Day 7 in Rome!

Today was the day of no photos. Well, not really, but we visited the Capuchin Crypt and the Villa Borghese museum, neither of which allow you to bring in cameras. So instead there was postcard buying. You can check them out here and here.

We set out on the metro to Piazza Barberini to see Our first Bernini of the day.





Aud and Il Tritone.





The Fontana delle Api at the bottom of the Via Veneto.





This is the best we got of the Cappuccini. Unfortunately, we got there just before they were closing so we only got to see the crypt and not the church as well.





The Villa Borghese. This is the first time Lex has been able to make a bee line for the Villa and not wander about in the park looking for it. It seems so simple now! The Bernini were awesome as always! We made several circuits of the ground floor during our allotted two hours. Pluto and Proserpina is still Lex's favorite. The best part is Pluto's hands sinking into Proserpina's flesh as she fights to escape. They have shifted some stuff about in the museum, and had a temporary exhibit "Fatto in Italia" by Georg Baselitz. There were only two pieces, large wooden sculptures worked with chainsaw and axe. We pondered them for awhile, enjoying the benches in the garden house. Lex observed that they kinda looked like smurfs, either Smurfette after a long night (actually two long nights as one piece had black heels, the other white) or a smurf in drag after a long night (there was a noticeably phallic element to each piece). They also might be considered a commentary on cell phone use.





After the museum we took a stroll through the Borghese park.





Lex and Mephistopheles peer over Faust's shoulder.





The ubiquitous panini, bibite carts from which we have purchased many a refreshingly cold beverage in Rome.





Once again getting turned around in the Borghese park, we hopped a bus down to Piazza del Popolo.











We stopped in at Santa Maria del Popolo. This has been the week for random encounters with music. There was an orchestra and choir rehearsing here.





We were feeling a bit peckish, so we stopped into the always chic Piazza di Spagna McDonald's. Aud was warned off from taking pictures.





Then we wandered over to the Corso, doing some window shopping.











More random graffiti.





The column of Marcus Aurelius.





Somehow window shopping is hard work and so we stopped in at Giolitti's for some refreshment.





Aud had orange, blueberry and strawberry. Lex had coconut, watermelon and melon. This also ended up being dinner tonight.





We wound our way around past the Pantheon and through Piazza di Pietra and got a better look at the Temple of Hadrian. Part of the temple survives built into the wall of the Italian Borsa, or stock exchange. This has always struck Lex as particularly apt since Roman temples frequently functioned as bank safes.