Looking up and down

At the Galleria Borghese there is so much beauty to see with eyes front.  However, it is very important to look up often.  In fact, someone should offer a tour where you are carted around flat on your back (no '80s jokes, please) on some sort of roller device and all you do is look up at the extraordinary frescoes on the ceiling.








I know it's hard to take your eyes off of The Rape of Proserpine but check out the ceiling......

And if your neck starts getting sore you can switch your focus to looking down.... at floors of remarkable mosaic...inlaid bits of multi-colored marble....

  

And then sometimes the direction of your gaze just doesn't matter because you have timed your visit perfectly with choir practice.....

Let's talk fabulous toilets

We all know that Italy and Italians have a kind of effortless style.  It can all be summed up in this bathroom.  This is the most splendid bathroom in the entire world.  Non capisco, you might say.  Let me explain.  This perfect little toilet/bidet duo is glorious.  They are just the perfect size, set at the right height.  Stylish little scoop-like bowls.  Simple and pure design.  So beautiful.  I must have them.  Then you have a circular shower that leaks GALLONS of water out on to the inlaid marble floor.  It's treacherous.  It makes every shower into a sort of dangerous act.  But the floor is at least QUITE beautiful and if you do fall and crack your head the lighting in the bathroom is lovely and when the medics come to revive you you will look rather fetching.  I simply love the different colors of marble.  I must have this as well.  The towels... um, the towel (you only get one) is ENORMOUS and could serve as a tent.  Honestly, use this shower, dry off, douse yourself with Acqua di Parma (unisex fragrance) and you will feel like either Marcelo Mastriani or Anita Eckland or both.

Okay.... the Vatican is no place for sissies.  I mean, you have to gather up all your reserves, your nerve and your joie de vivre (even if your joie is running on low) in order to cope with the MILLIONS of people who pack St Peter's Square, the Vatican museum and the Sistine Chapel.  It is a RIVER of people, each person as tired and cranky as you are.  Remember the sacred and profane comment from a previous post?  Multiply it by a zillion.  Here you have exquisite and priceless treasures and swarms of people trying to get a glimpse.  After a while, it's all just "ABC"... a saying I learned from a British couple years ago on a trip I took to the Balkans.  "Another Bloody Church".... yawn.  
What a shame!  There is just SO MUCH and it's all so incredible, that by the time (about 3 hours) that you get to the Raphael rooms you just want to have Life Flight come pick you up no matter what it costs.  Alas.
But it is all truly Divine and FABULOUS and you can't help but take a selfie... which is just TOO vulgar.

Yesterday I visited the Galleria Borghese, the Popolo and the Galleria Doria Pamphili among other churches that I just happened across.  The Borghese is set in the old familia estate grounds.  One can imagine the leisurely days spent on the grounds, just walking from fountain to fountain while the strange cries of peacocks fill the air.  These days it's the bizarre and annoying cry of these weird blobs of goo that cry when the peddler smacks them on the ground.  Ah yes.  The streets and alleys have peddlers trying to sell this season's 'must have.'  This time it's cheap selfie sticks and these weird goo shriekers.  Pretty horrid.

On to the divine.....

which is, of course, the abundance of masterpieces, one after another...  .

It's so extraordinary to finally see these works of art that I have been talking about in class for all these years.  I honestly never truly understood the brilliance, the uniqueness of Bernini's David until I got to see it close up....

Even being exhausted after the flight here I am hitting the rather confusing and winding streets.  Grab a map and give it your best shot.  Don't get hit by a car or train or anything else with an engine.  Pedestrians are NOT given right of way in any sense so be careful.  Save your daydreaming for when you step into one of the many churches that just so nonchalantly have glorious art and sculpture 'just there... hey ho... hanging out here for centuries... yawn'  HONESTLY, the beauty here in SO amazing.  And it's just everywhere.

So you're just walking down the street and you happen to walk into some church and there's a BERNINI just there... ya know.  Not just one but several....

So, you're like...yeah, that's pretty fabulous.....

Even being totally exhausted after the flight here, I pushed myself to walk and walk and walk around Rome.  Often getting lost and sometimes even hit by cars or trains or anything with an engine.  Here's the deal, pedestrians must fend for themselves here. No yielding to peds, that's the unwritten rule.  So eyes forward and no daydreaming. 

Save the daydreaming for when you saunter into the countless churches that are scattered through the city.  There you will find a respite from the noise and speed of the city.  It's definitely a sacred and profane counterpoint. 

Actually, I think that's a valid way of approaching Rome, or rather understanding it during these few days I'm here (I'll return later during my stay for an excursion to the ancient

Flight notions