ROME Italy, December 2009                    Page 11                            | last page | index |next page |  

Saturday, Dec. 26 - Borghese Museum and Park

Rainy and cold today.  Decided to go to the Borghese Museum. Walked north of the hotel to Borghese Park.

This is a big park, similar to Central Park in NYC in that it has some major streets and bus lines running through it, much is closed to pedestrian traffic, people walking everywhere away from city noise, a small lake (pond) to rent canoes, museums inside or close-by, etc. Why so big a park?  The Borghese family was very wealthy (joined to Napoleon by marriage), and powerful (popes, other powerful figures).  We found out Napoleon was Italian in the sense that his family was, he was born on Corsica which we heard was Italian until about 4 years before his birth when it was claimed by France.

This is the Borghese museum inside the park.  Inside are some of the most famous paintings and sculptures.  There used to be more, but one of the women that married into the family increased her income by selling many works to the Louvre in Paris!

Getting there by 10:30 am, we found that access was only by reservation, but were told that there were probably a few places for the 11:00 time.  We waited and got in.

  Unfortunately, no pictures inside!  So I offr these which we saw and are compliments of Google.

There were two floors with raised ceilings like this, and about 6 rooms on each floor.

There are several marble sculptures by Bernini, with this one especially catching our attention, the rape of Persephone.  Note the sculptor's skill in the details of the hands and way the hands are impressing the skin.  This is from ONE piece of marble!

Here is another by Bernini. Paiolona Borghese.  Do  you see the mattress wrinkles? The figure and the mattress are ONE piece!

Look at this wonderful statue of David and this last supper painting.

So much more.  Wish we could have taken pictures.

This museum is so popular that tours are every two hours form 9 am to 7 pm, you are allowed to stay for 90 minutes only, and today, reservations were filled for several days!

At 1 pm, we took a leisurely 2 hour walk around the park. Lots to see.

Crazy wall... reminded us of several other colorful odd things in Rome:

Yeah, that's an Obama cow....we couldn't get what the painter was getting at.

The city Zoo and the Museum of Modern Art are also in the park:

Interesting sculpture - cannon on a horse.  This was outside another museum featuring cannons of the ages.

Later that evening, we got to see a car SMALLER than a Smart car:

We found a Chinese restaurant near Repubblica square, and had supper there.

Aimee wanted to try a milkshake at Rock Cafe in Rome.  These were two of the stained glass windows in front of the place.

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