My Last Day in Rome

My Roman Holiday

My Last Day in Rome

Tuesday, my last day in Rome...

Galleria Borghese

I had made an appointment to visit the Galleria Borghese for Tuesday morning. This is my favorite museum in Rome. It contains a fabulous collection of statues from Antiquity, the Baroque Period, and the 18th Century. The Bernini collection is without compare. The villa was built as a summer house by Cardinal Scipione Borghese in 1613. The cardinal was a patron of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and together it's not too much to say they created the Baroque. A later Borghese, Camillo, married Pauline Bonaparte, Napoleon's sister, and it was Pauline who served as the model for the sculpture of Venus completed by Canova. This statue scandalized all of Europe, but when asked why she posed for it, Pauline replied, "It wasn't cold in the room." Many of the art treasures here were appropriated by Pauline's brother and now are displayed in the Louvre. But enough is left to make this the finest museum of Baroque art in the world.

The Galleria is located in the Villa Borghese, the Central Park of Rome. The beautiful pines are a welcome respite from the crowded city. The pines in the Villa Borghese served as the inspiration for Respighi's composition, "The Pines of Rome."

The Aurelian Wall, built in A.D. 275, encircles the "Centro Storico" or historic center of Rome. This part of the wall is called the "Muro Torto," or "Crooked Wall" by the Romans. We cross a foot bridge and enter the Pincian Gardens, overlooking the Piazza del Popolo. The gardens were laid out during the Napoleonic Era.