Mar 22, 20231 min read

Two More Days in Rome

Well, we had to have ONE grizzly day of weather, and of course it came on the day when we were going to be outside pretty well all of the time.

We began at Trajan's column, commissioned by Hadrian, his successor, in the 2nd century AD and commemorating his campaigns in Dacia (modern day Romania)...actually, a massively impressive object, 20 drums of carved Carrara marble, each weighing 32 tons.

Then a stroll along the Via Fort Imperiali, a Mussolini project linking his house in Piazza Venezia to the Flavian Amphitheatre (aka Colosseum). On the way we dropped into the 6th century church of Casmas and Damian and admired the extraordinary mosaics, and actually, in the lower part of the church, which is on the Forum side, a lovely collection of ancient objects and some very early frescoes...

On, up to the Palatine with a commanding view of the Circus Maximus and then into the Amphitheatre, a stunning example of 1st century engineering.

We finished our day at the Keats/Shelley museum, with Gregory Dowling, who came especially down from Venice to read us the letters and tragic descriptions of our beloved John Keats.

The next day, the first day of Spring, and the sun came out for our visit to the Borghese gallery, which was fantastic. We finished our day at Santa Maria della Vittoria admiring Bernini's Ecstasy of Santa Teresa.

finally, for my son Jack's birthday, I took his brother, Otto out for a splendid meal at Armando al Pantheon!