Italy 2007 Day 9 Villa Borghese

We seem to do things in order and the second full day in Rome, we always go to the Borghese Museum.

This shot is the garden as we walk to the museum.

This is one of my favorite museums. It is particularly Roman- Caravaggio, Bernini and some really nice Roman antique sculpture. It is hard to beat. Of course you have to have a reservation and you get 2 hours to take it all in. The cappuccino is really good in the snack bar in the basement.

Italy 2007 Day 8 The Grandeur of Rome

I think that anyone can enjoy the interior of St. Peter and these Art Army shots come on every trip. I don't know when I will be able to go without a camera. I probably could now.

It is unchanging for the most part. Faces of students and travelers change, but Bernini and the artwork hasn't changed since it was put in place. What it tells me is how much the Roman Catholic Church was influenced by the culture of ancient Rome. The inlaid marble, the mosaics, the gold, the grandeur, is all from Imperial Rome. I still think the Hagia Sophia is a more impressive Christian church, especially since it was put up almost one thousand years earlier. But now it is museum and St. Peter's lives on....

New Recruits in the Art Army

Everyone has to start somewhere.

Recently we had some students over to start the recruiting for the art army. Some of the participants are already members, a couple had gone with me to Italy in 2007 and a couple to Paris and London and New York in 2008.

Of course there were also some that haven't been anywhere with me. They were the new recruits, or honorary members. The idea was that they were going to create art and develop a higher sense of aesthetics. In this case the art is edible. Though you wouldn't know it to see some of these cookies.

I heard from one of the original Art Army forefathers today. Cousin Pete called from St. Hyppolyte du Fort. He sent me a dvd of his own recent adventures in Genoa and Pilsen.

It could all start with cookie decoration.......

Italy 2007- Day 8 Vatican Collection

It is always a challenge to tour with 30-35 travelers. Here we are in the Roman sculpture museum at the Vatican. I have my microphone and normally it makes a huge difference. I only say that because in theory the students are listening to me talk about Phillipus the Arab and the late Roman Empire. The collection is vast and very hard to see just because there is so much. I have always speculated that if a handful of these sculptures could come to Mankato, they would make a bigger difference to the lives of the students just because there would be nothing else to compare. They would not get lost in the crowd.

Besides the crowds here, you fight hunger, fatigue, and cultural overload. We had already seen, the Sistine Chapel, Raphael's frescos and the Painting museum. We still had many more things to see.

Italy 2007 Day 8 St. Peter's

Later in the afternoon on this day we were to meet at the center of what is called St. Peter's Square.(funny it is called square...)
You can't possibly resist the grandeur of St. Peter's piazza. You don't have to be Catholic to "feel the power". We had the options of visiting the interior, the crypt, the dome, Michelangelo's pieta and now we are meeting again. What we are going to do next is take the bus to the Doria Pamphili Museum to see the portrait of Pope Innocent X by Diego Velasquez. The bus driver was pretty cool about it because there was no place for him to park. He dropped us off and picked us up at a random curve around the corner. It was a big day, but we saw, what we needed to see.