Rome Day 4 -

Friday 16 October

Rome

With no great plans for the day, we headed off towards St Peter’s and were deterred by the crowd snaking around the Square, and decided that we would not revisit the Basilica today. We set off towards the Borghese Gardens , across town, to go to the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna. This gallery was instituted in 1883 to house contemporary works of art of the recently unified state of Italy. It is a very large (of course, it’s Rome), light and airy building containing works from 1880s to the 1960’s, including Klimt, Modigliani, Pollock, Mondrian, Van Gogh, Monet, Cezanne and lots of Italian artists. Many of the rooms were arranged thematically, such as Sala de Madre – paintings and sculpture on the theme of “Mother”, the battles prior to the unification, mythology and so on. Very interesting displays.

We walked through the Borghese Gardens, criss crossed by roads and lots of vehicular traffic and reached the centre of the city. We consulted our maps and guides and decided we should make for the Pantheon, and with numerous detours into stylish boutiques and interesting shops we arrived at the Pantheon.

A WOW! moment! This is one of the most beautiful ancient buildings we have seen. It was originally a pagan temple, but was given to the Pope by Emporer Phocus in 608 AD and then became a Christian church. Today it is Santa Maria ad Martyres. The dome is huge and is the largest masonry dome in Europe, and the “ocleus” is open to the sky. When it rains the water drains away over the multicoloured marbled concave and convex floor. There are the tombs of Victor Emmanule, his wife Margaretta and son, Umberto. Raphael’s tomb is also there. Raphael has a very moving tribute: Here lies Raphael, whom Nature feared would outdo her while alive, but now that he is gone, fears she, too, will die.Most of the walls are lined with marble, but there are some sections that are uncovered and you can see the ancient roman walls. It is a very beautiful place.

We dropped in at the church of S. Maria Maddalena (just for Mads), found a nice little trattoria for dinner and then made our way home. Ten hours out and about. We are certainly building up the stamina required for a full day on our feet!