Roman Coda

Fontana del Tritone in Piazza Barberini, designed in the 1600's by the architect of Baroque Rome, Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

I came back to Rome for one last day tacked on at the end of the trip. This was because it was much cheaper to fly back to the USA from Rome than from Palermo. And I got to enjoy a rare sunny day in Rome.

Actually, the day before, on Tuesday, the day I was flying out of Palermo, the weather turned and it was a beautiful sunny morning there.

This is Santa Maria della Catena.

St. Mary of the Chain, down by the harbor.  One thing I missed on my walk around the harbor area on my first day was this famous mural.

The mural depicts Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, two prosecuting magistrates who spent their careers trying to take down the Mafia in Sicily. Both were assassinated a few months apart in 1992. The Sicilian public was finally so outraged at the Mafia that the Mafia's influence in Palermo and on Sicily soon began to dissipate. With their deaths, these gentlemen achieved what they spent their careers trying to accomplish: ending the iron rule of the Mafiosi in Sicily.

It is very interesting that directly across the street from that mural is the pleasure craft harbor. Sicily is no longer about the mob. It is now "fun in the sun." 

And just as the sun came out, it was time to leave for a final day in Rome. COVID testing completed -- now they'll have to let me back in the country -- I was a free man in Rome, unfettered and alive, nobody calling me up for favors -- oops, wrong European capital. Anyway I had a free afternoon in Rome.

How to spend it? I wanted to go to Ostia Antica, some Roman ruins a few miles from the airport. Cab driver wanted 45 euros for the one-way trip, which was ridiculous. And, besides, at this point, I was feeling ruined-out.

I know! The Borghese Gallery!

The Borghese Gallery is the premier art museum in the City of Rome. (Keep in mind that the Vatican Museums are not in Rome, but in Vatican City, a sovereign nation.)

And, besides, the Borghese is in a beautiful park on the north side of Rome's tourist core. And who doesn't like a green park on a sunny day?

This is a statue honoring Umberto I, the second king of the united Italy.

The Borghese Gallery is in the former estate of Cardinal Scipione Borghese. He was the nephew of Pope Paul V, who was pope in the very early 1600's.

He was an avid art collector.

But, we'll have to wait and see his collection of Berninis and Caravaggios some other trip to Rome.

The museum had no tickets available for tours until Saturday. I should be back in Las Vegas long before then.

Plan A was a no-go. Plan B too. So what was Plan C?

Not this church. I believe this was the Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, which is closed for renovation. This did look closed for renovation, so that would be a good guess,

And this is Fontana delle Naiadi.

Fountain of the Naiads. Although it looks baroque, by Roman standards, this is relatively new construction. It was built in the early 20th Century. 

And this is Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri.

It also is closed for renovation.

This church is the part of my Plan C destination that was converted from its pagan history into Catholic church property back in 1702.

Plan C was a tour of the National Roman Museum, which had been converted from the Baths of Diocletian into a museum of ancient funerary objects.

Sounds like a hoot.

The Baths of Diocletian were huge. They were built during his reign, near the end of the 3rd Century A.D. Much of the exterior is in great shape, especially considering the age of the structure. 

Inside is funerary statuary.

These were excavated from various sites around Rome. If had anything to do with the dead, it was moved to this museum.

This is a statue that has been pieced together. It really looks like they weren't trying, now, doesn't it?

That scarf tied around the neck -- if this statue had a neck with a head on top -- gives this ancient Roman boy scout look, doesn't it?

I am beginning to think that they may chop up these statues on purpose. Kind of like saint's relics. One church gets a finger bone. Another a femur. One gets the tibia while the fibula is shipped halfway around the world. Maybe it's like that with ancient statuary. One museum gets the torso. Another gets the left shin. Another gets the head. It's a scam, I tell you, a scam to seed more statuary museums with ancient statue parts.

Getting back on funerary track.

Sarcophagus:

There is a nice garden in what is called the "Michelangelo Cloisters" section of the museum.

The best part of the garden are the seven giant animal heads.

These were excavated from Trajan's Forum, which is not far away, in the vicinity of Trajan's Column. Above are the horse and the donkey. Below are the elephant and rhinoceros.

The bull and the ox.

I learned today that the word "coda" is Italian (and probably Latin) for tail. I learned it when I saw a dish on the menu of where I had supper, the dish being called coda alla vaccinara, which is oxtail stew. I did not order that.

This last head, unpaired because one animal had to be since there were only seven giant animal heads excavated from Trajan's Forum, is the ram.

Here's an artsier shot of the ox. Or is this the bull?

I think it's the ox because it's horns are wider.

And here's another one of those psychedelic psarcophagi.

Apparently they were a thing back in the day.

Here is an interesting segment which depicts gladiator scenes. 

Carved on the stone is the name of the loser.

Not the winner. The loser. In this case, the loser's name was Improbum. The winner's name is lost to history. That's kind of rude, identifying the dead loser and not the victorious gladiator.

Here's a view of the garden from the second floor. Which is the third floor. It's the "second" floor using European floor-naming conventions where the first floor is not the ground floor, but the first floor above the ground floor.

Moving now into the Baths of Diocletian section of the National Roman Museum.

As I said, well-preserved.

I saw this bathtub looking object and I immediately thought:

"Oh this is the bath of Diocletian."

It's probably a sarcophagus. I've mistaken those for bathtubs before.

Walking through the Baths of Diocletian worked me up an appetite. I decided to head over to the other side of the Tiber and eat my last meal in Rome in my favorite restaurant of all the ones at which I've eaten. Which means I get to walk through St. Peter's Square one more time.

Here is a close up of some of the statuary on top of the colonnade.

Dinner was at Angelo. I had the Mozzarellita Angelo for an appetizer.

 

Mozzarella with a sweet olive oil and black pepper. And speaking of cheese and black pepper ...

I had to have my favorite dish that I've eaten in Italy one last time. So, for my pasta course, I had the cacio e pepe. Just peccorino, black pepper, and pasta cooked to a perfect al dente.

For the second course, squid twins. Calamari, cooked to a tender perfection, with just olive oil, herbs, and a squeeze of lemon.

Three courses and I was full. But there always is room for dessert.

I had a ball of white chocolate gelato, which had a ball of coffee gelato inside it. And I had an amaro. For digestion, of course. I chose the Lucano, which I had not had before. Restaurants in Rome seem not to charge for the after-dinner amaro. I'm OK with that.

Time to scurry back to the hotel. This time I am not staying in the Vatican neighborhood. I'm down the airport. The train ride takes about 30 minutes, once you take the metro to Termini station. I have a 6:30 a.m. flight back to the USA. This would be a good night for my 3:00 a.m. travel-insomnia to wake me up. Where next? Between COVID and the possibility of a nuclear World War III, it's best not to plan too far ahead.

Agrigento II: A Museum with Lots of Pottery

They had a 20-foot tall, slimmed down Michelin Man in the local archaeological museum

I remember Google maps telling me that the archaeological museum was only 800m from the exit of the Valley of the Temples. That is only a half a mile. That seemed walkable. Except Google maps forgot to tell me that the walk was straight up a mountainside. And that the rain would really start coming down.

The museum is the Museo Archeologico Regionale Pietro Griffo.

It had a lot of pottery. Rows and rows of pottery. Cases and cases of the stuff. Which makes sense, when you think about it. Organic material, such as cloth, rots away. Pottery survives.

And the museum also had a conehead.

Actually, it is a statue of warrior with a helmet. But, to me, he looked like Beldar The Conehead. Who knew the ancient Greeks of Sicily were such fans of Golden Era Saturday Night Live. (But only after Chevy Chase left) (no one really thinks Chevy Chase is the least but funny).

These lions were drainage gutters on the temples.

Seriously, the temples had gutters carved into them and these lion heads were the drainage spouts. They looked like fountains in the frequent Sicilian rains. (Actually, it's not supposed to rain in Sicily this time of year. That's why I packed for dry weather and temperatures about 20 degrees warmer.)

The museum has lots of small objects from the Valley of the Temples, which would be way too small to maintain down there.

The horse has a wine cup on his back.

Why does he have a satyr underneath? That's something between the horse and the satyr, that's all I'm saying.

This one looks weirdly modern.

I call his piece "Walk Like an Egyptian."

And there were the more traditional type of Greek statuary:

And sarcophagi. 

My first thought when seeing that this labelled a sarcophagus was, "What? They buried their dead in bathtubs?" No disrespect (well, only a little), but that's what it looked like to me.

Abrupt transition because you are going to get no wisecracks from me on this piece. This is a child's sarcophagus. You can tell by the small size and death scene depicted on the side.

On the side is the child being carried away to the underworld in a chariot drawn by a sheep.

Not the standard draft animal you see depicted, but children don't need a big ol' horse or ox, I guess.

This is a much larger sarcophagus:

And this is from a psychedelic sarcophagus.

They died from a bad trip, man. (The embedded link is the song that started playing in my head when I saw that this was a sarcophagus.)

Anyway, I continued to walk straight uphill into the town after my museum visit. I had a little time to look around before catching my train back to Palermo.

And to eat local pastries from a place recommended by (wait for it) Rick Steves. 

The Infurna. The one on the right had the texture of a ladylock, but the filling was more pudding-like. The one on the left was made with pistachio cream.

I could have eaten a whole box -- multiple boxes -- of the pistachio cream cookie one.

And it's time to take the train back to Palermo for my last supper in Sicily.

All the walking around made me in the mood for a pizza. And if you order pizza, you drink beer. I have never had an Italian beer before. I don't believe they import them into the USA. I tried a "Messina," which, judging from the name, was not brewed by a former singing partner of Kenny Loggins, but was from Sicily.

Italians love a touch of bitterness and Messina did have a touch of the bitter, but not in a hoppy way such as an IPA. They threw in the onion bread appetizer gratis.

And for pizza?

The Bomba. Spicy salami, sausage, yellow bell pepper, onion and basil leaves.

I still do not know how Italians eat their pizza. They do not cut pizza into slices. They just serve the whole pie uncut. You slice off segments to eat, but you have to use a knife that is duller than an airplane knife and which cannot cur the salami, the cheese, or even the basil leaves. And when you try to pull off the part you've cut off, all the toppings slide off the dough. Still, despite the eating difficulties: Delicious.

The dessert was what the restaurant called cassetella. It was awesome. Imagine an open-faced cannolo. With the perfect amount of cinnamon.

The restaurant was Quid gusto siciliano. Best restaurant at which I ate in Palermo.

And that concludes the Sicilian part of my trip. I definitely would come back to Sicily, to see more of the island. I know everybody loves to go to Italy, but no one it seems goes to Sicily. For shame! Now it's back to Rome for one more day of tourism.