Highlights included were pretty standard: St Peters and the Vatican museums, the Borghese, Trinita del Monti (the Spanish steps), Piazza del Popolo, the Pantheon, the Coliseum and surrounding ruins, San Pietro in Vincoli, Piazza Navona, countless churches and other sites as we walked the city.
We traveled by train to Treviso (airport) and flying Ryan Air into Rome. The airport Ryan Air uses is Ciampino which is about 15km away from Rome, but a bus is in place to shuttle to and from the train station. These tickets can also be purchased online so you're ready to go.
We stayed in the Hotel Lirico which had clean rooms, good bathrooms, breakfast included and relatively close to the train station. Also, Roma has an underground metro which can be very handy and it costs only 1 Euro (in 2006) to ride for 75 minutes.
Our priorities were:
Bernini's David, Michelangelo's Moses and Pieta, the Sistine, St Peters, and the only da Vinci in Rome.
The Borghese Museum:
Among other incredible things, this houses Bernini's David which was a must-see. This is the last David of five masterpieces spanning about 200 years. Five you say? Read my other article about the Surprise of David. There were several other sculptures and other Bernini works which are just as amazing as his David. Of note are Apollo and Daphne (an amazing action scene) and The Rape of Proserpina. Proserpina actually has tears on her face - tears in marble - incredible.
We had luck similar to that in Milan (see the Last Supper blog). When you buy a ticket for the Borghese, you're buying a 2-hour window. I assumed it was a two hour entry window but that is not the case. Rather, they clear out the museum after two hours and let a new group in for the next two hours. The flow in the museum is walking to the third floor (primarily paintings), down to the second floor (sculptures) and then exiting back to the ground floor with the normal gift shop and cafe. Well, as it happened we heard a bell ring just as we walked to the entrance of the second floor. We hadn't seen any of the significant sculptures yet and they were now flushing people out. We asked the guard what was happening and that's when we understood the 2-hour window. I couldn't believe it - we were so close to seeing the last David and others and we were being told to leave.
For some reason - I suppose the guard liked Doreen's personality and felt sorry for us - he told us to wait by the door. To my amazement, a couple of minutes later we were walking around the sculpture floor and had it to ourselves! Obviously, we didn't have our private showing long before the next group showed up but it was awesome.
This very unassuming church is not only very old (originally over 1500 years old), it doesn't really look like a church - especially in Rome (above, left). This is the place of Michelangelo's marble Moses (above, center) and houses the chains that held Peter in the Jerusalem prison. I remember the first time I saw this Moses - in an art book in 1994 - and I've loved it ever since. It was great to see it. Sadly, due to some construction, we were a little further back than normal.
There was another amazing sculpture there which was a complete surprise. It was the Angel of Death standing over a tomb (above, right). It was very imposing and lighting made it something to remember.
St Peters Basilica: need to update this section
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