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Day 12
Today we have a date at 10:30 at the Borghese Museum. We have been really looking forward to seeing this with personal recommendations from Sharon and Grant and others. We phoned from Canada to make reservations as they are hard to come by and if you are going to see one museum in Rome pick this one. We try to guess how long it will take for us to make our way across town and then double it. Good thing we did. It took us an hour and a half to get there and we were right on the button and that was after rush hour.
When we got off the bus we walked up a lovely avenue through a large park of 3 ¼ miles in circumference. More in this later.
This beautiful building was closed for 13 years while going through restoration and opened in 1997. It was a residence but was designed as a museum by Scipione Borghese to house fantastic works of art from the Roman period and Renaissance. The family continued to add to this collection as it was written in his will that the collection must never be sold from the residence. Some works were commissioned and others attained through political sleight of hand.
Of everything we view which was fabulous, I have to agree with Sharon that Bernini’s sculptures were the most breathtaking. Caravaggio’s paintings were a favourite of the Borghese family and are wonderful. You can see the impact of Michelangelo in Raphael’s work. Titian and Cranach (who was being featured) are also very prominently displayed.
On leaving we pick up a train ride which takes us for a drive around the perimeter of the park and orients us as to what is there. We stroll back after disembarking and visit a beautiful vista with a temple surrounded by water.
We decide to head out again on the little 116 bus into the city to see the Spanish Steps This is situated in a bright sunny piazza with a fountain at the base. There are many people enjoying a gelato and the sunshine on the stairs. We are astounded at the size of the crowd and the smallness of the stairs. Interesting how good photography can distort your sense of things. Like the Trevi Fountain and that tiny little piazza.
Next stop is the Pantheon. Another bus ride on the worst organized transit system we have used in Europe. Finally we arrive in the neighbourhood and make our way through crowded back allies and fight the cars and Vespas all the way. We have come to dread seeing a raised umbrella coming toward us. This means another guided tour with either students or confused tourists trying to keep track of their guide. Of all the ancient Roman buildings in Rome this is the only one to have remained intact. It was originally a temple built in 27 BC. It was saved from possible destruction by being granted to the Church and converted to a church in 609 AD. The construction is a mystery as it is so perfectly created. It was found that the rising warm air from the people below pushed any rain away from the opening in the ceiling but the drops that did come in were drained away through the floor which has a slightly domed surface with drainage holes. The marble floor and walls are beautiful. This is a free venue which is so rare here. Well worth the visit.
So we trek back to catch a bus and Lyn is now an expert at translating what little information provided to get us home. The print on the transit maps is so small (and I mean small, not hard to read for older eyes) that you need a small magnifying lens or if you can have it enlarged to a readable size. Didn’t know there was a font that small. We are lucky today and find busses that are not full to overflowing.
Once again Lyn treks off when we get home and finds some wonderful treasures for dinner. We get taken for our lunch but the cost of our dinners at home is half the price we pay for a sandwich. Tonight we dine on a variety of mushrooms found precut at the little veggie store, some ground beef and our favourite walnut sauce. A little salad with olive oil and balsamic and we are in heaven.
For dessert we have an assortment of mini cakes with chocolate fondant filling, puff pastry horns with a lemon custard filling and something like a rum ball with some other liqueur to flavor it. Small and perfectly formed. Yummmmm.
We checked the apartment on line that is rented by the lady Lyn bought her vine jug from and it looks like a good option. I think we would stay here if we were to come back. Check it out at http://www.vrbo.com/145257
Travel Tip:
You have to book your entrance to the Borghese Museum.
We took a guided tour with an English speaking guide which was good value for the 6 Euros. There are only 300 people allowed inside at any given time and you have a time limit of 2 hours at which point announcements in many languages usher all visitors out. If you do not have a well planned route you may miss out on some of the most important points of interest.
We got in for free as we used our second free entry from our Roma Pass
Today we have a date at 10:30 at the Borghese Museum. We have been really looking forward to seeing this with personal recommendations from Sharon and Grant and others. We phoned from Canada to make reservations as they are hard to come by and if you are going to see one museum in Rome pick this one. We try to guess how long it will take for us to make our way across town and then double it. Good thing we did. It took us an hour and a half to get there and we were right on the button and that was after rush hour.
When we got off the bus we walked up a lovely avenue through a large park of 3 ¼ miles in circumference. More in this later.
This beautiful building was closed for 13 years while going through restoration and opened in 1997. It was a residence but was designed as a museum by Scipione Borghese to house fantastic works of art from the Roman period and Renaissance. The family continued to add to this collection as it was written in his will that the collection must never be sold from the residence. Some works were commissioned and others attained through political sleight of hand.
Of everything we view which was fabulous, I have to agree with Sharon that Bernini’s sculptures were the most breathtaking. Caravaggio’s paintings were a favourite of the Borghese family and are wonderful. You can see the impact of Michelangelo in Raphael’s work. Titian and Cranach (who was being featured) are also very prominently displayed.
On leaving we pick up a train ride which takes us for a drive around the perimeter of the park and orients us as to what is there. We stroll back after disembarking and visit a beautiful vista with a temple surrounded by water.
We decide to head out again on the little 116 bus into the city to see the Spanish Steps This is situated in a bright sunny piazza with a fountain at the base. There are many people enjoying a gelato and the sunshine on the stairs. We are astounded at the size of the crowd and the smallness of the stairs. Interesting how good photography can distort your sense of things. Like the Trevi Fountain and that tiny little piazza.
Next stop is the Pantheon. Another bus ride on the worst organized transit system we have used in Europe. Finally we arrive in the neighbourhood and make our way through crowded back allies and fight the cars and Vespas all the way. We have come to dread seeing a raised umbrella coming toward us. This means another guided tour with either students or confused tourists trying to keep track of their guide. Of all the ancient Roman buildings in Rome this is the only one to have remained intact. It was originally a temple built in 27 BC. It was saved from possible destruction by being granted to the Church and converted to a church in 609 AD. The construction is a mystery as it is so perfectly created. It was found that the rising warm air from the people below pushed any rain away from the opening in the ceiling but the drops that did come in were drained away through the floor which has a slightly domed surface with drainage holes. The marble floor and walls are beautiful. This is a free venue which is so rare here. Well worth the visit.
So we trek back to catch a bus and Lyn is now an expert at translating what little information provided to get us home. The print on the transit maps is so small (and I mean small, not hard to read for older eyes) that you need a small magnifying lens or if you can have it enlarged to a readable size. Didn’t know there was a font that small. We are lucky today and find busses that are not full to overflowing.
Once again Lyn treks off when we get home and finds some wonderful treasures for dinner. We get taken for our lunch but the cost of our dinners at home is half the price we pay for a sandwich. Tonight we dine on a variety of mushrooms found precut at the little veggie store, some ground beef and our favourite walnut sauce. A little salad with olive oil and balsamic and we are in heaven.
For dessert we have an assortment of mini cakes with chocolate fondant filling, puff pastry horns with a lemon custard filling and something like a rum ball with some other liqueur to flavor it. Small and perfectly formed. Yummmmm.
We checked the apartment on line that is rented by the lady Lyn bought her vine jug from and it looks like a good option. I think we would stay here if we were to come back. Check it out at http://www.vrbo.com/145257
Travel Tip:
You have to book your entrance to the Borghese Museum.
We took a guided tour with an English speaking guide which was good value for the 6 Euros. There are only 300 people allowed inside at any given time and you have a time limit of 2 hours at which point announcements in many languages usher all visitors out. If you do not have a well planned route you may miss out on some of the most important points of interest.
We got in for free as we used our second free entry from our Roma Pass
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