Day 16- Arrivederci Roma!

After a good night's rest at Darius and Erica's place in Roma, I set out to see a couple of sites up in the Parco Borghese. It was a beautiful day, so I walked, pleased at how I'm beginning to know my way around Rome without a map. Since there is no grid to the city, the best navigation is from landmark to landmark, so I went from Sant'Ivo, past the Pantheon and the Palazzo Colonna up to the Piazza del Popolo, then up the hill to to the Museum of Modern Art, in the middle of the park. I had only learned last year that the museum actually contains work made from about the 18th century on, a considerably broader definition of "modern" than we would use in the U.S.A. The museum is housed in a grand Beaux-Arts style building designed by Cesare Bazzani, though the interior has mostly been unfortunately "modernized" into featureless white boxes that will not compete with some of the minimal contemporary art in the newer galleries. 

Exterior of the Modern Art Gallery, building by Cesare Bazzani

There's loads to see in this often overlooked gem, with a few international big name artists like Van Gogh and Gustav Klimt, but also an eye-opening array of Italian work that was really nice to learn about and see. Works by Sartorio, Nino Costa, Gaetano Previati, De Carolis, and an amazing set of 18 paintings depicting putti in artistic toil that were created for the 1900 Exposition at Paris by Paolo Gaidano. Giorgio di Chirico is well represented in the collection, and I hadn't realized that he was such a prolific painter of self- portraits. There were also contemporary works there, and a good show of contemporary Italian ceramic work.

Cherubs making ceramics, from a set of 18 panels by Paolo Gaidano

Did a few hours of looking and clicking there, then meandered up through the park to see the Borghese gallery for the second time. I know that they tell you that you need reservations to get in, but if you show up right before they let the next group in (visits are limited to two hours, and they enter on the odd hours- 9,11,1,3,5) you can find they ofter have available tickets. I was lucky and got there just at 3, bought my ticket and walked right in. And, (drum roll please!) they now allow photography!! Last time it was so hard to resist the temptation to sneak one or two (I think I did shoot a few in the stairwells) but now the only hard part is finding something to brace the camera against for the inevitably long exposures due to low light levels. 

Hard to choose what to look at in the Borghese, there's just so much!

I usually go pretty slowly because of my camera obsession, added to by the numerous tour groups jostling and distracting, but eventually they pass on and I had many galleries almost to myself by the end. I figured out that a good strategy for future visits would be to make straight for the farthest away gallery first, then tour in reverse, with just a bit of crossing over in the middle part when they've already begun to thin out. It's hard to decide what's best in the gallery; it has equally phenomenal holdings in antique Roman statuary and mosaics, paintings and sculpture from the Renaissance, and then the walls with their decorative work. It is as dense a jewel box as one could look for anywhere, and I will definitely be back for more next time. Plus I ran out of battery towards the end!

Detail of paint on marble panels of a new-classical table at the Borghese

I was still taking in the Bronzinos and Parmigianinos towards the end when they kicked everyone out, so I headed back leisurely to Darius and Erica's across town, had a very nice dinner with them, and hit the hay, dreading somewhat the early departure time to make my flight to England the next day.

Last pic I caught before my camera quit. Guess I'll just have to go back again! Boohoo!