Italy, Day 3

[unforth]

There wasn't much else to day 2, though the weather cleared up in the evening. Bright and early on Day 3, we started for the Baths of Diocletian, which is the vast ruins of a bath complex constructed at the order of the emperor Diocletian for use by the public. These days, it's been broken up in to at least two buildings dedicated to museums, and is also partially occupied by one of the great Basilica's of Rome. Oh, and it used to house a cloister. Seeing as it was Sunday, it didn't seem like a grand idea to go to church, but this was our last day to use the Museo Nazionale Romano ticket that would get us in to the baths without paying again, so we headed over there. After some irritating time spent trying to figure out how to get in, we finally located the main entrance, and made our way through.

The Baths of Diocletian museum components primarily focus on the early history of the people who settled the area (bronze and early iron age) and on the history of the Latin language. As such, there are all sorts of things with writing there, as well as several rooms dedicated exclusively to things found in necropoli (ever since I played FFXII I've loved the word "necropolis," and the frequency with which it comes up in reference to the areas of Rome is actually kind of shocking. It makes me smile). Anyway. There was also a number of grave stones (a large number) and an entire area of the cloisters dedicated to various chunks of broken statues. All in all, it made for a rather strange mix that is hard to encapsulate quickly. Probably the most interesting pieces were the very early Jewish and Christian grave stones that ended up mixed in with the lot, though there were some nice statues among the strange fragments, and there was a neat frieze of Mithras slaying the bull that still had a lot of its original polychrome - which is pretty unusual. Unfortunately, it looked like a part of the museum was closed, and from what I could glimpse by leaning over the rope that blocked the area off, there might have been some neat stuff over there.

Another nifty feature of the Baths is in a large room that is essentially "original:" all the walls are still brick, and part of the original roof is still intact (they've covered the rest). The space is HUGE, like, wide open air for about three stories, and inside they've moved three old tombs salvaged from other locations. Two in particular were awesome, the entire insides were painted with remarkably well preserved friezes.

We ate some lunch after that, including a slice of gen-u-ine Italian cheesecake, which was very yummy, and then took a rest. I had intended to take a solo visit to the Palazzo Barberini, which houses a collection of Italian Renaissance through Baroque paintings, only to discover when I got there that they will be closed for remodeling until tomorrow. Lousy timing on my part, clearly! So I'll just have to go back.

Mom was feeling energetic after a break, so we headed back out to visit the Capitoline museums. These two complexes which share one admission are located on the Capitoline hill, which was the most important site in the city during the Roman times. The current buildings were designed by Michelangelo and completed over the course of a century, and as far as I can tell from what I was reading, one of them became a museum almost immediately, making it one of the oldest museums in the world. A second is the Roman town hall. All in all, they make a fine effect from the moment you see them, with a piazza in the middle of the three buildings which houses a large bronze of Marcus Aurelius, one of the rare bronzes to escape Middle Ages metal smiths because they mistakenly thought it a sculpture of Constantine. Well, their mix up is our gain. The museums themselves are decent sized and very lovely, with an emphasis on even more Roman sculpture. There were a VERY large number of lovely, mostly complete items here, though I guess I'm getting slightly sculptured-out, as only a few stick out in my memory just now - one of a man holding up a duck; a funny bust with a marble stand that made it look like he was wearing tartan, oh, now it's all coming back to me. :) This is where the icongraphic sculpture of the wolf nursing Romulus and Remus is housed, also. The early rooms in the museum had absolutely STUNNING painted walls and ceilings, very complex images; one room also had tapestries that depicted the founding of Rome. Photography wasn't allowed in these early rooms, but I started taking pictures as soon as I became convinced I was allowed again. I particularly loved (but had a lot of trouble photographing) a reconstruction of a chariot that had many original bits of bronze. It's not quite as impressive as the chariot in the Met, but it was pretty awesome. In the rooms I couldn't photograph there was a bronze bust that still had it's original (and therefore very creepy) glass eyes, which is unusual to see. The second building was pretty much chuck full of awesome sculptures, at least some of which I think were either mostly reconstructed or possibly even Renaissance or later era reproductions. There was a lovely Venus there, and some other interesting and unusually complete sculptures. There were also three rooms which I can only describe as "halls of heads." After seeing a couple hundred bodiless heads, I feel pretty disembodied-faced out, so it was nice that there were some rooms dedicated to heads that have bodies, and bodies that have heads. To top it all off, a small area of the second floor of the first building was dedicated to Italian paintings (and some other odds and ends), including the most Caravaggio's I think I've ever seen in one place (er, there were two or three). But then, Rome seems to be home to a rather ridiculous number of Caravaggios, though we've not gotten to see many of them yet because of our tendency thus far to avoid churches. I'm sure we'll be rectifying this habit in the next day or two, as there are apparently some fine Caravaggios, Lippis, Raphaels, and some other dude, whose names starts with an M, but I can't think of (j/k) to be seen in various churches around Rome.

Dinner was a pleasant affair I discovered how Roman lasagna differs from American lasagna while watching football (read: soccer). And then home. And now to this post. And soon to bed, cause I'm sleepy!

On Mondays, most of the museums are closed, so our plan is to wake up very early and try to beat the crowds to the Colosseum, and from there to wander around the ruins of the Forum, plus the remains of the villas and such on the Palantine and Celian hills. That'll put us at three of the seven hills of Rome... :)

The first batch of photos is almost done uploading! Which means I can start getting up the second batch, tonight! Woot, or something. :)