Day 45 16-10-2013 Wed Rome

Our last full touristic day in Rome, and we survived it intact! Well almost – more on that shortly. We spent most of the day in the Capitoline Museum and the surrounding area along the Via dei Fori Imperiali.

The Capitoline Museum is nothing short of fantastic - one of the best anywhere. 

Marcus Aurelius

It has a huge collection of heads, busts and statues. It also has an art gallery but we skipped that in the interests of not inducing information overload. One of its bonus features is that it affords the best view of the Roman Forum. But that’s not all – it, like Castel Sant’ Angelo yesterday, gives a fabulous view of the city from its terrace, where we had a very nice lunch. Within a 45° field of view one could count 11 church domes as well as other monuments. It looks like the museum buildings were originally or at one time papal palaces, that one of the popes gifted back to the Roman people in recognition of their former greatness. While photographing the Forum from the Tabularium gallery overlooking it, I was so absorbed in my task, that I tripped over a stone lighting fixture with sharp edges, 

grazing my shin. No great damage, fortunately. Nurse Joan did an expert triage with hand cleaner, tissue and sock, with a proper job later back at base.

One thing that kept astonishing us was the superb  and fine detail in the garments on figures in friezes and statues. The Romans evidently had a lot of very good atrisans back then, certainly comparable to the Renaissance artists we know. Two of our favourite subjects are the emperors Hadrian and Caracalla, the latter particularly.
 

Forum mostly from Tabularium

Arch of Titus behind

Friezes

Giant figures

Heads and Busts

Probably not a Roman of antiquity

Medusa

Caracalla - a most interesting face

One of the head rooms

Jars

Misc

Bath like the one used by Archimedes

Two of a kind

217 BC coin

Papal crests

Statues

Marcus Aurelius

Fabulous detail

Faithful companions into the afterlife

Hercules

Capitoline Venus - the model for many others

Now make sure you get me from the right angle!

Dionysus

Goose-wrangling child

Dying Gaul - note the non-Roman hair

Early version of the "The Kiss"

Views from the Terrace

We started the ascent of Michelangelo’s marble steps on the side of the Vittoriano, 

but only went part of the way up. They, like steps in other grand structures, have a good pitch, making them easier to climb. 

Walking around the Vittoriano we spotted a free exhibition inside of Saudi Arabian history, culture and landscapes.

My favourite

The Elephant

We walked partway up the monument inside and then down again on the outside, with great views of an old church and Roman era buildings on the other side of the Via dei Fori Imperiali. One of these was the real Trajan’s Column, unlike the other one I misidentified several days ago, and also last year. This column is situated at one end of Trajan’s Forum. We had our last gelato sitting on bollards at the top of steps on the Via Grandnapoli.

On the way home, we got off one Metro stop early and finished off our visit at Repubblica to see what else but a church – the Chiesa Santa Maria degli Angeli et dei Martiri that we had noticed last year but had not had time to visit then. This is a wonderful church with an unusual three-nave configuration, a meridian line – the longest we have seen, and playing Gregorian chants that soothed us after a long day.

Pendulum

We are now celebrating Christine’s 50^th and our having completed another successful trip with a bottle of very nice prosecco (Italian fizz).

We had dinner at the Tripadvisor-recommended Osteria Barberini where we had excellent food, drink and service (in stark contrast to the night before, a complete failure) – a great way to end our Italian adventure for 2013.