Wednesday 14 May: Augustus and angels

Gary and I got up and got ready, had breakfast at home, and I made sandwiches for a picnic. Then we headed across the river into town for Gary’s first full day in Rome. He wanted to see the Ara Pacis, and I am always prepared to go back there to overdose on Augustan iconography, so we caught bus 23 to the Piramide stop, took Metro B to Termini Station, switched to Metro A, got off at Flaminio, and strolled through Piazza del Popolo. We then walked down to the Ara Pacis. On the way we stopped and ate our picnic lunch in a little piazza just north of the Ara Pacis. Gary loved the new museum, which had been still under construction the last time we were in Rome. We are wondering was will happen to it. Rome just elected a new mayor in April, and he hates it (the museum, not the Ara Pacis itself). He had said that if he was elected he would tear it down. We’ll have to see if he carries out his threat! Besides the altar, the museum has exhibition space for temporary exhibits. The current one is an interesting, multi-room work with installations by Mimmo Paladino and ambient music by Brian Eno.

Gary then thought we should take a look in St. Peter’s. You know that I am always ready for Bernini, so I agreed and we walked across the river to the Vatican. Well; the line just for security at the basilica was about three hours long, so we decided to go in another time. The were setting up a big sound stage and thousands of seats in Piazza San Pietro, so they must be preparing for some big Pope event. Gary had a good idea: why don’t we go someplace we hadn’t been to before, Castel Sant’Angelo? We had been past it many times, but never inside. There was almost no line, so we got our tickets and headed in. Only after we got inside did I realize that there is no public elevator, and you have to walk all the way up to the top to get to the museum inside, usually up steep, uneven, and poorly-lit ramps. I got my exercise for the day! Castel Sant’Angelo is definitely worth going to, though. It was originally built as the tomb of the Roman emperor Hadrian, and was one of the great monuments of ancient Rome. After the fall of the Empire, it was robbed of its marble, but the concrete and brick core of the structure remained, and it was renovated as a fortress. Several Popes have taken refuge there during wars and civil strife. Inside are dungeons, beautifully frescoed apartments, and collections of art and of weaponry. There’s a nice caffè at the top with spectacular views of the city. We also got some more angel pics to add to the set for Sandy on Flickr.

It was getting toward dinner time, so we caught a bus back to Trastevere, cleaned up for dinner, and headed toward one of my favorite restaurants just around the corner for dinner, the home of the ginormous t-bone steaks. The staff are buddies of mine, and every time I walk past the place (which is daily, since I live about thirty seconds away) they ask me when I would be in for another steak. Well, how often can you actually eat a two-and-a-half pound steak? This was a special occasion, though: Gary’s first full day in Rome. He wisely had a filet (still pretty big), and we had salad and antipasto, and of course I had a bloody t-bone. We even had dessert: I ordered some chocolate thing that was really good, and Gary had a strawberry torte with tiny, fresh alpine berries. Pics of the day’s adventures (and food) are on Flickr.