An Unexpected Visitor!

When I returned from my trip to Naples and Pompeii, I had a wonderful surprise: One of my high school friends who is studying wine in London made a surprise visit to Rome.  I met up with her in the evening for appertivi and dinner.  She was staying right by the Pantheon in lovely little hotel.  We walked to Trastevere and started the evening with wine and appetizers.  We got bruschetta, a typical Italian appetizer (which we have in the U.S., but most people mispronounce it--it’s brus-quetta, not bru-shetta).  We tried three types--black truffle, goat cheese and honey, and spicy tomato sauce.  Because my friend is studying wine, I let her choose our drinks.  She picked a Ribolla Gialla.  I had never heard of this type of white, but the grape is a white Italian grape grown in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Northeast Italy.  Apparently the wine only keeps well for about one year, and so it is less likely to find it as an import in the U.S.  It was delicious and very light.  Next we headed off to a tiny nameless trattoria, also in Trastevere.  Here, we shared a huge dinner: mozzarella and prosciutto, artichoke, spinach ravioli with butter and sage for me, pasta carbonara for her, chianti classico, and panna cotta with caramel for dessert.  I haven’t been quite so full in a very long time, but it was a delicious dinner and we ate it over the course of about three hours (after about two hours at the wine bar).  When we have had group dinners on our excursions, we’ve often eaten over the span of several hours.  I have come to really enjoy these long, relaxed multiple course meals.  It gives me the opportunity to really savor the food and allows for good conversation.  Following dinner, we walked back across the river into downtown.  As we came to my friend’s hotel, we saw that Santa Chiara, the church across the street from her hotel, was open and there was a candlelight service going on (it was about 11:30pm at this point).  We were sort of peeking in out of curiosity when a priest came over and invited us to come in.  He said that the church is the French seminary in town and that it is only open once a week.  They were just finishing up Adoration, and we were welcome to come in.  We stood at the back and watched and listened to the tail end of the service.  There was gorgeous singing, and the darkness of the night coupled with the candles created a very spiritual atmosphere.  After dropping my friend at her hotel, I headed back past the Pantheon and up Via del Corso (one of the main shopping streets in downtown) to get back to the Metro.  As I walked past the Pantheon, one of my favorite buildings in Rome, I realized that it was still open even though it was nearly midnight.  I went in and wandered around the circular structure yet again, except this time when I looked up through the circular opening in the roof, all I saw was darkness.  The inside of the Pantheon was clearly set up for a service, with lots of folding chairs and roses spread over the altar.  I realized that the next day was Pentecost when there would be a special mass and rose petals would be dropped through the hole in the roof of the Pantheon.  I also remembered that our professor had sent us an email explaining the “Night of the Museums” during which museums throughout Rome are open all night.   This explained why the Pantheon was open so late, and the streets were absolutely jam-packed with people.  On my way to the Metro, I also saw a free concert in the lobby area of a beautiful old building which houses a shopping mall and a museum.  The whole evening reminded that spontaneity is one of the reasons that I love traveling.  Stumbling across new experiences is part of the adventure.  Sometimes those experiences are wonderful, and sometimes they are strange, but they almost always teach me something new.  This whole wonderful evening was one of spontaneity--I didn’t know my friend was coming to Rome, we didn’t know where we would end up having dinner, we didn’t know we would get to see (however briefly) a beautiful nighttime church service, and I didn’t know that I would get to enter the Pantheon at night.  I tend to be someone who likes to have each minute of my day carefully planned.  I like schedules and lists.  Traveling forces me to let go of this need for control and to let the experiences wash over, to happen as they will without trying mold them or shape them too carefully.

The next day I finally got to visit the Galleria Borghese, the villa-turned-gallery which houses an impressive collection of both Carvaggio and Bernini.  To get into the museum, you must reserve a ticket well ahead of time (we bought ours at least ten days ago), and you are only allowed to stay in the collection for two hours.  Luckily, despite being very high profile, the museum was a size that was manageable in a two hour period.  The first floor housed the Carvaggio room and Bernini’s largest sculptures.  My favorite Bernini was his “David,” a depiction of David preparing to throw a stone. The facial expression that he was able to capture in stone amazes me.  I also liked a much smaller Bernini sculpture depicting King Louis XIV on horseback.  This terracotta sculpture was actually a model done by Bernini before the full-size statue was created by his pupils for the Versailles gardens (but not appreciated by Girardon and so later transformed into Marcus Curtius instead--http://www.wga.hu/html_m/b/bernini/gianlore/sculptur/1660/louis14.html)  Additionally, I had never really thought of Bernini as a painter, but there the gallery had several wonderful self-portraits of his.  My favorite Carvaggio that I’ve seen so far is one that is housed in a church on the Piazza del Popolo called the “Conversion of Saul.”  I found my favorite pieces in the museum on the second floor.  One was called “In an Antique Dealer’s Gallery,” and it depicted an art dealer’s showroom, complete with tiny paintings within a painting.  Second, there were two pieces depicting Orpheus surrounded by animals.  One was a painting and the other was a mosaic, with the tiniest colored stones you could imagine.  As an animal-lover, I was quite taken with these pieces.  Finally, there were two naval scenes, one depicting a naval battle, the other, a seaport.  I have always felt more alive near the water, and I love art that shows naval scenes.  We were not allowed to take pictures, but I have found some images on the internet and have included them below.  Following my visit to the museum, I walked around the Villa Borghese park, finally planting myself at a cafe overlooking the lake.  I stayed to do reading for several hours over lunch and coffee.  Overall, it was a wonderful and busy weekend.                     

An Antique Dealer's Gallery by Frans the Younger Francken (http://ipaintingsforsale.com/Uploadpic/Frans%20the%20younger%20Francken/big/An%20Antique%20Dealer's%20Gallery.jpg) 

Bernini's David
(http://www.wga.hu/art/b/bernini/gianlore/sculptur/1620/david.jpg) 

Bernini's Louis XIV(http://www.wga.hu/html_m/b/bernini/gianlore/sculptur/1660/louis14.html)

The full-size statue--I am not certain about where it now resides
(http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1416/4726069948_a228895f8e_z.jpg)

One of Bernini's Self-Portraits  
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d5/Gian_Lorenzo_Bernini,_self-portrait,_c1623.jpg/220px-Gian_Lorenzo_Bernini,_self-portrait,_c1623.jpg)

Carvaggio's Conversion of Saul
(http://www.brutallyhonest.org/.a/6a00d834516bb169e20167614d8a7f970b-800wi)

Orpheus and the Beasts by Sebastain Vrancx
(http://www.friendsofart.net/static/images/art1/sebastian-vrancx-orpheus-and-the-beasts.jpg)

Orpheus Mosaic by Marcello Provenzale
(http://s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/OrpheusMosaic.jpg)