It is claimed that these were the first museums in the world, and I wanted to show Anne the giant head and feet from the colossal statue of Constantine that is located in the courtyard there which I saw last time I was in Rome. It was free then, but now you pay 12 Euros, I guess that is progress. We paid up the entry fee, and it turned out to be way the best thing we have seen so far in Rome. The collection is phenomenal, from the bronze she wolf from 500 BC (a relative of the Chimera of Assezo I suspect) to the amazing 2nd century BC roman statue of the many breasted fertility goddess Diana Efesina (or the Efesian Artemis ), to the magnificent 4th Century BC bronze horse, to the views of Rome and the Forum from the terrace, to the super sized equestrian bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius, plus so much else besides, this one gets our 'museum of the journey' sticker by quite a margin. Lost some points for being almost deliberately confusing in layout and signage, but the collection and location more than made up for that, and it was all the nicer because we got in early before the rush. As an added bonus, there was a special exhibition of Michelangelo's work, which had drawings and sculptures which I had never seen before, including a marble bass relief which he completed at the age of 15.
Had pizza in the roof garden, then a bit of down time, then I headed back to visit the Forum. It really is extraordinary to walk down the same streets, and stand outside the buildings that have been the scene of so much history. The Curia, for example, where the Roman Senate would meet, is pretty much intact, though the doors were purloined for a nearby church.
Before dinner we decided to revisit the Pantheon and to check out the Trevi Fountain, which turned out to be not such a great idea as the streets were choked with crowds of tourists and people trying to sell things to tourists. The Pantheon was filled with people chattering away excitedly and futilely taking photos with their flash on, all those little flashes getting lost in the vast dome. Despite the annoying fellow humans, the building itself is just wonderful. I realised tonight that it functions something like a sun dial as the light from the sun shines down through the open disk at the apex of the dome.
After the Pantheon we battled our way to the Trevi Fountain, which was an extraordinary scene - probably breaks some world record for the greatest number of people taking selfies in one place. My estimate is that less than 10% of the people there were actually looking at the Fountain.
It was good to get back to this side of town. Dinner in a restaurant with average food and nice wine. On the way home, we saw that the little church of Santa_Barbara_dei_Librai, which we have walked past many times and which has always been locked up, was open. It is a lovely little church, and provided just the antidote that we needed to the tacky crowd scenes from earlier in the evening.
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