarquinius Superbus.  (And if you followed the Great Courses Etruscan lectures, you would know that Tarquiniawas a major Etruscan city!)  I’m just so amazed at how well the excavations were incorporated into the Capitoline Museum.  Very impressive!

After two floors (and at least three hours) in the revamped Museum, we took a break in their wonderful roof-top cafeteria for a sit-down.  (Yes, there are times that our legs get tired, for sure!)  I had some gelato and Coke Zero, and R had water, and we were able to catch our breath for the rest of the museum.

The third floor (with the cafeteria) included a wonderful room on stamp and cylinder seals, as well as jewel seals that were worn as jewelry, as well as cameos.  And, there was the requisite numismatic (i.e. coin) collection.  But we still hadn’t hit the part of the museum that I remembered from several years ago!  That was because we needed to make our way all the way to the basement, to cross underground to the Nuovo (new) museum.  

Lovely alley-way of ancient tombstones, and we came out into several incredibly large rooms filled with wonderful sculpture, frescos and paintings.  We saw The Dying Gaul as well as the boy with a thorn in his foot, two great pieces of sculpture.  R took countless photos, which I’m going to have to cull down to a manageable size for the blog.  We also went up to the lookout balcony that I remember of old that overlooks the Roman forum. Such fun!  Again, they continue to excavate the lower levels of the museum/hill with great results.  Seriously, this museum is really amazing; so glad we visited today!

It was sometime after 1 pm that we were finished, and honestly, we were both looking forward to a sit down.  So, instead of two museums today, we only did one – big – one.  Oh well!

Found a 160 bus at the bottom of the hill and were shortly being whisked back up Tritone to Piazza Barberini and our hotel.  Collapsed for an hour or so with naps, and then I went out for a walk while R continued to work on Caltech business.  (He is so good…)  I first found the laundry where I think we’re going to drop off dirty clothes tomorrow morning.  (I hate packing up with lots of dirty clothes around!)  The place is maybe 4 minutes walk from the hotel, so figuring, go for it! Then I walked up Sistina to Trinita dei Monte and the Spanish steps.  Lots of people enjoying a lovely, sunny afternoon and I took a few photos on my cell phone that I will include in the blog!

I want to get this posting done so that we can see some of the lights of Rome tonight.  We are going to a restaurant called Wavefor dinner, which is located near our friend Luciana’s apartment, where we stayed a couple of years ago.  So, definitely more later!

Lots of love,

m

xxx

 Will quickly write about dinner.  We took the Linea A to San Giovanni and Robert found the restaurant very quickly.  Interesting menu -- at one point, I thought there wasn't anything on it that I could eat!  At any rate, I started with vegetable tempura, which R helped me finish.  It was WONDERFUL!  R had sashimi that he very much enjoyed.  From there, R ordered Amerjack, a fish I had never heard of, and it came perfectly cooked with thin slices of beet.  I ordered their ravioli with ricotta cheese and bacon.  Wonderful, although it was the biggest ravioli I had ever seen!  We had two glasses of dessert wine along with an eclair.  Rather odd, but just fine!  Then took the Metro back to Barberini and now in for the night!

m

xxx