Italy in May - Rome

Quick Tips:

Best Way To Get Around:

The hotel is very impressive. It just finished a complete restoration that went on for 2 years, and all the rooms are newly refurbished. The rooms are rather large with furniture looking like antique. The bathroom has 2 sinks built in black marble counter top, a full bath, shower, toilet and bidet. It is tiled with "travertine" on the floor and walls.

Unfortunately, the staff is very indifferent. Nobody seems to care much about people who are staying there. The concierge and porters are only interested in tips. The floor in the room I stayed in hasn’t been vacuumed in ages, the sinks weren’t cleaned and had water stains all over the counter top. When we asked to get extra towels, it would take a while to get them. There is no way that they will bring you an iron in your room citing something about fire safety. I was extremely angry one night when around 10 pm one of the staff knocked on the door to come in and check the bar as if there wasn’t enough time to do that in my absence.

The "La Cupola" restaurant is being renovated and is closed. And the cupola at the top of the hotel is a villa-suite and you can’t visit it.

www.vatican.va

Best way to get here is to get to Via Cavour and take bus 49 which will bring you right to the entrance of the museums. Prepare to spend a day in the Vatican museums and St Peter’s.

When we came in around 9am the line was about 150 people and we got in in about 20 minutes. I bought nice postcards of Rome (20 postcards for 2 euros) while I was standing in line.

Once you get inside and buy your tickets, you have two choices: either start with the Pinacoteca or see everything else and finish with the visit to Pinacoteca. I preferred the latter. Walk up the stairs and turn left to start the tour of long galleries that continue on and on and on. You are smitten by the grandeur of the galleries with statues on the sides, painted ceilings, the Etruscan and Egyptian collections, Greek and Roman art with ancient mosaics on the floor, and the ceilings depicting scenes from history that we study in school. You also walk through the Gallery of Maps showing the maps of various places in Italy in 16th century. And then there are the Rafael’s rooms with the famous the School of Athens and the Dispute over the Holy Sacrament frescoes with bright colors and in all their glory. And as you are walking through all these amazing halls, the signs are pointing that this is the way to the Sistine chapel. When you are tired and don’t think that you will ever be able to reach the chapel since you’ve walking for 2 hours, a miracle happens: you enter the jewel of it all - Sistine chapel. This is it but something isn’t right. You can’t sit or lie on the floor, there are chairs along the walls for you to look or you can walk from one painting to another, but you just can’t lie down and look up at the ceiling. Nonetheless, this is truly a religious experience. Before you go, get good guides and learn about what is depicted on the walls or ceiling, then when you go it will be like finally seeing an old friend, each detail will talk to you, the stories will come alive and you will be overwhelmed by the shear size of it all. The Last Judgment by Michelangelo takes up a whole wall and was restored in 1993. It has bright colors and lots of nude figures showing Michelangelo’s anger and despair for the French invasion in the prior years and disregard for great art. The side walls show 12 scenes from the Bible. They were painted by Perugino, Ghirlandaio, Botticelli, Roselli and Signorelli. The most impressive in my opinion are Perugino’s Handing over the Keys to St. Peter, and Botticelli’s Temptations of Christ.

Who can forget the most famous ceiling in the world – frescoes by Michelangelo that show scenes from Genesis, surrounded by prophets, sibyls and scenes from the old and new testament. The most famous fresco of this ceiling is probably Creation of Adam. After painting this ceiling for 4 years, Michelangelo for several years couldn’t read other than by bringing a letter or a book up above his head and looking up at what he was reading.

As you exit the chapel, you go through another set of galleries, of which the most impressive is the library that shows pictures of all the famous scholars and philosophers with letters of the alphabet of the language that they wrote in. Also along all the corridors, there are multiple gift shops that have postcards and books on Vatican Museums and St Peter’s. Now you are coming back to the Pinacoteca.

Pinacoteca has a large collection of paintings from medieval times, Renaissance and through modern times. Here you can see works by Caravaggio, Bellini, da Vinci, Reni, as well as Raphael’s last painting, the Transfiguration, a copy of which is also in St Peter’s. Alongside the Transfiguration you can also see the Madonna di Foligno which to me has always been the symbol of the Renaissance.

As you exit the museums, check out the spiral ramp designed by Guiseppe Momo.

The villa is located in the middle of the large park and if you have time you can spend here some time, relax, enjoy the nature, Rome and observe the locals. To get here from Westin Excelsior where I was staying, I went up Via Veneto to Porte Pinciano, the remains of the ancient city walls, walked across the street to the entrance into the park, turned right and walked straight until you hit the villa. You absolutely must have reservations. They are easy to make on the internet at this website. A month before you are going, request a two hour time slot on a particular day (which means that you have to plan that day’s itinerary), and you will receive an e-mail with the confirmation number. Bring this e-mail to the cashier and you will get the tickets, booking fee is only 1.55 euros. If you have no reservations, you will be extremely lucky if you can get in during the off season, during the season you will have to wait for 2-3 days to get in. Villa Giulia, the Etruscan museum, is also located in this park along with 3 other museums.

Villa Borghese and the garden was built in 1600’s for cardinal Scipione Borghese, and the villa has one of the most important collections of art in Europe. This is the place that makes you appreciate art more and more. When you buy your tickets and leave your bags downstairs, you walk up the stairs to the first floor and immediately get immersed into the atmosphere of beauty and wealth. The large hall that you start with has amazing frescoes on the ceiling and walls, statues in the corners and antique mosaics on the floor. But this just a start. Every room that you enter has treasures in it. Here you can find the most famous scultures of Bernini: Rape of Proserpine and David. Just look at how white marble comes alive in the curls of hair, the fingers going through the stone as if it were live flesh. The sculptures have so much life in them, I was truly astounded at what Bernini could do with marble. There are rooms here that have the 6 most famous Caravaggio paintings, two of which are of Bacchus with grape wines, Titian and Rafael paintings are surrounded by antique statues and Renaissance frescoes. Here you can also find the statue of Pauline Borghese, Napoleon’s sister who posed nude and not being a beautiful woman in her time is forever admired by the art lovers. There is a door that leads to the second floor, where more of the gorgeous frescoes, paintings and statues can be viewed. No photography is allowed.

I recommend reading a lot about the history of ancient Rome before going here, since if you do you will feel like Mr. Chips, with history rising right in front of your eyes.

The major sights are: 1) the Arch of Septimius Severus showing Rome’s victories over Oriental tribes. The arch had an inscription along the top that the arch was to Septimius and his two sons, Caracalla and Geta, but after Septimius died, Caracalla murdered Geta and had his brother’s name removed. But even now you can see the holes where his name was removed; 2) the Rostra or public speaking platforms where Mark Anthony delivered his speech after the assassination of Caesar, 3) the Curia - the brick Senate building, 4) the Basilica Aemilia – the place that collected taxes and was burned down during the attack on Rome – it seems that the business here took place until the last minute, since the pavement is full of coins melted in the fire, 5) the Temple of Julius Caesar erected by Augustus in memory of Caesar, 6) the Temple of Castor and Pollux of which only three columns remain, 7) the Temple of Saturn – Saturn was the most important god-king in Rome, who ruled during a prosperous and peaceful Golden Age from which slavery, private property, crime and war were absent, a week in December every year was holidays dedicated to him with exchange of gifts and closing of schools.

These are just a few of the buildings that you can see in the Forum. The Forum is very large and every building and arch deserves to be written about. Here you can see all the Roman history coming alive right in front of your eyes.

Villa Farnesina is one of the most amazing Palazzos that you will see in Rome. Located right across from Palazzo Corsini and built by Baldassare Peruzzi in the beginning of the 16th century for wealthy banker Agostino Chigi, it was later bought by cardinal Farnese whose name it bears now. It has amazing frescoes on the walls and ceilings, and is truly unique in its style and decorations. From the outside the building looks very modest and is painted in a terracotta color. The gardens surrounding the building are well- maintained. You cannot take pictures inside. When you walk in and turn right, the first large hall that you see has Rafael’s "Galatea" on the ceiling, and next to it are Peruzzi’s frescoes on the ceiling and walls showing various mythological scenes. The colors are very bright and well-preserved; the figures look very real, very human. The building is symmetrical and large Loggia connects its two parts. The Loggia of Cupid and Psyche currently has glass between the columns to preserve the frescoes, but when it was built, the Loggia was open to the gardens, where the owner would entertain his guests. The ceiling and walls are painted by Rafael’s pupils. There are several boards explaining the meaning of each scene of the frescoes on the floor of the Loggia. From the Loggia we move to the Salone delle Prospettive, where Peruzzi painted marble columns on the walls to create the illusion that the room is much larger than it really is. Frescoes on the walls surrounding the windows and on the opposite wall show various sites of Rome the way it looked in 16th century, and if you were looking out of the window back then you would see what he painted exactly as it is on the walls. All the frescoes are very beautiful and you can spend hours looking at them. You can also meet art students from all over the world here who come to Villa to study the masters of Renaissance.

This gallery is located just off Via Guilia, 2 buildings away from Palazzo Farnese (French embassy) and Campo de Fiori. The Palazzo Spada also houses several municipal offices. It was built in mid 16th century for Cardinal Capo di Ferro, and the Piazza bears his name. Cardinal Spada in the 17th century hired Bernini and Borromini to work on the façade of the building that resulted in the false perspectives, one of which is part of the gallery exhibit. The day I got there, they would allow 15 minute tours of the second floor and a tour of the second floor 15 minutes later. The 2nd floor has halls with paintings on the walls by Italian artists such as Guido Reni, Guercino and others, also works by Rubens, Durer, and a collection of furniture and jewelry, the 1st floor has just the "Perspective" which is one statue surrounded by columns that create much longer collonade than there really is. They do not allow taking pictures anywhere. Even though the collection is magnificent it is rather small, and I found that it wasn’t worth the effort, considering the amount of time I spent waiting and getting there and the admission charge of 5 euros per person.