following the dream: Borghese excursion

We set off bright and early on our one hour walk to the Borguese gardens and villa. If we add up to an hour on to Google's directions it becomes less stressful and allows us to take in local colour on the way.

We walked passed these cats and looked down and found more proof that Rome is an ancient city.

The origins of these ruins are unknown. They simply are ruins. The cats seem to like them. I remember when I was at the Coliseum when I was sixteen, there were cats lazing amongst the ruins just like this. Too many tourists for a cat to bask in the sun at the Coliseum today.

And then we arrived at the lovely gardens. Tom stopped for a much needed drink after all that walking. The gardens are free so they were full of Romans and tourists out enjoying a sunny Sunday. The only problem for me was that walking down the paths proved extremely dangerous. There were lots of cheap bicycles, tandems and strange moped things for hire. And everyone who hired one seemed to have a license to kill. They seemed to swerve towards me rather than away from me.

Besides the trees and grass there were statues, water fountains and other jolly things to look at while we waited for our three o'clock entrance time to the Borghese villa. The on line ticket buying is the only way to go here. If we'd turned up to buy the tickets today, Sunday, we would have had to wait until Thursday to be able to purchase a ticket.

Anyone can fill their water bottle at any of the plentiful water fountains. One woman actually picked up her small dog and gave him a bath in this one. Thankfully after I'd filled my bottle.

A quick lunch and we were ready to face all that art.

First off was Bernini's Rape of Prosperpia. The size and the beauty of the marble added to the talent of the artist are breathtaking.

I am having a love affair with Bernini but another artist I really like was Caravaggio who lived briefly from 1592 to 1610. He was a bit of a rock star of his time. He quickly gained fame and fortune from his painting and started to behave badly. He vandalised his own apartment, was jailed several times and finally the Pope sentenced him to death for supposedly killing a man. He fled from Rome but died mysteriously of a fever. Sadly, the Pope was about to give him a pardon. The picture below is of a young Bacchus. It is said that the face is Caravaggio's face.

These little lovelies are frolicking in the water in this Correggio painting of Zeus having his way way with an unsuspecting damsel.

And here's some more Bernini. This time it's Apollo and Daphne. He is about to capture her and have his wicked way but she escapes by turning into a tree.

Look at the wonderful detail of her toes turning into roots. The dude below is Cardinal Borghese who owned all these wonderful art works and lived in this villa. He commissioned Bernini to make this marble bust of him. Bernini finished the bust and then discovered that there was a flaw in the marble and had to start all over again. It took him four days to carve a new bust. Borghese might have collected all this wonderful stuff but he was a bit of a monster. If he saw a painting or a sculpture he wanted and the owner didn't want to part with it, he would just throw him in gaol. The only way out was to sell the art work to Borghese.

The detail is just fabulous.

Here is another Caravaggio. It is David holding the head of Goliath. David doesn't look triumphant, he looks pensive and a bit sad. People have said that David's face is that of a young Caravaggio and the head of Goliath is Caravaggio's older more dissipated head.

I love this little marble boy removing a thorn from his foot.

Wonderful detail.

What gallery would be complete without a Da Vinci? Here is Leda with the swan. Why do most of Da Vinci's women all have the same face as the Mona Lisa?