Sun predicted, so we tempted the fates by leaving our umbrellas at home. Amazingly, it did not rain, but it did cloud over and grow cold. The day's destination was the Trastevere section of the city, which is across the river from our flat in Testaccio and a bit south of the Vatican. Much of it is more upscale and touristy than where we live, but our destinations were two very upscale places.
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| THE VILLA FARNESINA (Note the sun shining!) |
The first was Villa Farnesina, built in the early 16th Century by Agostino Chigi, a banker and the richest man in Europe. (Things never change.) The rooms were lavishly decorated by artists such as Raphael. There are several examples of trompe d'oeil including drapes covering lower sections of the walls. (I thought they were real!) Today, the villa is set back from the Thames (in Rome it is the Tiber, but this is a test to see who is actually reading the blog), but at that time, it was right on the bank, and at one of Chigi's parties, he had his guests toss their solid gold plates in the river after they'd used them. What he didn't tell them was that he'd had nets strung under water to gather them!)
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| CEILING |
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| PAINTED DRAPES! |
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| A WORK OF ART |
Right across the street was Palazzo Corsini, which was built in the first half of the 18th Century. It houses half of Rome's National Gallery of paintings, but they're hung, Victorian-style, from floor to ceiling, all mushed together, so it's hard to appreciate any of them. Perhaps the best had a wall of its own between two windows, a handsome Caravaggio. It's title was St. John the Baptist, but it was far from depressingly religious.
Afterwords, we wandered back to our flat without use of map. We crossed the Thames on Ponte Sisto, a handsome walking bridge, stumbled into Campo di Fiore, and ended up walking along the east bank of the Thames. Upon arrival at the apartment, seems someone had decorated the foyer tree for the holidays!
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| WHERE DID I PUT MY 12 FOOT TREE? |
