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Tuesday, July 17, 2001

Monday was the night that the pub downstairs was closed, so all we had to contend with was cars, scooters, conversations of people passing by, and at one point, someone scraping wheeled luggage over the cobblestones outside (at four in the morning?) In other words, it was a relatively peaceful night.

I had suggested to N that we all go to Campo dei Fiori in the morning to see the market; I would give it one more chance, and they could compare it to the other ones. I took the opportunity to go have a coffee at the bar of the Caffe Farnese, just off the forbidding Piazza of the same name; it was probably the best coffee I was to have in Rome, though still not up to the standards of what I could do at home.

The market was about the same as the last time I saw it; the presence of the kids made the sellers a bit more friendly, and N bought some green grapes, yellow plums, and pears. I picked up some bread and cornetti at the Forno del Campo dei Fiori.

We took the produce back to the apartment and had a quick breakfast. The cornetti and bread were merely okay. Fred Plotkin cites Carol Field (author of The Italian Baker) as calling this bakery one of the best in Italy, but she must have had special treatment. Nothing we had from them compared to that Saturday bread from La Renella.

We had 11:00 tickets at the Galleria Borghese in the Villa (park) of the same name, and I thought I knew how to get there: the little 116 electric bus that we took back from Piazza Barberini. Its one terminus was near the museum, and its other was listed on the bus as "Terminal Gianicolo". I'd seen a sign pointing to this on the way to the Vatican; it appeared to be just west of the point where, walking towards St. Peter's, we left the Tiber.

But when we went up there, it turned out to be the name of a huge underground car park and place for Vatican tour buses. No city bus stop in sight. I knew the bus went down Via Giulia, on the other side of the Tiber, so we walked over to that and went down, but no bus stops were evident. It was past 10; N suggested a time at which we should give up and get a taxi. But then I happened upon a stop; we waited, and were picked up about 10:15. Later, I discovered that "Terminal Gianicolo" was in this case not on the Janiculum hill, but at the northwest corner of the centro storico, on the Lungotevere.

The bus got us to the park at 10:40, after quite a nice ride through the centro storico, through Campo dei Fiori, around three sides of the Pantheon, and past a number of other significant sights. We were only stalled once for a few seconds due to someone parking illegally, which was amazing considering the narrowness of most of the lanes we went through.

We got off the bus as soon as it entered the park, though we could have stayed on and gotten a little closer via a circuitous route. It was pleasant to take a shaded stroll along wide, empty pathways. We arrived at the Casino Borghese, checked our bags in the basement, and went in when the doors opened at 11.

The rooms were grander than the ones at Palazzo Barberini; they were still way over the top, but at least they didn't seem tired or faded. The mix of ancient and modern statues, plus some mosaics, in the first few rooms was a bit odd, and we were less than overwhelmed by Canova's sculpture of Pauline Borghese as Venus. But we hadn't expected the impact of Bernini's Apollo and Daphne. It was stunning. I showed the kids how, if one gradually circles the work clockwise, it unfolds like a movie, from the initial glimpse of a god chasing a mortal to the final transformation of the pursued into a tree. His Rape of Proserpine in the next room was almost as amazing.

After that, just about everything else paled, though the Caravaggios were nice. If there is one thing I will take away from Rome, it is an enhanced appreciation of this artist; his lighting effects are quite marvellous.

We were supposed to spend only half an hour upstairs in the Pinacoteca, but no one seemed to be enforcing this. This was a more consistently enjoyable collection, to us, than the one in the Vatican. Notable were the Raphaels and a great Lorenzo Lotto portrait (this is the artist N always watches out for; she thinks he's severely underrated). The Venetians weren't as good as the ones in the Accademia in Venice (not surprisingly), even Titian's "Sacred and Profane Love", but since we weren't going to get to Venice on this trip, we appreciated them.

Although the Galleria Borghese was not overwhelming, we did appreciate it. But lunchtime was approaching, and the only facility in the museum was a basement bar with some dry-looking panini. My researches had failed to turn up any serious possibilities nearby. We had resigned ourselves to eating something from a kiosk in the park, and set out towards the Villa Guilia, our second museum destination of the day.

Along the way, we passed the Galleria d'Arte Moderna -- "Modern" in this case, as in Barcelona, meaning mostly 19th century, and not as appealing. But to the side, we spotted the Cafe degli Arti, the museum cafe, on a pavement surrounded by garden and shaded by huge umbrellas.

It was a comfortable setting, and a little upscale but not excessively so. We ordered three copies of a set menu: an amuse-gueule and fruit-juice appetizer, a plate of mixed fried fish and salad, a slice of torte, coffee, wine, and water for L.23000. The place was almost empty when we sat down, around 12:30, but others drifted in. N and I had fun trying to guess where they were from; they were an older crowd, well-dressed, and while some of them might have been curators (they didn't look like guards or other staff), it seemed clear that others were business people or friends meeting for lunch.

After our refreshing break, we continued down the road a short distance to the Villa Giulia. This is the main Etruscan museum in Rome, and the only reason N was willing to skip the Vatican one. I am always surprised at how much I enjoy Etruscan works; you'd think I would remember. Great red and black-figure kraters, jewelry, implements, funerary monuments (including the terrific Married Couple, cousin to the one in the Louvre) and urns, statues, terracotta, and inscriptions. Much of the museum had recently been overhauled, and there was lots of wall text. We had the place virtually to ourselves, a shame.

I had run out of bus tickets, and had to walk practically to the Tiber to get more; in the meantime, A and Z watched the fish in the ornamental pond in the museum garden. We caught the tram going all the way to Piazza del Risorgimento, but chose to walk home from there instead of braving that crowded 23 bus again.

Rest and practice, then out for an early dinner at Ai Marmi, just before seven. This place had served us some of the best pizzas we'd eaten in Rome, but we were there mostly for their non-pizza dishes that night. Z had her favourite suppli al telefono to start; A and I had deep-fried baccala, and N nibbled at all of ours. After that N had a pizza with loads of fresh escarole, olives, and capers; bean soup for the kids, Tuscan-style, with cannellini in broth served over hunks of grilled bread; beans with sausage and tomato (fagioli all'uccelleta) for me, and a dish of roasted peppers to share, all quite good. We sat inside, as it was cool and almost threatening rain, and I could watch the pizza makers rolling, topping, and paddling the pizzas.

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