Italy - Day 16 - Rome

I've got my feet up on a balcony overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea, with a Cuban cigar and a glass of Drambuie, the lights of Amalfi on my left and my gorgeous wife on my right, so forgive me if I'm not entirely focussed on blogging tonight.  The Amalfi coast is everything we wanted it to be.  But there are still adventures from the Eternal City to cover so I will try to get through those before fading into a relaxed schedule of massage, Mediterranean dips and mojitos.

Having covered all of the great attractions in Rome, we had another couple of days to spare to pick up the leftovers.  First of all we booked some tickets to the Galleria Borghese, which, like most Roman attractions, is closed on Mondays.  We got tickets for the first showing on Tuesday morning, meaning we had a slot between 9 and 11 am.  With two days to burn until then we decided to spend our Sunday fairly close to home, which meant the area in and around the main train terminal.  I think if we were coming back to Rome that would be the one thing we would change.  We would probably spend a little more and get a hotel in another neighbourhood.  It may mean spending more money, but it would probably be worth it.  We would also look for a hotel with a restaurant because after a full day of wandering about the city it would really be nice to just shower and go downstairs for dinner instead of going back out again looking for food.

We decided to start our day at the Baths of Diocletian, a large museum complex just across the street from the Terminal.  It housed a great collection of old Roman antiquities from the old Republic through the grand days of Empire.  All the displays were well explained in English, a luxury not seen in other museums.  We actually liked this museum more than we thought we would and would probably recommend it as a stop for all those interested in Roman history.  The actual Baths themselves are quite impressive in size.  Originally they were designed to hold 3,000 people.

Our next stop was just across the street at the accompanying Palazzo Massimo.  Besides a forgettable temporary exhibit showing the Queen of Denmark's handicrafts there was some fantastic sculpture and a cool exhibit of wreckage recovered from floating palaces Caligula had built on a nearby lake.  We took our time going through both sides of the museum and quite enjoyed the exposure to so much Roman art and history.

Our last trip of the day was to a nearby church to take in yet another Bernini, this one of the Ecstasy of St. Theresa.  It was, as you can see, absolutely stunning.  The man was a master of his art.

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