Day Thirteen - Jun 3, 2012

Rome, Italy

High Point: The Borghese collection

Low Point: We shall not make one up

Miles By Foot: 4

Today's Antiquities: Apollo and Daphne by Bernini

Today's Weather: Sunny, mid eighties. Felt better hanging at the Beehive than walking the concrete.

Tonight's Lodging: The Beehive Hostel, Rome

Touristic Events: The Borghese Gallery and Gardens

Travel Tip: The waiter is asking if you want 'gas in your water', not if you want your 'water in a glass'. Think fizzy water

Daily Didactic

Another very pleasant day. We got up "school year early", because one of us made a 9:00AM reservation at the Borghese Gallery. We were ordering breakfast at the awesome, if not deliberate, Beehive cafe by 7:45 and were out the door by 8:15. We walked the two miles to the gallery and spent the next couple of hours looking at a nicely refined collection of artwork. The Borghese is nice in that the scope is smaller, so the whole experience is less overwhelming. Still a bunch of Bernini sculpture and paintings by Botticelli, Titian, and Caravaggio made it replete with big deals. We probably should have noted before that some museums allow cameras and some do not, which explains what you see below. The Borghese did not. The Vatican Museum yesterday allowed them (without flash), but not in the Sistine Chapel. We may have been the only people not taking pictures in the Sistine, but we do as we are asked. We left the gallery and walked the beautiful Borghese gardens. We wished we had brought a picnic, but settled on some vendor food and a bit of grass instead. We "took a day" for the rest of the afternoon. Theresa sketched and Brian internetted and such. We had a lovely dinner at the nearby Ristorante Donatis and called it an evening.