Yesterday we visited the impressive Borghese Museum and Gardens. It’s named after Cardinal Borghese, a patron of the arts, who in the late 16th and early 17th century began collecting this magnificent array of scultures, paintings and other art works. It’s a private collection and one of the best in the world. The museum permits only 200 people to enter every two hours and you must have an appointment. It has works by Bernini, Carvaggio and lots of other Italian notables, as well as Raphael, etc. It was a luxury to have so few people in the museum as it allowed us to look and think about what we were seeing without being rushed. Even if you’re not a great art lover, this is worth seeing.
Link here for an article on CNN.com about the museum’s restoration
The art and architecture here in Rome is spectacular and most of it is religious, i.e. found in churches. It has nothing to do with religion per se; it’s cultural. That’s why all these churches are mobbed with people of all faiths taking pictures.
Many of these churches are breathtaking and were designed or painted by people like Bernini, Michelangelo, Borromini, etc. from the 15th through 17th centuries. This is truly an “eternal city.” Lots of famous people are buried in these places.
So much history provides a sense of rooted-ness and perspective that a Westerner would find hard to duplicate anywhere else in the world. I crossed the Tiber yesterday that virtually all the Roman emperors crossed each day as well as popes. I walked across the bridge from which they threw the Christian martyrs into the Tiber. The bridge is still there today. I walked across it just as they did. (Unlike them, however, I made it to the other side!)
A Video of the The Pantheon: The Pantheon was built in the second century AD by Emperor Hadrian. It is one of the world’s architectural masterpieces. It contains a large hole (oculus) nine yards across at the top of its dome which has a 142-foot span, a span larger than that of St. Peter’s dome. The oculus lets in sunlight which is the only source of light in the entire building.
But Rome isn’t for everyone.
It’s dirty, and it’s difficult to walk the streets because they are narrow and full of people and cars that will not give you the right of way. It’s a chaotic, disorganized and often frustrating place, but that’s also what gives it its charm. We have a clothes drier in our apartment, but it takes forever to dry anything because the Italians don’t vent them to the outside. We have a broken door lock, but the “repairman” they sent over has no idea how to fix a lock. He had no tools and shrugged his shoulders and left. We still haven’t figured out how to get rid of trash after five days here. I don’t know what it is about Italians and trash, but they don’t seem to have a regular method of getting rid of it.
You have to acquire a different mindset while you’re here and enjoy these little episodes. It’s all part of Italy. There is so much beauty here—like the language and I especially love to hear the children speaking, who are so expressive—that it really isn’t much to put up with in return for simply being here.
After thirty-four years as a social worker, it’s time for us to take the “big trip”. We’re heading to California, Italy and France and we’re inviting you along via this blog. We hope you enjoy reading about our travels as much as we enjoy telling you.
Yesterday we visited the impressive Borghese Museum and Gardens. It’s named after Cardinal Borghese, a patron of the arts, who in the late 16th and early 17th century began collecting this magnificent array of scultures, paintings and other art works. It’s a private collection and one of the best in the world. The museum permits only 200 people to enter every two hours and you must have an appointment. It has works by Bernini, Carvaggio and lots of other Italian notables, as well as Raphael, etc. It was a luxury to have so few people in the museum as it allowed us to look and think about what we were seeing without being rushed. Even if you’re not a great art lover, this is worth seeing.
