Day 7- The Ides of March!

Beware! Today may make you so tired that you have to post the next day!

Started out the day with coffee with our friend Erica (fellow blogger-read it at http://ericafirpo.com/moscerina/)  with her daughter Xanthe at the Palazzo Braschi. Erica's the one who lent us her flat while she and her family were up north scouting the wilds of Saint Moritz for a review. Tough job! Actually, we had already gotten a coffee rush going at our new B&B, which left us refreshed after a nice quiet night (actually still as a tomb- it's weird to be in the middle of town and have it be so quiet!) Our new host is a chatty and friendly Roman woman named Michela who runs this two room place and served us a nice breakfast. You can find her rooms at http://unpostoaroma.eu/?lang=en.  It's a great bargain, recently redone, in a central locale close to the Piazza Navona and Campo de Fiori.

Xanthe models the latest in Roman fashions! Oversized is IN!

After quick coffees, we headed to the nearby Largo Argentina, which is a modern transport hub and cat sanctuary, but a also a cluster of 4 republican era temples that were located near the Theater of Pompey, where Julius Caesar was actually killed. There, a historical group was reenacting the event, which we only caught the tail end of, though we did get to see the costumes, which was fun for Xanthe. Chatted at their flat for a little, then Marianne and I walked up to visit the Vatican museums, always a favorite spot for me. 

Erica, Xanthe, Brutus and Marianne. Et tu?

Spent quite a while in the Hall of Maps there, four hundred feet of ornamental bliss! There is not a square inch of that hall that has not been lovingly caressed with a paint brush! They're still working on some kind of exterior renovation with scaffolding that covers a significant portion of the interior, but there is nevertheless many square feet of things to look at, even if you skip over the main narrative panels as I mostly do. The maps are exquisite- with all kinds of fascinating details, from sea monsters to landscapes, with beautiful legend cartouches interesting insets showing what the cities looked like at the time (1580's roughly.) I could easily spend a month in this room just perusing and copying things- it is so rich!

Just a little mascheron in the gigantic Hall of Maps at the Vatican, yet look at how skillfully it is painted.  Not one square inch of this room is wasted!

But we had to move on, so we went through Raphael's Stanze (rooms) with their amazing images of artists, philosophers, and religious images, and the earlier rooms by Pinturicchio, painted for the notorious Borgia pope Alexander VI in the late 1400's. These are interesting to me as one of the first places that grottesca work is seen after the uncovering of Nero's palace, the Domus Aurea, in about 1490. They also have intricate majolica tile floors and 500 year old graffiti that is all over if you look closely at the walls. 

Pinturicchio's ceiling in one of the Borgia apartments is a very early example of modern use of grottesca ornament, inspired by the uncovering of the Domus Aurea

Then we entered the holy of holies, the Sistine Chapel. This is the third time I have visited this room, and it just gets better each time. It was a tad less crowded this time of year, though the guards are still doing their "Shhhhhh!" act and shouting "no photos!". I usually don't shoot in there, as there are very good books that have wonderful details of most of it, but someone had asked me to try to shoot the painted curtains that run around the room, so i took a handful of those, and got scolded accordingly. There is no doubt that this room is one of the great wonders of the world in so many ways, and the fact that Michelangelo was able to pull it off in four years (at age 33!) is enough to make any artist walk away from their brushes!

After the Sistine, the rest of the museum is a denouement, but there are still some real treats. The room of the Aldobrandini Wedding, which has a small collection of Roman fresco panels and mosaics, is a stand out. The panels of landscapes based on Homer's Odyssey are remarkably atmospheric for their time, and the room itself has panels by Guido Reni on the ceiling that are also outstanding. The Sistine Library, which was recently closed off to the public, has yet more amazing grottesca work. 

Naturally, I am completely pooped after this experience, but I agreed to go inside St Peter's on our way back to our place. Again, as always, it is an uncanny experience. Michelangelo's Pieta is so moving! The way Mary's left hand releases the body on her lap, and seems to be forming the expression of "why?" is absolutely wrenching! Michelangelo had such an uncanny ability to get inside of the emotions we portray through our body language, in a way that is both natural and artistic. Right as we got there a ceremony  at the main altar was wrapping up, we just barely caught some of the smoke and singing, and Marianne swears she saw the Pope (and JFK, and Elvis) on the little balcony, even though everyone we talked to said it was just a regular Saturday evening service. We had a good laugh about it as we ambled away on our way home.

St Peter's at dusk

We made a vain attempt to get our phone service in order (it's working now!) and then stopped at a fun little fish restaurant near Largo Argentina where I had my second great octopus dish in as many weeks! Cruised back here and crashed hard. 

Got up for Marianne's last day here (at least for the week- she has to show up at work this week- long story!) and went over to see the interior of Sant'Ivo, Borromini's corkscrew topped church. The interior is elegantly plain (not severe, but unpainted), and then we went to see the inside of the Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne, a beautiful old house that is only open once a year, in celebration of the brief resurrection of one the Massimo family's ancestors. The family still lives in the house, and while we were there they were also receiving a variety of Rome's hoi polloi, including a Cardinal in his red propeller hat, and a woman who was having her hand kissed in a very regal manner. It was dark and cozy.

This fellow was waiting in his period costume to allow us into the Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne. That was the real deal- not a copy.

After that we fixed the phone problem and headed back for a light lunch and computer time so I could keep you up to date.