On the Move - Italy (21 of 23) -
Sep. 21st, 2001 08:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lillibetOn Trish's recommendation, Jason had called the day before and made reservations for us to join the 9:00am English tour of the Galleria Borghese, so we had to be up and out in the morning to make it up there. Visits to the Galleria are highly regimented, with entry slots every two hours, after which you must exit. Jason found a convenient bus to the area and we made our way through the formal French gardens to the palazzina, where we picked up our tickets and joined about ten other people on the tour, led by a very dynamic woman about my age.
The Borghese family were one of Rome's most powerful families during the Renaissance and the Villa Borghese was their summer place, just outside the walls of the city. It was bought by the city in 1902 and is now a public park and the various villas scattered around the grounds have become museums of different sorts, including a zoo. The palazzina was built by Scipione Borghese, favorite nephew (a traditional role) to Pope Paul V, and an avid collector of both classical sculpture and the very best of the avant-garde art of the time. Part of the collection was sold to Napoleon and there has been consolidation with the Borghese family's larger collection of works. The palazzina was completely renovated and redecorated in the 18th century, when ceiling paintings were done that reflected the theme of one or more of the major works in each room. A more modern renovation took 14 years and the gallery re-opened in 1997. The ground floor is devoted to sculpture and the place of honor goes to Gian Lorenzo Bernini and there are four of his works here: "Aeneas Carrying Anchises," "The Rape of Proserpine," "David," and "Apollo and Daphne." By the time of the latter, he had moved from Mannerism into true Baroque, with its freer sense of movement and emotion. The other sculpture of note is Canova's portrait of Napoleon's sister, Paulina Borghese, as Venus, a scandal of the time, since the statue is nude. There are a few paintings on the ground floor, especially a room of lovely works by Caravaggio, another favorite of Scipione Borghese. His "David and Goliath" (painted while Caravaggio was in exile, with his own face on Goliath's severed head) was particularly striking, but we also enjoyed seeing the "Madonna dei Palafrenieri," rejected by St. Peter's for its controversially realistic portrayal of Biblical figures. A couple of different portrayals of Bacchus (one a self portrait) and a depiction of a young street urchin as John the Baptist rounded out that room.
Upstairs is more focused on painting and our guide particularly showed us their Rafael, two paintings done for weddings by Titian, two 16th century paintings of Venus in very different styles, and a lovely Madonna tondo by Boticelli. After the tour ended we had about ten minutes to race around the smaller rooms on that floor before the bell rang and we had to get out.
We made our way down the Via Veneto, bought a paper, and caught a bus to the Pantheon. It was originally a Roman temple, but survived to be the best preserved Roman construction in the city because it was adapted as a Christian church and now houses the tombs of two of united Italy's kings and Rafael. The building is round and its diameter is the same as the height of its dome, which provided inspiration to Brunelleschi and Michelangelo in their designs. There's a 9m hole in the center of the dome that lets in both sunlight and rain.
From there we walked over to the Piazza Navona and had lunch at one of the many sidewalk cafes. While we enjoyed a lovely prawn cocktail and pizzas we read the paper and watched the people milling about the three fountains in the center of the open space. The sun was quite fierce and we'd come out without our sunscreen, so we popped into a convenient pharmacy and got another tube. It was amazing how much less the sun bothered us once we were slathered with goo--makes one wonder if it's just the psychological comfort of being protected, or if we can actually sense the level of UV on our skin.
We stopped into the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, founded in the 8th century near the ruins of a temple to the goddess Minerva and rebuilt and redecorated up through the 19th century. Artistic highlights include a cycle of frescoes by Filippo Lippi in one of the chapels and a statue of Christ begun by Michelangelo and finished by his assistants after his death. Other interesting bits include the tombs of the two Medici popes (Leo X and Clement VII) and the tomb of Fra Angelico. There were also a number of extremely baroque memorials done by Bernini in his later years. Outside the church is an obelisque resting on the back of a very lifelike elephant. There are a lot of obelisques in Rome, by the way.
Our next stop was the Galleria Doria Pamphili, housed in one section of the Palazzo Doria Pamphili, one of the largest in Rome. The palazzo also houses the Private Apartments of the family (open to the public), the Italian offices of the Associated Press, and a hotel, where we think Steve & Trish stayed on their last visit to Rome. The Galleria includes the State Rooms and art collection. The audio guide is narrated by a member of the family and included wonderful anecdotes about the rooms, like the time he was punished along with his sister for scratching the terracotta tiles with their new rollerskates. The collection itself is arranged in the 17th century style, so the paintings are crowded together and cover the walls. Rather than curatorial information, the paintings are labeled by number, and we had neglected to pick up a catalog, so we were restricted to appreciating the pieces visually, with more information about the ten or so pieces picked out by the audio guide. These included a couple of gorgeous early Caravaggio's, much lighter than his later works, depicting "The Flight into Egypt" and "The Penitent Magdalene," scandalously using the same courtesan as a model for both Marys. Other notable works included Velasquez' portrait of Innocent X and the beautiful "Salome" by Titian.
Leaving there, we were around the corner from the Piazza Venezia and the Vittoriano again. We caught a bus, in hopes of making our walk to the Colosseum shorter, but it was heading in the wrong direction, so we hopped off again at the next stop. Having bought weekly passes good for all public transportation made it very easy to just hop on and off at will. We were at the foot of the Capitoline hill, so we walked up that and between the two Capitoline museums. Our appetite for classical sculpture was waning and we had a mission, so we simply continued on through the Foro Romano to the Colosseum and got inside at last.
Sadly, the audio guide there was not very good. It had plenty of interesting information, but the tour it was trying to guide us on was made impossible by subsequent changes to the open areas and available stairs. We found our way around, however, and enjoyed exploring the ruins at sunset. They had a special exhibit, "Blood and Sand," that tried to explain the games and their history and political significance with some artifacts to serve as focal points for the text.
Finally we turned toward home, taking the subway directly from the Colosseum to Piazza Barberini. We checked our email and I took a shower and then we walked over by the Trevi to try a restaurant that had looked enticing on our previous wanderings. The Piccolo Arancia ("Little Orange") specialized in fish, so we had marinated anchovies (a very different thing from the salt-slices we usually get), carpaccio, a fried artichoke and a fried zucchini flower stuffed with mozzarella as starters. We split a bowl of pasta e fagioli (pasta and bean soup) and then Jason had the baked seabass, while I tried their roasted baby lamb. Both were good, but too much work to get at the meat. We struck up a conversation with the couple next to us, who turned out to be students from London. We had a nice time chatting and exchanged email addresses and will hope to get in touch once we're all home again.
Another short walk home and it was time for bed after a very long day.
Next, our last day in Rome...
The Borghese family were one of Rome's most powerful families during the Renaissance and the Villa Borghese was their summer place, just outside the walls of the city. It was bought by the city in 1902 and is now a public park and the various villas scattered around the grounds have become museums of different sorts, including a zoo. The palazzina was built by Scipione Borghese, favorite nephew (a traditional role) to Pope Paul V, and an avid collector of both classical sculpture and the very best of the avant-garde art of the time. Part of the collection was sold to Napoleon and there has been consolidation with the Borghese family's larger collection of works. The palazzina was completely renovated and redecorated in the 18th century, when ceiling paintings were done that reflected the theme of one or more of the major works in each room. A more modern renovation took 14 years and the gallery re-opened in 1997. The ground floor is devoted to sculpture and the place of honor goes to Gian Lorenzo Bernini and there are four of his works here: "Aeneas Carrying Anchises," "The Rape of Proserpine," "David," and "Apollo and Daphne." By the time of the latter, he had moved from Mannerism into true Baroque, with its freer sense of movement and emotion. The other sculpture of note is Canova's portrait of Napoleon's sister, Paulina Borghese, as Venus, a scandal of the time, since the statue is nude. There are a few paintings on the ground floor, especially a room of lovely works by Caravaggio, another favorite of Scipione Borghese. His "David and Goliath" (painted while Caravaggio was in exile, with his own face on Goliath's severed head) was particularly striking, but we also enjoyed seeing the "Madonna dei Palafrenieri," rejected by St. Peter's for its controversially realistic portrayal of Biblical figures. A couple of different portrayals of Bacchus (one a self portrait) and a depiction of a young street urchin as John the Baptist rounded out that room.
Upstairs is more focused on painting and our guide particularly showed us their Rafael, two paintings done for weddings by Titian, two 16th century paintings of Venus in very different styles, and a lovely Madonna tondo by Boticelli. After the tour ended we had about ten minutes to race around the smaller rooms on that floor before the bell rang and we had to get out.
We made our way down the Via Veneto, bought a paper, and caught a bus to the Pantheon. It was originally a Roman temple, but survived to be the best preserved Roman construction in the city because it was adapted as a Christian church and now houses the tombs of two of united Italy's kings and Rafael. The building is round and its diameter is the same as the height of its dome, which provided inspiration to Brunelleschi and Michelangelo in their designs. There's a 9m hole in the center of the dome that lets in both sunlight and rain.
From there we walked over to the Piazza Navona and had lunch at one of the many sidewalk cafes. While we enjoyed a lovely prawn cocktail and pizzas we read the paper and watched the people milling about the three fountains in the center of the open space. The sun was quite fierce and we'd come out without our sunscreen, so we popped into a convenient pharmacy and got another tube. It was amazing how much less the sun bothered us once we were slathered with goo--makes one wonder if it's just the psychological comfort of being protected, or if we can actually sense the level of UV on our skin.
We stopped into the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, founded in the 8th century near the ruins of a temple to the goddess Minerva and rebuilt and redecorated up through the 19th century. Artistic highlights include a cycle of frescoes by Filippo Lippi in one of the chapels and a statue of Christ begun by Michelangelo and finished by his assistants after his death. Other interesting bits include the tombs of the two Medici popes (Leo X and Clement VII) and the tomb of Fra Angelico. There were also a number of extremely baroque memorials done by Bernini in his later years. Outside the church is an obelisque resting on the back of a very lifelike elephant. There are a lot of obelisques in Rome, by the way.
Our next stop was the Galleria Doria Pamphili, housed in one section of the Palazzo Doria Pamphili, one of the largest in Rome. The palazzo also houses the Private Apartments of the family (open to the public), the Italian offices of the Associated Press, and a hotel, where we think Steve & Trish stayed on their last visit to Rome. The Galleria includes the State Rooms and art collection. The audio guide is narrated by a member of the family and included wonderful anecdotes about the rooms, like the time he was punished along with his sister for scratching the terracotta tiles with their new rollerskates. The collection itself is arranged in the 17th century style, so the paintings are crowded together and cover the walls. Rather than curatorial information, the paintings are labeled by number, and we had neglected to pick up a catalog, so we were restricted to appreciating the pieces visually, with more information about the ten or so pieces picked out by the audio guide. These included a couple of gorgeous early Caravaggio's, much lighter than his later works, depicting "The Flight into Egypt" and "The Penitent Magdalene," scandalously using the same courtesan as a model for both Marys. Other notable works included Velasquez' portrait of Innocent X and the beautiful "Salome" by Titian.
Leaving there, we were around the corner from the Piazza Venezia and the Vittoriano again. We caught a bus, in hopes of making our walk to the Colosseum shorter, but it was heading in the wrong direction, so we hopped off again at the next stop. Having bought weekly passes good for all public transportation made it very easy to just hop on and off at will. We were at the foot of the Capitoline hill, so we walked up that and between the two Capitoline museums. Our appetite for classical sculpture was waning and we had a mission, so we simply continued on through the Foro Romano to the Colosseum and got inside at last.
Sadly, the audio guide there was not very good. It had plenty of interesting information, but the tour it was trying to guide us on was made impossible by subsequent changes to the open areas and available stairs. We found our way around, however, and enjoyed exploring the ruins at sunset. They had a special exhibit, "Blood and Sand," that tried to explain the games and their history and political significance with some artifacts to serve as focal points for the text.
Finally we turned toward home, taking the subway directly from the Colosseum to Piazza Barberini. We checked our email and I took a shower and then we walked over by the Trevi to try a restaurant that had looked enticing on our previous wanderings. The Piccolo Arancia ("Little Orange") specialized in fish, so we had marinated anchovies (a very different thing from the salt-slices we usually get), carpaccio, a fried artichoke and a fried zucchini flower stuffed with mozzarella as starters. We split a bowl of pasta e fagioli (pasta and bean soup) and then Jason had the baked seabass, while I tried their roasted baby lamb. Both were good, but too much work to get at the meat. We struck up a conversation with the couple next to us, who turned out to be students from London. We had a nice time chatting and exchanged email addresses and will hope to get in touch once we're all home again.
Another short walk home and it was time for bed after a very long day.
Next, our last day in Rome...
