• Late hotel breakfast. We were going today to the Galleria Borghese at 11 AM. As it’s located in Villa Borghese park, very close to our hotel, we decided to have breakfast as late as possible and then go straight to the gallery. It was Sunday and breakfast was very good.
  • Galleria Borghese has mandatory reservations. We did that from home, online; the tickets were €11.50, which included €2 reservation fee. They don’t allow to make photos or videos and if you have a camera with you, you have to leave it at the check desk. In fact, you have to check everything that you carry with you – even a funny pack, purse or umbrella! They allow people to the gallery every two hours; 360 people at time. Our entry time was 11:00 AM. This is an incredible museum/gallery – looking so small and innocent from the outside, but inside it offers one of the world’s finest collection of art. Imagine the sculptures  by Bernini (“David”, “Apollo and Daphne”, “Rape of Persephone”) and Canova (“Pauline Bonaparte”) or the paintings by Raphael (“Deposition”, “Portrait of a Man”), Caravaggio (famous “Boy with a Basket of Fruit”), Rubens (“Deposition”, “Susanna Bathing”) and Titian (“Sacred and Profane Love”) and many other Baroque and Renaissance masterpieces.
    Galleria Borghese, Rome

    Galleria Borghese, Rome

  • We used about one hour and 45 minutes to see the glorious art. Then we visited the elegant WC (well…) and the Galleria Borghese’s bookshop. They had there a lot of beautiful books, guides and souvenirs, all reasonably priced, so we got a few of them to enjoy in the future. Finally, we picked-up our stuff that we checked before and exited the gallery at 12:55 PM.
  • Note: As the Gallery is among the absolutely top-class, it’s very hard to get the tickets. While validating our vouchers, we saw dozens of people who came without a reservation and were told they didn’t have a chance to get in because they allow only 360 people enter the gallery every two hours. There is actually a chance, although very, very slim that you’ll get a ticket even though you don’t have a reservation. That rare occasions  may happen when you wait until the entry hour (9:00 AM, 11:00 AM, 1:00 PM, 3:00 PM and 5:00 PM) when they might sell unclaimed tickets. But it’s almost impossible before the noon.
  • Walked a bit - Piazza Enrico Sienkiewicz (1:12 PM) – Via Puccini – Corso d’ Italia – to the bus stop at Via Salaria/Via Aniene.
  • Bus to Termini station
  • At the station – lunch at the Cremonini/Chef Express (1:36 PM)
  • Bought a Rome map and a notebook at Soc. Libreria bookstore (2:04 PM). By the way, we bought the best map available there, although we were not happy with it – they put too many unnecessary pictures depicting the buildings, which takes the space that could be better used to show all streets, squares and their names. It is frustrating to the tourists and visitors, because for some unknown reasons the street signs and directions are very sparse in Italy. [Tip: Buy the best map you can afford at home... E.g., after the trip we spotted an excellent map at the BCAA office for something like C$15 - too late!]
  • Metro from Termini to Piazza di Spagna.
  • Spanish Steps – Keats-Shelley Museum – Fontana della Barcaccia – “Fountain of the Old Boat” aka “Fountain of the Old Boat” by Pietro Bernini and his son Gian Lorenzo Bernini (2:35 PM) – Piazza di Spagna is a very crowded place, extremely popular among the tourists – like the Trevi Fountain; it seems every visitor to Rome has to had a rest at the Spanish Steps.

    Spanish Steps, Rome

    Spanish Steps, Rome

  • Trinita dei Monti Church (3:00 PM) – a majestic church on the top of the Spanish Steps.
  • Walked along Viale Trinita dei Monti to Villa Medici ( 3:10 PM)
  • Saw the Villa’s exhibitions and the beautiful garden with the fantastic views of the city; tickets: €8 pp.
  • Walked to Piazza del Popolo [Viale Adamo Mickiewicz (4:01 PM)] – Pincio Hill (Piazza del Popolo on its base) – 4:07 PM. Another great place to take the pictures of the city from the above.
  • Walked downstairs to Piazza del Popolo (4:20 PM). Ramzes II obelisk (4:25 PM)
  • Santa Maria del Popolo Church/Chigi Chapel with great art: canvases of Caravaggio (“Crucifixion of St. Peter” and “Conversion on the Way to Damascus”) and an “Assumption of the Virgin” by Annibale Carracci, frescoes by Pinturicchio, sculptures by Andrea Bregno and Gian Lorenzo Bernini (“Habakkuk” and the “Angel and Daniel and the Lion”). The Chigi Chapel’s dome is decorated with Raphael’s mosaics “Creation of the World”.
  • “Twin” churches of Santa Maria della Miracoli and Santa Maria del Montesanto.
  • Walked down Via del Corso; found an interesting idea not popular in our part of the world – bikesharing (bicycles available for rent). In Rome it’s called “ATAC Bikesharing”. They offer free iPhone application – iBike Rome to find in real time the bikes available in the nearest bike parking
  • Detour via Via Ara Pacis by the Mausoleo di Augusto to the new building of Ara Pacis (5:20 PM). Back to Via del Corso.
  • Piazza del Parlamento – known as the “political heart of Rome”. Palazzo di Montecitorio – seat of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, which is the lower house of the Parliament of Italy. (5:45 PM)

    • Marcus Aurelius column, Rome

    Marcus Aurelius column, Rome

  • Palazzo Chigi – at Piazza Colonna – with the marble Column of Marcus Aurelius (6:00 PM).
  • Piazza di Pietra with the Temple of Hadrian – its north wall survived, with 11 of the 15-metre high Corinthian columns from the external colonnade. Somewhat mysterious holes can be seen on those columns. According to Rick Steves, they are “the holes that hungry medieval scavengers chipped into the columns to steal the metal pins that held the slabs together” (“Italy 2009″ book). This theory is confirmed on the myromeapartment.com website – “…holes like this indicate where there used to be pieces of lead or iron fixed INSIDE the blocks, acting as clamps, and keeping the column drums from slipping and sliding around. (But) the barbarians knew about this building technique, and they went around tapping on the marble, trying to find where the lead might be, and when they found it, they dug right in and took it out, not caring that they were compromising the building’s structural integrity in the process”. (6:05 PM).
  • Piazza della Rotonda – Pantheon. Unfortunately, it was 6:20 PM and it was closed already – we will have to come back. Unable to see the Pantheon from the inside, we decided to visit two other popular spots – Piazza Navona and Campo de’ Fiori.
  • But first we visited Piazza di San Luigi dei Francesi – with the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi – featuring the cycle of paintings in the Contarelli Chapel, painted by the Baroque master Caravaggio about the life of St. Matthew: “The Calling of St Matthew”, “The Inspiration of Saint Matthew” and “The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew”. Domenichino painted here one of his masterworks – the frescoes portraying the Histories of Saint Cecilia. Adjacent to the church is the late-Baroque San Luigi dei Francesi Palace with the gallery of portraits of the French kings.
  • From there we were passing by the Palazzo Madama – the home of the Italian Senate, located between Via della Dogana Vecchia and Corso del Rinascimento (6:50 PM).
  • Piazza Navona, Rome

    Piazza Navona, Rome

    It was almost 7 PM when we reached Piazza Navona – a very crowded square with great monuments, restaurants, artists selling their art, actors performing, etc. Beautiful Church of Sant’Agnese in Agone, with Bernini‘s famous Fountain of the Four Rivers in front of the church. Also in the Piazza: two more fountains – Fontana del Moro and the Fountain of Neptune, the Pamphilj Palace which features the gallery frescoed by Pietro da Cortona, the ancient ‘speaking’ statue of Pasquino and Palazzo Braschi.

  • It was just a nice, few-minute walk from Piazza Navona to Campo de’ Fiori. Monument of the philosopher Giordano Bruno who was burnt alive there in 1600 by the Roman Inquisition is in the middle of the square. The piazza is used as a fruit and vegetable marketplace during the day; in the evening it becomes a popular place to go to a bar or a restaurant (7:55 PM).
  • Bus back to Termini. Shopping for supper downstairs at Conad (8:55 PM).
  • Bus to the hotel – from Termini to Piazza Fiume.
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