We treated ourselves to 3 wonderful days in Rome, while we waited there for the arrival of Shawna and Emie. We had booked ourselves a tour-a-day, from our list of want-to-see places. Booking ahead on-line is a necessity if you want to actually get to a museum. Otherwise, you get to spend your day standing in a line-up, in tourist-crazy Rome.
First up was the Vatican Museum, and the renovated Sistine Chapel. Our guide highlighted some of the amazing paintings in the Vatican. My favourite was Raphael's Renaissance fresco, "The School of Athens". Plato and Aristotle are shown walking and talking. Raphael painted his hero, Leonardo da Vinci, in the role of Plato.
The Sistine Chapel was beautiful, of course, but was reduced somewhat by the overzealous custodian shouting "Shhhh" every 30 seconds.
Our second day's tour was the Borghese Gallery, a beautiful palace in a park that houses many famous paintings. Cardinal Borghese, like many powerful and wealthy pontiffs, was able to squirrel away riches from his position in the church. My favourite here was the the famous sculpture, Bernini's "Apollo and Daphne". Apollo is trying to grab Daphne, who magically turns into a tree to escape him. Her fingers and feet are already shown as branches. The whole piece seems to float.
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| Raphael's painting with Leonardo as Plato |
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| Bernini's Apollo & Daphne |
Next up, and the last day's tour was Tivoli, outside of Rome, and Hadrian's Villa and the Villa d'Este. Emperor Hadrian (117-138 AD) was ahead of his time in the design of his elaborate baths and meeting halls. Another rich cardinal, Cardinal d'Este, built the most amazing villa with elaborate water systems and many fountains (1500's). It must have been a Disney version of a water park in it's day. It was still pretty impressive for us 500 years later.
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| Hadrian's villa |
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| Villa d'Este |
Between this heavy-duty history and culture, we strolled Rome in the 30 degree heat and found ways to keep cool. We found the best-ever coffee bar, Tazza d'Oro, where they served "granita di caffe con panna", an espresso slushi with layers of iced espresso and whipped cream. We had to return the next day, just for this.
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| Second day- back again for more granita |
We also played "Where in the World is Carmen Diego?", with Bob in the Pantheon, where the crowds of tourists made it difficult to see the tiled floors, let alone Bob in the hordes.
At the end of the day, we sat overlooking the Roman Colosseum reflecting on the remarkable creativity of the Romans, my italian ancestors, and toasting them with a nice, cold Aperol Spritz.
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| Can you find Carmon Diego, aka Bob |
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| Aperol Spritz |
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