Being a Tourist in Italy
Room of Heliodorus
School of Athens
The Sistine Chapel was full. several hundred people were all gathered there. It was empty except for benches set around the edges where one could sit. The preparations for the conclave were not in place yet (tables and chairs). No pictures are allowed. I did manage a selfie though that happened to capture a bit of the ceiling. 
The Sistine Chapel ends the Vatican Museum visit and exiting dumps you back out into the city. It is a hard museum to enjoy given the crowds and pressure to keep moving along the narrow corridors. I am sure we missed a lot. The British Museum in London and the Chinese National Museum in Beijing were much better experiences. It has been way too many years since I was in Paris to compare the Louvre. A guided tour might be the best way if you manage that kind of visit or get an audio tour. Either might add to what you see, but will not ameliorate the crowd issues.
The Sistine Chapel ends the Vatican Museum visit and exiting dumps you back out into the city. It is a hard museum to enjoy given the crowds and pressure to keep moving along the narrow corridors. I am sure we missed a lot. The British Museum in London and the Chinese National Museum in Beijing were much better experiences. It has been way too many years since I was in Paris to compare the Louvre. A guided tour might be the best way if you manage that kind of visit or get an audio tour. Either might add to what you see, but will not ameliorate the crowd issues.
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Musical interlude.
Cello player near the Pantheon
Concertina at villa Borghese
Singing on the Metro
Cello player near the Pantheon
Concertina at villa Borghese
Singing on the Metro
The Villa Borghese is likely the top art museum in Rome. It has timed entry tickets that must be bought in advance. As you can see on the map below it is further afield than most places. X on the map (top right). We took the metro (red line) to Spagna (K on the map) and walked. We got lost and wandered around the huge park looking for the Villa. Lots of green, rolling hilly land, shady, so not bad for being lost, but we had a timed entry to make.
The museum displays one of the most prestigious art collections in the world, with masterpieces by artists such as Caravaggio, Bernini, Canova, Raphael and Titian. Scipione Borghese was an early patron of Bernini and an avid collector of works by Caravaggio, who is well represented in the collection by his Boy with a Basket of Fruit, St Jerome Writing, Sick Bacchus and others. Additional paintings of note include Titian's Sacred and Profane Love, Raphael's Entombment of Christ and works by Peter Paul Rubens and Federico Barocci. Considered among the greatest masterpieces of Italian art, some of these works show the evolution of art between the Renaissance, the Baroque and the Neoclassicism, artistic movements born in the Italian peninsula and subsequently spread throughout Europe.
The Galleria Borghese includes twenty rooms across two floors.
The main floor is mostly devoted to classical antiquities of the 1st–3rd centuries AD (including a famous 320–30 AD mosaic of gladiators found on the Borghese estate at Torrenova, on the Via Casilina outside Rome, in 1834), and classical and neo-classical sculpture such as the Venus Victrix.
The museum displays one of the most prestigious art collections in the world, with masterpieces by artists such as Caravaggio, Bernini, Canova, Raphael and Titian. Scipione Borghese was an early patron of Bernini and an avid collector of works by Caravaggio, who is well represented in the collection by his Boy with a Basket of Fruit, St Jerome Writing, Sick Bacchus and others. Additional paintings of note include Titian's Sacred and Profane Love, Raphael's Entombment of Christ and works by Peter Paul Rubens and Federico Barocci. Considered among the greatest masterpieces of Italian art, some of these works show the evolution of art between the Renaissance, the Baroque and the Neoclassicism, artistic movements born in the Italian peninsula and subsequently spread throughout Europe.
The Galleria Borghese includes twenty rooms across two floors.
The main floor is mostly devoted to classical antiquities of the 1st–3rd centuries AD (including a famous 320–30 AD mosaic of gladiators found on the Borghese estate at Torrenova, on the Via Casilina outside Rome, in 1834), and classical and neo-classical sculpture such as the Venus Victrix.
The crowds at the Borghese were minimal and we could take our time.
Bernini, a sculptor....
Such an amazing piece of work.
From every angle
And he did it in stone with hand tools.
Cerebus the 3 headed dog
Bernini, a sculptor....
Such an amazing piece of work.
From every angle
And he did it in stone with hand tools.
Cerebus the 3 headed dog
Before it was a museum, it was a house; a very nice house.
Ordnael
I'll be the roundabout
I was in Milan for the 8, 9 and 10 of August. Saw the Duomo in the 9th...had Carbonara for dinner...tasty stuff
. Then in the 10th went to Lago Maggiore on my trip to Swizterland to stay with my sister...had the best Pizza I ever tasted on that shore. Had a Pappagallo va in gita calzone, house's red wine and a heavenly Tiramisu . If you come around that place I wholly recommend it
www.tavernapappagallo.com
. Then in the 10th went to Lago Maggiore on my trip to Swizterland to stay with my sister...had the best Pizza I ever tasted on that shore. Had a Pappagallo va in gita calzone, house's red wine and a heavenly Tiramisu . If you come around that place I wholly recommend it
Home - Taverna del pappagallo
Benvenuti nel sito ufficiale di Taverna del Pappagallo, ristorante e pizzeria a Stresa, sul Lago Maggiore, provincia del VCO, Italia.
www.tavernapappagallo.com
Tiramisu in Rome! It was excellent.I was in Milan for the 8, 9 and 10 of August. Saw the Duomo in the 9th...had Carbonara for dinner...tasty stuff
Home - Taverna del pappagallo
Benvenuti nel sito ufficiale di Taverna del Pappagallo, ristorante e pizzeria a Stresa, sul Lago Maggiore, provincia del VCO, Italia.
Ordnael
I'll be the roundabout
The whole presentation is weird!
Are we supposed to lick the chocolate from the plate where your tiramisu rests in a bowl!?
Are the white blobs whipped cream or hard sugary egg whites sweets?
My tiramisu was just the bowl with the tiramisu in and that's functional enough for me.
If the owner doesn’t mind having a weird dude in the restaurant cringing the other customers off while licking that tray...then serve me that next time
Are we supposed to lick the chocolate from the plate where your tiramisu rests in a bowl!?
Are the white blobs whipped cream or hard sugary egg whites sweets?
My tiramisu was just the bowl with the tiramisu in and that's functional enough for me.
If the owner doesn’t mind having a weird dude in the restaurant cringing the other customers off while licking that tray...then serve me that next time
The two white items were a heavy sweet cream. I did not lick the plate, just scraped the spoon through the chocolate on the way to picking up a bit of the cream. At your link, the restaurant interior seating was much bigger than any I saw in Florence, Naples or Rome. That must be related to the size of older buildings and real estate prices. Many though also had outdoor seating on the street.
Ordnael
I'll be the roundabout
I ate my Carbonara in Milan outside with 35ºC with the road behind my back as the restaurant could only seat like 20 people!
The restaurant where I ate the pizza is definitely not in an overcrowded place, I believe that makes the difference...but outside that pizzeria you would think it's a very small place...the place does call itself a tavern, but inside its very spacious I think it has like 2 or 3 dining moderate sized halls.
That was typical of my restaurant experience.
The Statue of Sleeping Hermaphrodite (Sleeping Hermaphroditus) is an ancient marble sculpture depicting Hermaphroditus’s life-size. It has existed since the 2nd century AD and is made from Parian marble (length 145 cm). Even though the head of the Statue of Sleeping Hermaphrodite has been restored, it is one of the most famous of the twenty known copies of this masterpiece. In his investigation of the origins, Plato postulated that nature was impartible and perfect before the division of the sexes: the son of Hermes and Aphrodite, Hermaphrodite, was then described by Ovid in a passage of his Metamorphoses, which is the origin of the popularity of this subject.
Roman Statue
Roman Statue
Mosaics
Fishing
Fishing
Three large gladiator themed mosaics. It seems that famous fighters of their day were named. Kinda like having posters of famous people or movie stars etc. on ones walls nowadays.
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