Rome – Part 1

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October 9-10, 2023

I know, you must think we are still on the boat as I left you hanging there. Having repaired a broken boat and headed on our way north towards Virginia, you have not heard from me since. Perhaps the boat broke again and we floated out to sea… Well, the boat did break again, and we fixed it again. I’ll catch you up on that later. We did make it to Virginia and back to New Mexico where we hung for awhile; oh so nice to be there enjoying our big home and fall, and then… floating via the sky to Italy for 3 weeks. We’ve been here for two weeks already, but it is just so hard to write when there is so much going on. Basically there has been NO downtime until now.

We’ll start at the beginning of the trip but I won’t give you the whole two weeks in one sitting. It has been a bit of a “If It’s Tuesday It Must be Belgium” sort of trip. Too packed; we just got carried away.

Rome

We started in Rome. We flew 1st/business as I really wanted a good nights sleep. I loved it! Jim said it was be best nights sleep he’s had on a plane. What is that saying? I’m not sure he thought it was as nice as I did.

We’d been so busy before this trip, we were just glad to be on our way.

I thought it was well worth the “gulp” price. Taking the comfort seats home too!

Our hotel was steps away from the Spanish Steps in Rome. What is not to like!

The Vatican

We visited the Vatican Museum with its rather amazing collection of art. The numbers of people visiting was mind boggling, but we purchased tickets through an agency for fast entry with no tour. Worked like a champ. We had an “on our phone” tour which helped us understand what we were seeing. Greek and Roman mythology and history along with early Mediterranean Civilizations are definitely not a forte for either Jim or I. Our eyes sort of glaze over. But, when someone explains a story it is wonderful to have some context to understand a piece of art.

Don’t make me go back and figure out who this was and who sculpted it. Just enjoy it!
This was from a crypt for… some woman/Queen? I cant remember who. I loved this 3-D carving. It never got used for reasons I can’t remember. A change of power???
There were some pieces I found quite amusing. This guy, I know, I should know who he is, seems very annoyed with this cute little guy on his back. She is busy trying to keep from being pulled away from the flood. Others will need to refresh me on the story…
I was not expecting to see Marc Chagall in the Vatican Museum. Chagall was a Jewish painter. This is a self portrait of Chagall painting. He has placed an image of Christ between him and his canvas. is comment on the painting, “…just like Christ I am crucified, nailed with nails to my easel.”

Clearly the Vatican museum has money; the art collection which has a value of perhaps $10 – $15 Billion dollars by one estimate, has a guard in every room. But what were they doing?

Watching a billion dollar art collection can be quite tiring.
The guards got constant updates on thieves in the area and precautions to take.
The Vatican collection is so huge they have to tuck safety equipment in next to pieces are art. I thought these two went well together.

After a nice lunch to fortify ourselves, we visited the Basilica. It was quite grand but, heresy of heresies, not my favorite basilica/cathedral/church visit. Beautiful, but not the most moving for me.

There were marks on the floor showing us how much smaller various cathedrals were. It is apparently the largest. I had a hard time getting the sense of it really being bigger though it was huge.

Perhaps it was a bit like the Sistine Chapel which we also visited. I did marvel at the frescos and thought quite a log about the time, effort and skill to paint the room. The crowds of people in there and the general din of noise removed much of the sense of wonder, awe and spirituality that one might expect to sense regardless of their specific religious beliefs. No pics allowed so head to your favorite online pics for a refresher.

The Borghese Gallery

During our short stop in Rome, we also visited the Borghese Gallery. Situated in a large park, the Gallery was purpose built as a gallery to showcase the art collection of Cardinal Scipione Borghese in the 17th Century. Turns out Cardinals (and Popes) in historical times were from rich families and had lots of money to spend for a lavish life. The collection has a nice selection of Bernini, Caravaggio, Raphael and Titan plus lots of others. Again, very nice to have a guide to provide context for Jim and I, the 16th Century art neophytes.

The Rape of Persephone. By Bernini as most of the important sculptures in this museum were. Increditly moving sculpture. These were all created in the early 1600’s.

David getting ready to take out Goliath. Another Bernini. The sculptures here were quite amazing.
I noticed this lady when I entered the room. By Raffaello about 1506. Lady with Unicorn. Apparently inspired by another painting you may know.

We did enjoy the gallery and seeing the amazing building as well.

The walls in every room were rather opulent.

Wrapping Up Rome

We’ll be back in Rome the end of the week for a few days. It was our first visit and we really liked it, despite the crowds. The food was good, the people were friendly and the ambiance was frenetic but enjoyable. We really enjoyed wandering the streets and just sucking it in.

I always love a local scene of life. These guys were having quite the time getting these two pieces of rail line for the Metro to line up. As we watched a supervisor came over and told me I could not photograph. Did he think I was from the press? Funny that the next day the entire Rome Metro was out of commission. It could not be…

From Rome, we flew to Sicily for a week. Stay tuned.