Rome, What a beautiful city (Rome Part I)

---

I’ve now been in Rome two weeks and there is a lot to love about this city. The historical centre (il centro storico) is beautiful, and full of Roman ruins (and in what other way could we like our Romans?!... oops, that sort of comment is for Part II), which is seriously cool. It’s awesome, in the literal sense of the word, to be wandering around town amongst old theatres, forums, lion pits (no I don’t really like the lion pits) etc. which were built thousands (THOUSANDS!) of years ago.

Today I went to the Capitoline Museums which are fantastic (statues, paintings), I highly recommend them, I spent SIX hours there. Get this: a large portion of the collection is largely made up of bits and pieces wot people found during archeological digs around Rome of estates (horti) belonging to rich people back in the day (rich people started building these estates about 50 BC/BCE and by 50 AD/CE the estates were pretty much complete as a green belt surrounding the inner core of Rome) - ie, a very impressive collection of art that was just sitting around in dirt under Rome! This is one hell of a city. And these rich people, there were no half measures for them - great big statues made from rare Egyptian marble, jewel-encrusted walls, statues of flayed people (Silenos, who had the temerity to challenge Apollo to a contest) in violet-veined marble to emphasise blood and pain, huge marble baths…

And then the painting collection: I don’t know what’s happened to me, but I’ve developed an appreciation for religious art from the 1400s - 1600s. I love the flat perspective, the gold, the beatific expressions, the stigmata (my favourite stigmata is in ‘Madonna and Child with Saints’ by Agostino Marti - there’s a saint with an arm draped across Jesus’s shoulders - actually, maybe it’s not Jesus, because Jesus is the Child, but it looks like Jesus - and this arm ends in a stigmatic hand - and it’s just so casual! He’s just hanging out with his mate Jesus and his stigmata; and while we’re talking about nonchalant responses to pain, give me a bit of Saint Sebastian with many arrows piercing his body while he looks positively bored! Cor, what a man!), the chubby Christ-children, the very gently weeping wounds from slightly torn (i.e. knifed) flesh, the earnest struggles, and of course the sexy saints, all muscles and carefully (or sometimes not so carefully) draped togas or cloaks.

I do have a question for my wise art friends - what is the deal with the women nonchalantly, even unknowingly, showing one breast? I assume there’s some kind of symbolism, an allegory perhaps, which explains why, for example, Cavalier d’Arpino has Diana’s top open but only for one breast while she’s hunting, or why one of the painters of Judith with Holofernes has her exposing herself at the same time as chopping off Holofernes’ head.

Yesterday I went to the Galleria Corsini, which was an experience to equal, or even surpass, the Frick Collection (of New York). The Galleria Corsini is in a Palazzo which was once the home of Queen Cristina of Sweden, who “wore trousers, entertained female (and male) lovers, and was one of the most cultured and influential women of her age” (from my Time Out guide to Rome). She also did some nice decorating, as did a later architect for subsequent owners (the Corsini family). This is a beautiful building, with a beautiful collection of art, and the staff are friendly too! Crazy. (See rant in next blog.) There’s plenty of Madonnas with Child (beatific expressions, fat christchildren); some truly incredible still lifes (still lives?), the kind where you think you can eat the fruit and swot the fly away, by Ian Decker (1700s) and Christian Berenz (1700s); and women holding men’s heads post-removal from body (Judith with Holofernes by Gerard Seghers; Erodiade by Simon Vouet - and she’s got the beatific thing going as she presents her man’s head on a plate), amongst others.

After this I went to the Orto Botanico (Botanical Garderns; see further rant in next blog), which were pretty cool. I amused myself taking lots of photos, pretending I was back in Asia in the bamboo forest, sitting in the sun with my sudoku, smiling at babies, and ranting to myself about Italy, particularly Rome. It was a very pleasant afternoon. They also give you a map with commentary on the gardens, which was a bit like going on a treasure hunt, particularly considering that they do not have a strong attachment to signs with arrows.

I also very much enjoyed the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporana (even though they take a hit in my rant). Huge futurist canvases in support of facism are quite impressive: I was convinced that ole Mussolini was benevolent by Gerardo Dottori’s “Politico Facista”.

I have one lovely friend, Maria Paola, who helped me to set up the volunteer position. She’s originally from Calabria (not Rome). She’s one of those people who are inherently, instinctively cool but not in a fashionable, trendoid way - knows where all the great museums and galleries are, interesting exhibitions, free places, cool little bars etc. She took me to the beach at Ostia the other weekend, which was about half an hour from Rome. I was pretty impressed by the Italian beach gear - she had a mat which has an inflatable pillow! Isn’t that a great idea? AND, I loved this so much, I can’t believe I didn’t take a photo, but she had these little eye-protectors! They’re like teeny-weeny eye-shaped plastic cups that you put over your eyes as you lie there tanning (we both had sun block on), instead of either using sunglasses and getting sunglasses tan or not having anything and hurting your eyes.

Finally, food. I had a truly delicious meal the other day - warm hommus, wrapped in delicious lightly marinated zucchini, with chunks of pecorino cheese, mint and bread… YUMMO. But not super-Italian. I actually haven’t been eating out that much in Rome, (I had a great meal in Perugia, to be blogged later) because I have to be at the shelter five nights a week from 8pm and it takes me so long to get back to the shelter from the city so I can’t have dinner in town; and lunch is usually a quick affair. I am a big fan of POCKET COFFEE… it’s so cool. It’s a shot of espresso in a chocolate! You have to pop the whole chocolate in your mouth, not bite into it, because the inside is all espresso liquid goodness. (By the way, the man I buy my olives from has been to Melbourne and he said that our coffee is cattivo … I told him that in Melbourne we say that we have the best coffee outside Italy and he laughed.) I’ll bring some home.

Photos will only come once I get to London, which is at the start of November.

---