Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Our Roman Honeymoon: day three

Today, we woke up a little late (still jet lagged), missed breakfast, but still managed to tour the Baths of Caracalla and the National museum of Rome. The Baths of Caracalla are the most massive ruins I've ever seen, and only a few blocks from our hotel. The front part of the baths have been made into a Baroque church, with all traces of the Roman features obliterated. We didn't spend much time in the church. However, the museum was amazing and had a lot of beautiful statues, mosaics and wall paintings. Nate and I photographed them extensively, though clearly from Nate's face, I think I might have been more successful at it. :)

The photo below is a room from a home around the time of Augustus (died 14 AD). They found it buried in the Renaissance time, and preserved the wall paintings and mosaic floors. This was pretty amazing!

The next photo is a bronze statue of a boxer, who originally had glass or marble eyes, which dangled from hooks, which are still there, within the head.

This was a beautiful marble sculpture portraying a person from Greek mythology, pulling an arrow from her back.

The marble busts were amazing.

This is me frowning at two of my least favorite things, simultaneously: zoos (bored animals in cages) and Rococco style.

After the national museum, we had a really nice lunch, strolled through the Borghese gardens, stopped at my favorite drinking water fountain, and bought a perfume from the Carthusian monks from Capri for my Roman souvenir (fig, tea, and Capri carnation!). Then we wandered over to the Piazza del Popolo, wandered an amazing church, which was redecorated by Bernini, and had TWO caravaggios, one of which is in a smuggled photo from my phone below.

After doing a little shopping, staring longingly at the Vuitton bag store, and climbing the Spanish steps, we watched people for awhile, and the con artists preying on the crowds. The photo of the peach colored house is where Keats died. We wandered back, had fried zucchini flowers and pizza for dinner, and now are getting ready for tomorrow's trip to Ostia Antica, the ancient Roman port town. The afternoon is free so far. Any suggestions?

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