<Brian's brief time-tabled list of "highlights" (and of whinging)>
- Went to the Borghese gallery on a prebooked tour at 9am... only 360 people let in at a time and no cameras or bags are allowed to be taken in.
- Awesome gallery with some lovely paintings and statues... or maybe it's all the female nudity, I dunno.
- The famous statues of note include Bernini's sculpture of "Pluto and Perserpine", Bernini's "David" and "Apollo and Daphine".
- We didn't manage to join a tour, but there an excellent tour doing the rounds with a very passionate tour guide so we tagged along behind them, overhearing what she was saying.
- Learnt some new things about museums... always look at the ceilings (as there is always a really nice painting there), always look at the centre of the rooms (as that's where the statues are located which you miss if you just follow the walls), and always go on a tour if available (you get all the important things pointed out to you and all the background information too without having to do any research yourself).
- After the Borghese gallery, we spent the afternoon trying to mop up all the attractions that we had missed. These include: Pincio Hill, Piazza del Popolo, Pantheon, Piazza Novona, Piazza Campo de'Fiori, Victor Emmanuel Monument (which has the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier... no idea why they'd have a memorial, especially for some unknown French soldier???), Mouth of Truth (a face in a wall outside a church... the church was closed and had a giant jail-like fence around the outside of it)and finally Circus Maximus (this was just on the way to the railway station... still a crappy field of grass).
- Checked our email back at the Beehive accommodation and tried SMSing Joe, a colleague from work who was in Rome. Luckily, this time we actually got through to him and ended up having dinner and gelato with him. Good wrap up to our last night in Rome.
<Lang's Extended Version>
Yet another early morning for us, as I had booked us in for entry into the Borghese gallery at 9am. They only allow 360 people in at a time for 2 hours, and reservations are mandatory. I definitely found that the limited numbers and no photograph policy allowed us to appreciate the building and art more.. Besides, photos just didn't do the sculptures justice!!
We woke up to a grey morning, which stayed grey pretty much for the rest of the day with some spots of rain now and again.
Took the metro to Spagna and then rode a couple of really long elevators to almost the entry of the Borghese gardens.. The park is HUGE and contains many sculptures and fountains throughout..
With our Roma passes, entry to 2 sites were free, so we chose to use it for the Coloseum a few days ago and today, for the Borghese gallery since they were the most expensive.
It was definitely gorgeous inside, and even better when we followed an English speaking tour group (yeah, without paying).. the explanations of the sculptures and paintings definitely made the experience more rewarding and we totally fell in love with Bernini's sculpture of Pluto and Proserpine, just the detail in the works was amazing..
While in the gift shop after the 2 hours were over, I overheard a couple of old guys looking at the postcards with photographs of Bernini's David and the sculpture of Pluto and Proserpine saying that they never saw it in the gallery, and they had looked everywhere.. they were the highlights, how could you have missed it??!!
We then made our way to Pincio Hill, which overlooks the Piazza del Popolo, and has a great view of the city. Further walking lead us to the splendor of the Pantheon - another huge building that Brian totally didn't see, even when it was right before his eyes!
The sheer size and the architecture of the building were magnificent. The oculus allows light in and was built with concrete that became lighter the closer you got to the oculus, eventually using pumice, or volcanic rock near the eye, which was 9m in diameter.
We stayed there for a good hour, partly due to the rain outside and partly due to our sore feet.. yes, it hasn't gotten much better, in fact, I had developed 3 painful blisters on the bottom of my foot, which didn't help matters much!!
Anyway, we eventually headed off again, this time towards Piazza Novona, which is famous for Bernini's, the Fountain of Four Rivers.. Unfortunately for us, most of this masterpiece was covered and under renovations..
We strolled around the piazza and checked out some of the artwork done by local artists of the area.. Eventually, I found a couple water colours that I liked and bought them as my souvenirs for Roma, much to the dismay of Brian who was getting annoyed at me for wasting so much time trying to decide which one was best.. =P
Piazza Campo de'Fiori, or Field of Flowers, was our next destination. Usually this is a bustling produce and flower market, however, since we only made it there at around 4pm, everything had been packed up and the cleaning up process was in full swing..
So we headed for the Victor Emmanuel Monument which was built to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the unification of Italy, and also housed the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. This building is also known as the 'wedding cake' as it's made of white marble and can be seen from almost anywhere..
We climbed the steps to the top, only to be distracted by the 'toiletta' sign.. yes, we were busting to go - toilets are somewhat difficult to come by, and speaking of which, if you are a female, then prepare to do some squats, as for some reason a lot of the places do not have toilet seats!!!
Sorry, still not done yet!! After the toilet stop, we headed out to see the Mouth of Truth.. Rumour has it that if you put your right hand into the mouth, and tell a lie, it will snap shut. Unfortunately, this 'overrated' site was closed, so we decided to call it a day and headed back to the Termini, not before walking through Circus Maximus though..
Once we reached the Termini we decided at the last minute to stagger to the Beehive Hostel to check our email as the one at our apartments had been broken even prior to our arrival..
Before we had left for Rome, Brian had tried to organise a meeting with a colleague of his who was currently working in Rome. However, after many unsuccessful attempts at calling and smsing him, we decided to try it one last time.. Amazingly we finally got through via sms and 30 minutes later, we finally met up with Joe..
He took us out for a drink and then to tea at a really great Italian place very close to his apartment. Brian ordered the lasagna and I tried the Pasta with Salmon - it was deliciously rich and creamy.. The night was topped off with a serving of gelato each..
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