August 4, 2019 Sunday Rome shopping - the first of two posts
today
Today we were off to do some shopping. Sue’s knee was feeling better, but we didn’t
want to push it. The goal was a birthday
present for daughter-in-law Tamme. Sunglasses
were what “we” were looking for. We did
stop at the Nike store as we always do.
Rae is a big Nike fan, and we always look for a Nike-Rome, or
Nike-Barcelona, etc. but they never have them.
Tamme was going to get some designer cat-eye sunglasses. We went into the Dolce & Gabbana store
and “we’ found a pair of leopard cat-eye sunglasses, done. After that we went back home.
August 5, 2019 Monday St. Isidores, Villa Farnesina & Palazzo
Spada -
second of two posts today
Today we had our appointment at 10:00 to visit the St.
Isidores Chapel to see a Chapel designed by Bernini. We got there a little early and rang the
bell. Soon after Patrick, the custodian
came out to show us around. You can
Google St. Isidores College and find out that it was an Irish Franciscan institution. There aren’t enough Irish Franciscans to
staff it, so now it is an International Institute. I normally would have taken more photos. Patrick took us through the chapel pretty
quickly, but we got to see what we wanted.
Our next stop was the Villa Farnesina.
It is famous for the frescoes by Raphael.
Well I didn’t have to worry about not taking enough photos
here. The place is gorgeous. You will see from the photo comments that
knowing Greek and Roman mythology would be helpful. I know just enough to be dangerous, or
misleading. Your ticket includes an
audio guide. If I had used mine more I
might have known more about what I was photographing. However it is beyond my
skill set to hold the audio guide AND take photos.
Our next stop was the Palazzo Spada. This is another palace turned into an art
gallery. The paintings cover the walls
up to the ceiling. The paintings are
numbered and you use a guide book to get the title and the artist for each painting. This arrangement suited Sue just fine. She took the book in each room, sat down and
then picked out the paintings I should photograph. The photography conditions were not good. The rooms have large windows, as you would
for a 16th century building. There
was a lot glare on many of the paintings.
The paintings are always on display, so they are showing their age, i.e.
oxidizing and getting darker. I’m giving
you all my excuses up front. The really
amazing thing about this is that the Villa Farnesina and the Palazzo Spada don’t
have any paintings on any of my lists, but I still love going to these places. I think making lists may be part of my OCD
behavior.
It was good but long day, so we went back home. We were off to Palermo tomorrow, but not
super early. I don’t recall what we did
for dinner, but it wouldn’t have been far from home. “We” packed and straightened up the place so
we would be ready to go in the morning.
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