Tally ho...: A bit late...

But better late than never! Blogging is admittedly not my forte but I'll give it a go anyway. I'm willing to give myself almost a whole day's grace since we were so tired yesterday and having trouble adjusting to Italy time.

Okay, so today was day one and we (somewhat surprisingly) woke up at a more-or-less reasonable hour. Our host, Alessandro, was gracious enough to leave us some breakfast stuff, so we rolled out of bed and ate and more or less set the apartment in order.

Sorry for the potato quality photos, it was late (I actually shot these the night we got in) and I'd forgotten to set the camera up right. You get the general idea.

Anywho.

After breakfasting on toast biscuits and jam, milk and apples (thanks Alessandro!) we decided to walk up to the Borghese gallery from our apartment.

And now a note about the Pigna neighborhood of Rome.

You remember the video game "Zork" where you're in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike? And if you take a wrong turn you're likely to be eaten by a grue?

Pigna is like that. Except replace "maze of twisty little passages, all alike" with "maze of twisty little cobblestoned streets, all alike" and replace "eaten by a grue" with "offered a selfie stick by a street vendor."

Above is an idealized representation of our route, including our semi-intended detour to the Trevi fountain. The real route was somewhat close to this one but probably looked more like those maps from "Family Circus" of Billy making his way somewhere (seriously, how did that kid ever survive childhood?).

On the whole it wasn't too hard to find but having just landed the previous day, laboring up the hill in the mid-July heat, and sniping at each other due to low blood sugar it felt like quite the expedition.

Borghese gardens

The Borghese Gallery

Pictures do the inside of the gallery no justice but following are a random sample. The Borghese family enjoyed opulence, everything simply looks RICH. Some of the rooms are a rather amusing mishmosh of styles and periods.

Statue of a Roman guy taking a selfie.

Pigeon-headed statue, holding a pigeon.

Bust of Caesar

Apollo and Daphne, by Bernini. Probably the most famous sculpture at the Borghese gallery. The statue is the moment that Daphne turns into a tree. FromWikipedia:

Her father, the river god Peneus, demanded that she get married so that she may give him grandchildren. However, she begged her father to let her remain unmarried.

Apollo continually followed her, begging her to stay, but the nymph continued her flight. They were evenly matched in the race until Eros intervened and helped Apollo gain upon Daphne.

Seeing that Apollo was bound to catch her, she called upon her father, "Help me, Peneus! Open the earth to enclose me, or change my form, which has brought me into this danger! Let me be free of this man from this moment forward!"

Peneus frightfully answering her plea cast upon her an enchantment of great power, her skin turned into bark, her hair became leaves, and her arms were transformed into branches. She stopped running as her feet became rooted to the ground. Apollo embraced the branches, but even the branches shrank away from him.

NO MEANS NO, APOLLO.

Bernini's genius is apparent here. The subtle and delicate leaves and stems are superb. The stalks of the maiden's toes are narrower in width than a pencil, and Apollo's robes flow so naturally you can almost hear them rustle.