We landed in Rome around 10:00am local time on Sunday morning. After some time we found our driver who took us to our hotel. He didn’t speak English and we don’t speak Italian but we still enjoyed his attempt to point out the highlights along the way. The Colosseum was easy to spot and recognize. Our hotel room is tiny, with twin beds pushed up next to each other. They aren’t very comfortable either, but it didn’t stop us from falling quickly asleep for an hour nap. It’s a good thing I had previously made reservations to the Borghese Galleries which gave us a reason to not sleep the day away.
The gallery is surrounded by a beautiful park. It is very hot here and the park shade was most welcoming.
The tour began with a history lesson of the Borghese family and quick tour of the gardens in the back of the gallery.
We then entered the gallery and were immediately struck by the magnificence of it all.
Every room has its own theme, and everywhere you look is something beautiful. Every ceiling tells a different story.
Bernini sculptures are magnificent. You have to see these in person to truly appreciate them.
I absolutely loved this sculpture, but our tour guide didn’t provide any information for her. I will have to do some research on my own to learn more.
The tour ended at 5:00, so we decided to walk back in the general direction of our hotel. We wandered the streets having no idea really were we were going. Our first goal was to find some food.
We ate our first Italian meal here. Everyone in the restaurant was American except the waiter, but he spoke perfect English.
After dinner we wandered in the general direction back to our hotel. The streets were surprisingly quiet.
It was Sunday afternoon, and we are Catholic, and we are in Italy so it seemed appropriate to look for a Catholic Church. We passed a couple that were closed, and then found this one that looked not only closed, but possibly abandoned. I curiously approached the front door and found it unlocked.
Inside we found this.
We ended the evening at a trendy bar called the Yellow Bar around the corner from our hotel. We were both exhausted but happy, and ready for a good night sleep.
