Rising early in the morning, we departed for the Villa Borghese (pronounced bor-gay-zay), what was once a large mansion, supposedly belonging to a Cardinal, but is now a nice museum. Taking the metro from Pyramide, we switch from the blue line to the orange line at Termini, and make our way to Spagna.
The museum contains a huge collection of paintings and sculptures. The weather is very warm, and we thankfully enter the darker cool of the interior.
The majority of the paintings in the Villa Borghese concern scenes from the Bible, stories about Catholic Saints, and Greek or Roman myths. I can't tell you anything about the Saints, but common Biblical scenes included the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus. My favorites were of course the classical scenes - Leda and the Swan, Venus and Adonis, and sadly a myriad of other fantastic ones that I cannot remember.
The sculptures are particularly amazing - the collection includes a few Bernini originals, by far the most impressive sculptures we have so far seen on our trip (I write this on June 28th). The most impressive by far was entitled "The Rape of Proserpina". Propserpina, also known as Kore or Persephone, was once kidnapped (archaic: rape) by Hades and brought to the underworld. I hope we have a picture to show you, this one is a real treat. This statue is famous for Bernini's rendering of Hades' hands grasping Persephone's flesh. You won't believe this thing is made of marble:
Hades carrying Persephone away as he tries to kidnap her. Notice the flowing hair and Cerberus.
Hades's hands grabbing Persephone's thigh. I think she has a rather exquisite rear.
Other honorable mentions include Aeneas carrying his father while accompanied by his son Ascanius, as they flee troy. There is also a statue of David with his sling shot and bag. Once again there are too many gems to mention all in one post, and in most places we were not allowed to take photographs. You simply will have to go and see for yourself one day.
After the Villa Borghese, we decided to walk across the city towards the Vatican, stopping for lunch at a horrendous tourist trap that is beneath mention. On the way we passed close by the Trevi Fountain, the most famous fountain in Rome, so we took a look.
The Trevi Fountain, so named becauseit appears at the junction of three streets. Tres Vie.
A chestnut vendor ensnares
a passing tourist at Trevi.
We resume our trek to the Vatican, requiring us to walk across a bridge on the Tiber River. There is a massive line around the Vatican's city walls that lead to the Museo Vaticani entrance. While trapped between sweaty groups of tourists, we observe that the city walls could use some good power washing.
The Vatican Museum itself has too many paintings and sculptures to adequately describe in a mere blog post. Once again (this shall be a recurring theme), you will have to go for yourself. As usual, some sculptures stand above the rest. While most consist of busts of unknown males and females, others consist of busts of Caesars or Roman senators. Still others consist of various classical divinities such as Olympic gods and Muses.
Here we witness the tragedy of Laocoon and his two sons. According to Virgil, from the Aeneid, Laocoon was the Trojan high priest for the day that the Trojans decided to bring the wooden horse into the city. Laocoon was the most vocal opponent of such a scheme, and demanded its immediate razing. He picked up a spear, hurled it against the side of the horse, and immediately, two sea serpents rose up out of the sea, coiled their way up the shore and through the gates of Troy, and devoured Laocoon's two sons. The Trojans took this for an omen that the horse was sacred to the gods and therefore must not be destroyed. This one, like Hades and Persephone, is a Bernini original (I think).
In the same octagonal courtyard in which Laocoon and his sons were to be found, there were multiple sculpted masks above each doorway between the alcoves on the side of the courtyard. We attempted to make impressions. Jordan attempts to do a sad/shocked face.
Zhi attempts to do an angry face.
Perseus holding the head of Medusa.
In addition to sculptures and paintings, there was also a number of rooms with wall frescoes (by Raphael), a giant corridor with huge, painted maps, and another giant corridor with giant hanging tapestries depicting biblical scenes.
The ceiling of the map room, with amazing detail
and decoration. The maps are floor to ceiling tall,
and consist primarily of maps of Italy.
The corridor with biblical tapestries was actually one of the most entertaining points in the museum circuit. Many of them were like the one shown here:
I trust you are as shocked as the disciples are to see Jesus striding out of his tomb. And if you look carefully at Jesus' face in this tapestry, it seems he intended to give everyone a shock.
This culminates the highlights of the Vatican Museum. After this point, we briefly toured the inside of Saint Peter's Basilica (it's massive. No, honestly) and dropped by the Vatican Post Office to mail off some postcards.
By this time it was late afternoon, so we just found a place to sit down for a while (Zhi got ripped off on bad Tiramisu and Mineral Water for €13). I think we also later spent 45 minutes looking for a place for dinner that had no signage and that we found out was actually closed.
The Vatican Museum itself has too many paintings and sculptures to adequately describe in a mere blog post. Once again (this shall be a recurring theme), you will have to go for yourself. As usual, some sculptures stand above the rest. While most consist of busts of unknown males and females, others consist of busts of Caesars or Roman senators. Still others consist of various classical divinities such as Olympic gods and Muses.
Here we witness the tragedy of Laocoon and his two sons. According to Virgil, from the Aeneid, Laocoon was the Trojan high priest for the day that the Trojans decided to bring the wooden horse into the city. Laocoon was the most vocal opponent of such a scheme, and demanded its immediate razing. He picked up a spear, hurled it against the side of the horse, and immediately, two sea serpents rose up out of the sea, coiled their way up the shore and through the gates of Troy, and devoured Laocoon's two sons. The Trojans took this for an omen that the horse was sacred to the gods and therefore must not be destroyed. This one, like Hades and Persephone, is a Bernini original (I think).In the same octagonal courtyard in which Laocoon and his sons were to be found, there were multiple sculpted masks above each doorway between the alcoves on the side of the courtyard. We attempted to make impressions. Jordan attempts to do a sad/shocked face.
Zhi attempts to do an angry face.
Perseus holding the head of Medusa.
In addition to sculptures and paintings, there was also a number of rooms with wall frescoes (by Raphael), a giant corridor with huge, painted maps, and another giant corridor with giant hanging tapestries depicting biblical scenes.
The ceiling of the map room, with amazing detail
and decoration. The maps are floor to ceiling tall,
and consist primarily of maps of Italy.
The corridor with biblical tapestries was actually one of the most entertaining points in the museum circuit. Many of them were like the one shown here:
I trust you are as shocked as the disciples are to see Jesus striding out of his tomb. And if you look carefully at Jesus' face in this tapestry, it seems he intended to give everyone a shock.This culminates the highlights of the Vatican Museum. After this point, we briefly toured the inside of Saint Peter's Basilica (it's massive. No, honestly) and dropped by the Vatican Post Office to mail off some postcards.
By this time it was late afternoon, so we just found a place to sit down for a while (Zhi got ripped off on bad Tiramisu and Mineral Water for €13). I think we also later spent 45 minutes looking for a place for dinner that had no signage and that we found out was actually closed.
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