Roma!!

August 8, 2012

Wednesday was our final day in Rome and we filled it full!  We were able to get timed tickets to enter the Borghese Gallery in Villa Borghese on the outskirts of 17th-century Rome (right in the heart now).  We didn't know how lucky we were!  Part of what made the museum so amazing was that the number of visitors is set at 300 at a time in the entire 20-room museum and visits are strictly limited to 2 hours.  We also followed a great piece of Rick Steves advice and went upstairs first to see the paintings while most everyone else started in the grand rooms downstairs with the sculptures.  By the time we started at the "beginning" of the tour, we were basically alone to enjoy the art.  The fantastic audio tour told us about the art and some of the unscrupulous abuses of power that Carnidal Scipione Borghese used to collect pieces in the early 1600s.   We loved the museum full of works by Caravaggio, Titian, Raphael, and Rubens (among others).  We all  agreed that the sculptures by Bernini, and in particular this piece, Apollo and Daphne, were our favorites of the collection.  As Borghese was an early patron of some of these sculptors, many of the works are displayed in the rooms for which they were created.  Another famous sculpture by Antonio Canova of Pauline Bonaparte (sister of Napoleon, who had married into the Borghese family, explaining why there is a large Borghese Collection section in the Louvre) evokes the judgement of Paris as does the painting on the ceiling of the room.     I know it might be really unpopular to say but if you only had time for one museum in Rome, I would recommend this one over the super crowded Sistene Chapel. 

Villa Borghese Museum

Easy to see where the cleaning stopped suddenly due to lack of funds
years ago.  Tod's owner will fund future cleaning efforts so the project will
soon be back underway.

Next, we were off to step back into ancient Rome.  Sarah had learned of a guide named Stefania through friends and hired her to give us a tour of the Coliseum and the Forum.  It was an unusual experience to have the person with the answers to all of my questions right there personally available to me.  I loved it!  She was so incredibly knowledgable…telling us not just about the history of all we were seeing, but giving us context in the greater Roman empire and answering all sorts of questions about Christians and Pagans.  We listened for over three hours but some of what really stuck with us was:

• How the arena was used and how many thousands of people died there (though not actually fed to the lions, not even Christians were fed to lions)
• The arena was covered by a huge sail to give shade (and it was a highly sought after job to get to be the sailor in charge of that sail rather than off fighting in a war).  
• Gladiators did not usually fight to their deaths - it was expensive to train a new gladiator, better for the organizers of the events to let them live.  
• Gladiators fought each other and hunters "hunted" the unfed animals who were held in cages in the basement. 
• Roman brickwork has survived for so long because the bricks were fired in kilns not baked by the sun as the Greeks had done.  
• Vestal Virgins, tasked with keeping the sacred hearth lit, were usually the daughters of powerful people and took a vow of chastity for 30 years: 10 to learn, 10 to do, and 10 to teach.  
• The Gemini twins were born to Leda - one fathered by Zeus and one by her mortal husband.  Zeus put them both in the heavens where they remain as a constellation. 
• The Pope's role was as much of that of a politician as it was a religious leader.
• Pine nuts come from the pine cones of the Umbrella pine trees which grow in Italy and each have to be shelled individually - that's why they are so expensive.  
• Rome didn't need to be built inside a wall like many other cities were because it was so powerful, attacking Rome wasn't conceivable.  The wall was built later when the Barbarians came along.
• Chariot wheels on cobblestones were really loud, that is why homes had no windows on the outside but rather were designed around an inner courtyard, away from the sounds.  In fact, in the first century, Caeser banned chariots in Rome to cut down on noise.

When we walked over to the Forum - which was the marketplace and spot of government buildings of ancient Rome - you could clearly see how other buildings over the centuries were simply built right on top of the Roman ones, using them as their foundations.  The Romans was such an advanced society with so much figured out - even running water - that after the fall of Rome so much knowledge was lost that it took about 1,000 years for civilization to get back to where Rome already had been.       

We ended our tour with Stefania at Capital Hill (designed by Michaelangelo) but continued on to the Jewish  Ghetto for dinner and though it was really exciting to order more middle eastern inspired foods (cous cous, fried artichokes, salads) it was unfortunately not great.  It was Interesting to walk through the neighborhood…had a small list of things we really wanted to see before saying goodbye to Rome so we walked through the Jewish Ghetto to the Pantheon, Trevi fountain, past the place where Frank lived in Rome, and then to the Spanish steps (stopping for some gelato). 

The Pantheon

Trevi Fountain

The Spanish Steps

Sarah brought some of her mom’s and Frank’s ashes to leave here in honor of the time they spent in Rome nearly 50 years ago.  She felt a good spot would have them above the city looking down on Rome, so we went back to the place we had visited on our first night and found the perfect bushes in a quiet setting with good views of the Vatican and Rome to say a few words and sprinkle their ashes.