So Little Time...

I've fallen another day behind. There are just too many things to do! It's okay. I spent most of yesterday (Sunday) at the flea market anyway. What great fun! But I need to talk about Saturday first. Let's see... I realized when I got home on Friday that I had not been to the Capitoline Museums and had missed Trajan's Market altogether, so I set a course back to the capitol and headed out the door. (Oh, this tiramisu is fabulous! Sorry!)

I walked all the way down again and took some more pictures of the Trevi Fountain (you can't see that too many times!). I stopped again at a couple of the churches because the churches in Rome are so beautiful. I just can't get enough of them and stop in every one I come across. Here is a picture of a small entryway that appears to have been excavated. This type of discovery is around every corner. I found the simple beauty of this very touching.

The small statue is melded right into the corner of the structure. I'm almost sure I saw a match to this in the Vatican Museum. There are beggars on the street in Rome, mostly at the churches. I have my doubts about some of them after watching one carefully tuck her leather purse beneath her robe as she got into position on the steps near the Colosseum.

My first real stop of the day was at the Capitoline Museums that occupy twin buildings on Capitoline Hill. The museums are mostly dedicated to sculpture. A funny thing happened to me there. I bought a ticket but I wasn't sure where the entrance was (everything is very different here). Anyway, I wandered into a reception for some undoubtedly important person. I knew they were important because someone was video taping people as they entered and everyone except me of course was extremely well dressed. Oops! Perhaps I was on the news as having crashed the president's birthday party! HaHaHa!! Later I heard much cheering and applause from the room I had escaped.

I liked the Capitoline Museums well enough, but they could not compare to the Vatican. Here are some of the things I saw there:

This is one of the many statues out front.

In one of the courtyards are pieces of this gigantic statue of Constantine. A smaller staue would probably have survived in one piece had he not been so over-ambitious and arrogant. The Romans certainly loved to honor themselves! Here's one of the feet...

...then the hand...

(We're number one!) ...and then the head...

They were very cool! One of the main exhibits was about the reconstruction and preservation of the Roman artifacts. Part of this exibit included this statue of Marcus Aurelius: A real serious historian, all I could think of when I saw this was a line from my favorite movie, 'Gladiator'; "You knew Marcus Aurelius?" That made me start chuckling, so I had to leave the room before I offended someone.

One of the things that really intrigued me at the museum was in one of the rooms upstairs. The entire room was covered with these wonderful frescoes depicting various war scenes. All around the edge of the frescoes were painted these faces alternately of men and women. This is not commentary on my part but merely observation. All of the women appeared to be very serene and meek, many with eyes cast down. The men on the other hand were leering and evil looking. Some of them were actually demonic. I tried to ask the guard/guide (whatever) about the significance of the obvious good/evil counterpoint but she didn't understand english and just looked at me like I had two heads. You be the judge! Here's a set: female - male - female.

Some of them were even more obviously evil like this ine with the horns...
...or this ghoul...

I just thought it was fascinating. I'm going to see if I can find a 'tell me why' site on the internet where people answer Art History type questions. Where is Robert Langdon when you need him?

I had another such question today when I went back to the Vatican Museum. In several of the painting were men holding structures or what pieces of cities and I wondered what that signified. Were these men local governors? Interesting!

One of the 'extras' I got with my ticket to the Capitoline Museums was a chance to take some great shots of the city from the upper terrace. Here are a few of the views:

The one below is the Theatre of Marcellus. I got a real good look at this on Sunday when I just happened upon it on my way to the flea market.

And these are the forums that I visited the day before.

Finally, I visited Trajan's Markets. I'm such a dope. When I read in the gude book that they were reconstructing Trajan's Markets, I thought I could go shopping there! Ha! I guess they were all sold out of slaves! The museum here was really great. In one room they had a video that showed how the original structures in the area looked originally. I thought the video was fascinating and again it made me think about how awesome it must all have been.

I included a broader view of the markets yesterday. Here's on a little more up close and personal. With the price of the museum (6.50) they let you walk all through the structure and over the grounds. Pretty awesome!

After I finished at Trajan's place, I visited the Pantheon and the Piazza Navona. I walked down Via del Coronari where my hotel room was originally supposed to be. I ended up then back in front of St. Peter's, did a little shopping and caught the metro home.

This is me at the end of this day...