Rome, feels like home

I have been traveling now for five months. When I boarded the Leonardo Express train from Fiumicino to Termini it felt like I was going home. After having my first trip to Asia, and the even less "Western" countries of Indonesia and Cambodia, Italy seemed so familiar. I've had the pleasure of vacationing in Rome several times in my life and I love everything about the Eternal City, both ancient and modern: vendors hawking their goods on every corner, street pizza, the absence of Starbuck's, the city's walkability (the subway system is limited because every time they start digging they turn up another archeological site), to name a few. 

 I couldn't wait to put my feet on the cobbled streets of Rome once again and was happy to see it was sunny and 55° in February. My memory was pretty good as I found my way from our hotel in Trastevere into the center of town. When I was hungry, I had no problem walking into a neighborhood bar/café' and ordering a Panini at the stand-up counter.

My husband had a business meeting so I had the calmness of strolling the ancient streets at my leisure. Our plan was to meet at the long, oval-shaped Piazza Navona at four o'clock in the afternoon at the Bernini designed Fontana Dei Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers). I arrived early and decided to use the extra time to tour the Museo di Roma located at the end of the Piazza.  I must have walked past this museum a hundred times before, never bothering to see the drawings, sculptures and paintings inside.

Museo di Roma

It was my lucky day because a special exhibition of "dream dresses" were on display in the museum along with the art collections. The limited exhibit showcased Italian costume designers and their gowns made for films. The dresses were arranged in the lavish rooms of the gilded museum. While some dresses were made for Italian films that I had never heard of, the majority were American films…..many of which I had seen. I was tickled to be able to see up-close these gorgeous creations worn by starlets such as: Audrey Hepburn in War and Peace, Keira Knightly in Anna Karenina and Kirsten Dunst in Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette. This included the one-of-a-kind pink, jewel-encrusted Manolo Blahnik mules from Marie Antoinette.

Gowns from War and Peace

Gown and shoes from Marie Antoinette

Another first for me was our visit the following day to the Galleria Borghese. On previous trips I was always busy taking first-timers to see the spectacular outdoor art, like the Roman Forum, Colosseum, Trevi Fountain and Vatican. Plus, the one day I did try to see this indoor art museum, I found out that you needed advance reservations.
This trip I was prepared and we had a reservation with an admission time of 11:00-1:00 p.m. (They only allow you inside for two hours.) The museum is located in a former palace built by Cardinal Borghese, the nephew of Pope Paul V, to hold what was probably the world's greatest private art collection. The Villa Borghese is the name for the former family estate which is now an expansive public park in central Rome. It is such a large place, it took us a while to FIND the Galleria Borghese palace and we had to rush through the park filled with joggers, bicycle riders and park bench sitters.

Galleria Borghese

Once we entered the foyer, I was immediately impressed with the amount of marble on the floors and walls and the frescos and mosaics in every room. The ground floor contains the sculptures and the top floor the collection of paintings. However, the rooms themselves are works of art from the floor to the ceiling. Also, it is rather small as galleries go so it is very manageable to see everything in the allotted time.

I have seen a lot of famous art during my sabbatical (visits to the Prado, Guggenheim, and Getty museums), but the Bernini sculptures which reside in the Galleria Borghese may be my favorite. First of all, they are exhibited in the very place where the sculptor intended. Cardinal Borghese, it is said, used his papal connections to employ the greatest artists of his time and commissioned works to fill his grand palace. When Bernini sculpted, he envisioned how the sculpture would fill the room. A centerpiece is his famous Daphne and Apollo. The myth goes that Daphne is being pursued by Apollo and asks her father to turn her into something to save her from this man. Just as Apollo grasps her, Daphne turns into a laurel tree and Bernini immortalizes her as her limbs turn into bark.

Daphne and Apollo

Another work by Bernini is the very sexy sculpture of Napoleon Bonaparte's sister who married a Borghese. The work remains in the Galleria Borghese, but many of the fabulous pieces from the Borghese collection migrated to France (at the hands of Napoleon) and are now housed in the Louvre.

Pauline Bonaparte