We are definitely tourists and are readily identifiable as such.  We do try to be good citizens when we travel and not ugly Americans.  There are quite a few tourists in Rome right now, can’t even imagine what it must be like in the summer.  Will never come here then.  Some funny and odd observations and overheard conversations.

1.  Why do we have to dress modestly when we are going to be looking at so many naked statues?  (from a 12ish year old)

2.  Where is the Starbucks?  When told there are none in Rome the response from our guide was to direct them to a coffee bar, at which point they became suspicious she must be getting a cut from the barista….

3.  For our Jewish friends at services last night an American tourist near me asked one of the Italian women how long the service would be.  The Italian woman asked her if she was Ashkenazic to which she replied, “Oh no I’m from Dallas”.  It’s true I’m not making it up.

4.  Why would you need to shop at the Gap, H & M, Timberland, Nike, etc. while in Rome with so much to do and see since these stores exist at home.  We didn’t see Italians going into these stores- only tourists?!

5.  We’ve had amazing meals except for the first night at the restaurant the landlord sent us to.  Our best meals were the kosher ones we had in the Jewish Ghetto- who would have known and they were packed with Italians.  It turns out the Jewish food is the most authentic food in Rome…..

We also came across a Holocaust memorial in our neighborhood, very understated but quite powerful.  Looks like it was erected in the 1980s.

The Etruscans were living in what we now know as the center of Italy from around 700 BCE until they were absorbed by Imperial Rome in the 4th century BCE.  The Etruscan civilization leaves very little behind so it takes a vivid imagination to comprehend the great influence they had on ancient Rome.  They were skilled craftsmen and artists.  The Villa Giulia is now the museum that houses the largest collection of the works that still survive.  Most of what has survived was found in vast tombs in central Italy, as the Etruscans had a complex association with the afterlife.

A bit about the villa itself- it was built as a summer retreat for Pope Julius III and once housed a large collection of statues which of course are now in the Vatican Museum.  In 1889 it was converted to the museum it is now and has had some recent upgrades as well.  It’s quite well put together and houses the Husband and Wife sarcophagus that is in our textbook.  I never realized she has cowboy boots on!  I was most happy to see that two vases that had been at the Metropolitan Museum of Art including the Euphronius Vase have been returned and are housed here.

We also visited the Campidoglio, a square designed by Michelangelo and displaying prominently, the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, though the original is inside the Capitoline Museum, which we also visited.

Sometimes we think we have a pretty good grasp on an artist’s work from the “famous” works that repeat over and over in textbooks, scholarly literature, and general information.  Then we spend some time in a place like Rome where their work is everywhere from the stairs you walk up, to the paintings they produced, to the domes they designed and you realized how little you knew and how bowled over you are by something you’ve never seen before.  And then of course, there is where you saw it, and that it is right in front of your face instead of on a page or a screen.  That’s the feeling we have had after the last few days of seeing these artists over and over again.  Any major museum in the world would be lucky and quite prestigious to have one or two Caravaggio’s or maybe a Bernini, though I suspect most of his work has stayed in Italy.  Borromini who is probably not familiar to most was mainly an architect and alternately a colleague of Bernini’s and a competitor.  Always interesting to get the back story.

Lastly, there are those things that you so looked forward to seeing in real life and then were so disappointed that it looked better in the pictures than in real life.  We had that experience as well though definitely not with Caravaggio.  I can’t begin to explain how extraordinary this man’s work was and he died at such a young age.  Most of the places we could not take photos inside so I’ll give you the links so you can see for yourself if you are so inclined:

Borghese and Barberini Galleries

Sta. Maria del Popolo (Caravaggio)

Cornaro Chapel(Bernini)

In the case of the two paintings by Caravaggio in Sta. Maria del Popolo, their placement in the tiny chapel is unbelievably powerful.  Both have foreshortened figures that look as if they will fall right into your arms.  These are two of Caravaggio’s most famous works and to have them here in such a relatively small church is remarkable and they are perfectly situated to make a dramatic impact.  On the other hand, the Bernini “St. Theresa” is in a shallow space that is so much smaller than it looks in photographs, is dingy, and poorly lit.  Someone said the window above that is supposed to cast dramatic light down on the figures is covered in grime- why wouldn’t someone clean it off?

No trip to Rome is complete without a visit to the Vatican Museum.  That is where you will find the Sistine Chapel, the Raphael rooms, and art from every civilization from the beginning of time and from every part of the world.  Most of the oldest artwork came into the Vatican’s collection through plunder though the artworks adorning the walls and ceilings (what we were most interested in seeing) was commissioned by the most important artists of the time.   There have also been many gifts made to the church over the centuries and surprising to us a whole gallery of contemporary works that have some relationship to Christian art.  The museum was more crowded than I had ever seen it before though we were pleasantly surprised to find the Sistine Chapel full but not oppressive.  They’ve done a much better job in controlling the up to 20,000 tourists a day just from cruise ships that come to see the Vatican Museum collections

.  The images I am sharing with you are specific works or types of works that you are learning about if you are in one of my classes.  The captions will give you a little more detail on them. There are many more works that I did not photograph.  In the Stanza della Signatura a great site to go to is http://www.learn.columbia.edu/raphael/htm/

Experienced travelers often look for things off the beaten track and will go to great lengths to find them, sometimes coming up empty handed and sometimes having ridiculous outcomes like looking for something in the wrong place (not having the right address or name) or standing in front of the exact place you are looking for and not seeing it.  In the meantime, you find things you didn’t expect.

So we have walked along the Tiber River every day for part of the time coming and going from the apartment where we are staying.  It’s been a little hotter and muggier than we are used to though I understand No. Calif. has been warmer too and we know Chicago definitely is hot!  So the river breeze is most welcome.  We’ve seen the island in the middle of the river and it has become a landmark of sorts as it is the place we usually cross over or take a turn toward the historic center of the city.  We spent some time looking for a Palazzo that contains an interesting art collection that was written up recently in the New York Times as one of three museums most people don’t go to and it took us two days to find it as we had the wrong name.  It was the Doro Pamphilli collection that includes the portrait that Velazquez did of Pope Innocent X and parodied by Frances Bacon.  It’s hanging in a small gallery in a palazzo that is covered floor to ceiling with art.  We learned that the nephew of the pope got a high position in the government (when the Pope was religious and political leader).  As you might imagine it enriched that person quite a bit and I don’t mean in a spiritual sense.  It’s where the word nepotism comes from- who knew…worth taking the time to find and there were not many people there.  They were also in the process of restoring a very large Caravaggio painting that was interesting to watch but impossible to photograph because of the large lights they were using.

On the way to this Palazzo we found the St. Ingnatius Loyola Church and a few other random views I have included.  We also sought out the home of La Fornarina, Raphael’s girlfriend and model.  This was an example of standing right in front of it and not seeing it, boy did we feel dumb.  We were intrigued because the anecdote is that Raphael had a heart attack while making love to her and died- though his betrothed is included in statue form on his grave inside the Pantheon.   There is a famous portrait of her that is also a parody by Cindy Sherman as a very pregnant woman.  We saw the portrait of her hanging in the Borghese Gallery, more on that later.

For those of you who are taking one of my art history classes this semester you will hear me talk about about both of this issues when discussing or thinking about art.  Rome is full of examples of how the context of things has changed over time and how things have been repurposed to suit a certain need politically, socially, or religiously.  So the images included here are related to those concepts.  When I travel I try to see the things I haven’t seen before if I’m lucky enough to be in a place more than once and Rome is such a place.  This is my fourth time here so I’m staying away from places like the Colosseum, St. Peter’s, and the Forum (though it’s open now at night so I might have to go there).  Seeing things in person is so different from seeing them in a book.  The Pantheon is a place I’ve been to every time I’ve been in Rome but I try to approach it differently each time and I’m surprised every time.  I am totally fascinated with the concept that one religion asserts its power over the vanquished one (or considered vanquished) by either changing the meaning of the work or just building over it or cutting off part of it to somehow lessen its power.  And lastly, propaganda is a major factor in much of what we see in Rome with one emperor or pope falling over themselves to be better, bigger, etc.  Enjoy today’s pictures.

Today we went to the synagogue to give our passport information so that we could attend services for Yom Kippur.  We went to the first guard (synagogues around the world are heavily guarded sad to say) and he directed us to the other side of the building.  We went around the building to another guard (at the entrance to the Jewish museum) who told us we needed to go to the front of the building to the office.  We went the rest of the way around and were told to go back around to the other side.  We went there and explained to guard #2 what happened, he radioed the office guard and had some words with him in Italian and we were sent around again.  We finally were able to give your passport information.  We’ll see what happens when we show up Friday night…never circumambulated a religious building before-

Yesterday was our first day in Rome and we took about a 5 mile walk exploring the neighborhood where we are staying (Testaccio- quiet residential few tourists) and along both banks of the Tiber River.  The photos I took are somewhat random but all show how much contrast there is and how much you find that is unexpected around every corner.  An obelisk in the center of a small piazza, or a column just sticking out randomly in front of a small shop or in front of some apartments.  Narrow alleys leading to churches that contain amazing ceilings or mosaics, arches in unexpected places, or pieces of aqueducts.  And everywhere, excavations which reminds one that this city has such a long history, one era on top of another.  It takes careful observation not to miss things and I’m sure we already have. If you’re not used to blogs, click on the first picture to see some more comments and an enlarged view.  It will turn into a little slide show.