We decided to split up in the morning of the final day. I really wanted to go see the Giotto show in the museum at the Victor Emanuel monument and then go back for a second visit to the Fra Angelico show. Louise had promised she’d take the kids to the Coliseum.
I was so eager to see the Giotto that I got there at 9, only to find that it didn’t open until 9:30. So I walked up the hill to the Capitoline Museum and did the Fra Angelico show first. On Sunday I had only been able to spend about 15 minutes, now I had as much time as I wanted. There was a great audioguide – commentary for more than half of the pictures – and very few people, so I wallowed. The pictures are so gorgeous, and it made up for missing the Fra Angelicos at San Marco in Florence There is a certain sweetness to Fra Angelico that make looking at them the visual equivalent of listening to the most beautiful, pure church music you’ve ever heard.
Treated myself to a fresh-squeezed orange juice, cappuccino and chocolate croissant at the rooftop café at the museum, which overlooks half of Rome, all the way to St. Peters, then went down the hill to the Giotto show.
The problem with a Giotto show is that he did his most important work in fresco, on the walls of churches such as St. Francis in Assisi, the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua and Santa Croce in Florence. So although the show had over 120 objects, fewer than 20 were by Giotto. The rest were by his contemporaries; artists who had influenced him, artists he’d influenced, and artists working at the same time.
But the organizers had gone all out to put him into context. There were several rooms before the show even started talking about Giotto’s life and times, and even a lush 15-minute film with Giotto and the extras standing about in piazzas in authentic 13th century garb. The audioguide was weird. The woman had a mellifluous, vaguely Scottish accent, but she started each entry with a long reading of the label – “Giotto, “The Deposition. Tempera and gold on panel. 15 cm by 10 cm. The collection of the Uffizi, Florence.” I did my best but it was one of those shows that feels like they’re going to give you a graduate degree for finishing it, and I just didn’t have the energy.
I had been in touch with Louise by phone and the crew as they went to San Clemente (a 17th century church built on a 13th century church built on a 6th century church built on a 1st century roman house (or something like that) and then on to the Coliseum, where they hooked up with a tour in English. I had enough time to zip back up the hill to the Palazzo dei Conservatori using my ticket from earlier in the day to walk through the sculpture collection. It was a beautiful day, the windows of the gallery were open and the sun was shining in. I got a second wind.
Met Louise and kids back down by the Victor Emanuel monument and Louise treated us to a wonderful lunch at an outdoor restaurant overlooking the Forum of Trajan. She had decided to make this, our last meal out in Rome, special, and she succeeded. She and I shared a delicious vegetable antipasto, I had veal, she had spaghetti with calms and mussels, Annie had a Caprese salad and Daniel had a lamb dish he called the most delicious thing he had ever eaten. We took our time and enjoyed the view, the food and the company.
After lunch we took in Trajan’s Column and wandered back to the Pantheon, a week after we had first seen it. Louise felt that now we’d seen all the Roman ruins, we’d have a different appreciation of the Panetheon, and we did – whether it was having seen everything else, or just not being quite so jet-lagged, but we enjoyed our second viewing very much. Then back to what we’re now thinking of as The Best Gelato in Italy – I had mixed berries and lemon, Annie had chocolate, Daniel had a mint milkshake and Louise had capuccino, if memory serves.
Enjoying another beautiful day, we zigzagged over to the Trevi Fountain, which is even bigger and more impressive in person than in memory or in pictures. We took pictures, threw coins in the fountain, and talked about if, how and when we would return to Italy. Harold is thinking of coming back in November, either to Tuscany or Naples, Louise is dreaming of finding a way to do an extended stay one day and brush up on her Italian, Daniel is thinking it may be a while for him (despite our constant ribbing about his coming back with his girlfriend and having a very different experience in the same places we’ve all visited together) and Annie, as usual, is up for a return trip at any time, the sooner the better.
We then walked over to the subway (Barberini stop, which always prompts a chorus of “Bar Bar Bar Bar Bar - berini”). Louise, Annie and Harold decided to make our last tourist stop of the trip the church of San Giovanni in Laterano (of Lateran Council fame), while Daniel chose to go on to the apartment by himself. We all smiled and waved to him as he pulled out after we got off one stop earlier than him … a 13-year old who has really shown his independence and maturity on this trip.
The church was magnificent. It’s got a tremendously long history, but it’s basically the model for all nave-and-aisle churches in Christendom. The current church dates make in most of its visible architecture to the 18th century, but the original building has been to the site since before the year 500. It’s called the Mother of all Churches and was the home church of the Pope until the past century. It had a particularly beautiful and peaceful cloister, where we enjoyed the end of a beautiful afternoon and admired a gorgeous rose bush in the center.
Harold went on home to find recipes for dinner while Louise and Annie did a little last-minute shopping. With everyone’s agreement (no friction tonight!) we decided on a starter of mozzarella and tomatoes (the mozzarella in Rome has been a big crowd-pleaser) followed by linguine with lemon, garlic and shrimp. Peace reigned as Daniel Annie and Louise shelled the shrimp and Harold chopped the garlic and prepared the lemon, we treated ourselves to dinner in the dining room and then sat up talking, joking, reviewing, planning and looking at the day’s pictures until we realized we needed to be out of the apartment at 7:15 in the morning and we had a lot of packing and cleaning to do beforehand.
No comments:
Post a Comment