Museums, Picnics and Umbria Again

We, meaning Casey, Michelle, Christine, Rachel and I, decided that Friday would be a good day to go on a picnic at the Villa Borghese. These gardens, I do believe, put Central Park to shame both in sheer size and beauty... well, they're in Italy, so that's always a step in the right direction. Anyway, we met in front of the Panthaeon at 5.30 to walk up to the Spanish Steps and into the Gardens.

I had spent the entire day in museums; my Mythology class met at Centro Montemartini, which is an old industrial complex in which the entire collection is Greek and Roman statue. The juxtaposition between the marble and the pipes, rotaries, etc. is actually really compelling and has this really interesting aesthetic.

On Wednesday my Villas, Palaces and Gardens in the Renaissance and Baroque (hereafter: Villas) class went to the national gallery at Palazzo Massimo. This ticket was actually a little more spendy than usual, at 7 euro (still not a lot, but when you think of the exchange...), but the cool thing was that it got you into the four sites that comprise the museo nazionale d'arte antica (antique art), so I decided that after Montemartini, I would visit the two I hadn't seen yet (I visited the Baths of Diocletian after class on Wednesday). Both Crypta Belbi and Palazzo Altemps were very interesting, but really: I'm a Renaissance/Baroque girl, so I think I've spent enough time in the company of headless statues for a good long while. Incidentally, while it might have at first seemed to have been something of a dream day, walking around in museums for around eight hours is not the delight that it might seem. Things start to look the same. But I didn't have to pay for any of the tickets, so I didn't feel so bad if by the end I was just walking past some of the Great Wonders of the Hellenistic Tradition. Oh well. Not really my deal.

On the way to the Panthaeon to meet the others for dinner, I stumbled (yeah, I do that alot. It's fun to be surprised!) upon a church that I must have passed a good ten times without looking at it, let alone inside it. I don't know what compelled me to go in this time, maybe the fact that I had a good twenty minutes of waiting around in the tourist jam to look forward to, but I did. I was walking around and admiring the lovely decoration and marveling at the number of votive candles these places must go through a day, when a glint of bronze caught my eye. Now, normally this wouldn't intrigue me, but this was only a glint of bronze, and it was on a marble statue. It made me think similtaneously of John Ashcroft covering the semi-nude figures in the Department of Justice (didn't want to be photographed in front of another boob) and of the Church fig-leafing everything that looked like skin... ever. They did it to Bernini, Michelangelo, Ghiberti... bananas. Anywho, I went to have a closer look at this statue, it turned out to be, in fact, Il Christo by Michelangelo. And the little scrap of bronze is covering the most high God's nether-regions. Man, but I love the contradictions posed by this town. Of course, as happens whenever I am presented with Michelangelo, and especially when it happens unexpectedly, I plopped down on the steps and gazed adoringly for about ten minutes before realizing that I was going to be late for meeting everyone, and put my eyes back in my head and headed out.

Our picnic was beautiful, and afterward we watched the sunset from the top of the hill on which Villa Borghese is situated, the Pincian. Interestingly, the sun sets right behind the Vatican from that vantage point, so the view was breathtaking and a little surreal. We wandered around the Spanish Steps and Via del Corso (the shopping district) for awhile afterward, finally taking a bus back to Trastevere from Piazza Venezia, the site of VE, the Forum, etc.

Saturday was devoted to Spoleto, a little town on the way to Assisi which is famous for its theater festival. Casey works at the corresponding Spoleto Festival in Charleston, so she wanted to bum around and see what the real place was like. Well, Michelangelo and I seem to be playing a game of hide and seek. In the Duomo in Spoleto, there's a little chapel in which one of the main prophetic figures is a blatant, unapologetic and really not very skillful (but still better than I could do in a million years) knockoff of the Libyan Sybil from the Sistine Chapel ceiling. She's really quite a distinctive figure, and there she was, in imitation, bold as you please. It made me laugh. He just seems to find me wherever I am.

We at delicious pizza at lunch, and then took an impromtu hike through the wooded mountains surrounding Spoleto on some little trails that ran from the end of this old Roman bridge. Breathtaking views once again... Umbria reminds me of western Montana and Middle Earth wrapped up in one irresistably Italian package.

The only downside to the day was that when I got home, fate decided that last night would be a primo time for an asthma attack... ugh. So I'm sitting here wheezing my lungs out while trying to study and do some homework before classes tomorrow. My strategy includes not moving too much, my inhaler, a hot shower and a lot of cursing the changing seasons. Wish me luck!