May 17, 2016

Today we head off to Subiaco.  Rented a car from the airport and really got there pretty quickly, about an hour or so.  We were going to the Monastery of St. Benedict to view another beautiful fresco on our list.  This place is high on a mountain.  We could see it in the clouds from the city below.  The drive up was all switch backs. We got to the parking area and saw we had to walk farther…straight up.  Not awful, but a challenge.  I am glad I am doing this at 68 and not 78.

No photos are allowed in the sacred space, but of course some goofs on a tour don’t get it.  This bugs me to no end.  We see it all over the place.  The area of our fresco is quite small, so we only stayed a short time.  Ray has a picture of the fresco, so he will post it, but he did not take the photo. 

The exit from the monastery takes you by a scenic lookout.  We have some pictures.

This visit didn’t take long, so Ray wanted to check out a Caravaggio painting in a village about an hour and a half away.  The name of the town was Capineto Romano.  Easy to get to, but impossible to find the museum.  Once we did, with the help of a postman and another local, Ray discovered it was closed.  Oh well.  After some emailing to the museum contact Ray discovered the painting was not there after all, only a copy. 

Got back to the airport without a glitch, other than Ray probably lost his monthly transit pass in the rental car.  There are buses that transport travelers from the airport to the Termini.  They are always packed.  This was the secondary airport, like Midway.  The low cost flights go out of Ciampino airport.

Pretty tired after our all day road trip, so I didn’t cook.  Went to a place near by and had the 3 course dinner, which was too much food.  Sat next to a young couple from Texas.  He was a big guy, and she was sporting the cat eye eyeliner, that I believe it getting popular these days.

 

Ray here: I haven’t had a chance to “curate” the photos so the albums may be worse than usual.

 

2016 05 17 Subiaco