Rome, Friday, Oct 24

The day started with the school trip to the Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia located in the Villa Borghese park. It was built by Pope Julius II in the mid 1500's as a fun place for entertainment.



The park of Villa Borghese has a piazza and an alley with monuments to famous writers (usually donated by the respective countries) featuring quotes about Italy.

Gogol is big and his quote is a little pompous: "О России я могу писать только в Риме..."



And Pushkin:

Кто знает край, где небо блещет
Неизъяснимой синевой,
Где море теплою волной
Вокруг развалин тихо плещет;
Где вечный лавр и кипарис
На воле гордо разрослись;
Где пел Торквато величавый;
Где и теперь во мгле ночной
Адриатической волной
Повторены его октавы;
Где Рафаэль живописал;
Где в наши дни резец Кановы
Послушный мрамор оживлял,
И Байрон, мученик суровый,
Страдал, любил и проклинал?
..............................................
.............................................
Волшебный край, волшебный край,
Страна высоких вдохновений,
(Людмила) зрит твой древний рай,
Твои пророческие сени.

etc. (http://www.relga.rsu.ru/n48/cult48.htm)



(Notice a couple making out in Pushkin's shadow -- the poet would approve.)

On to Pincio, featured in Fellini's Roma (where M left her glasses 18 years ago on the balustrade -- still not found).



From Pincio down to Piazza del Popolo...



There we ran into the Il Genio di Leonardo interactive exhibit in Galleria Agostiana, Sale del Bramante. It displayed functioning models of machines built from da Vinci's drawings (and the fabulous drawings, too).



Among other things, Leonardo invented a bicycle, a parachute, a submarine, and a mirrored infinite-recursion room:



Then we looked at Caravaggio's Crocifissione di San Pietro and Conversione di San Paolo in Santa Maria del Popolo.

Then a little people watching and "un gelato" in piazza Navona...



...and finally a bus #44 from Piazza Venezia to Fabrizio and Isabella's house off via Portuense near Largo Gaetano la Loggia.