I have to say that it is VERY HOT here at the moment - the daily temperatures have been heading into the 90s with very high humidity. The mornings are cool and in the 70s but the temp goes up very quickly. I have not been doing a lot of roaming around so this will probably one of the shorter blogs I will publish - don't thank me.
My Expats in Rome Group has been going very well. Every Tuesday we have an hour of language lessons and then Happy Hour! Someday I have to talk them into letting us drink during the lessons. A friend from the group, Rob, recently left Rome to go back to his home in Dubai. So we had a little going away party for him...he will be missed. Here are a few photos of that get-together...
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| A Toast to Rob - See ya soon! |
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| Just hanging out... |
Our latest visitors are Tom's college roommate Stephen and his partner George. They have been staying with us for about a week, they left for Tuscany, and we will be joining them there this weekend.
It was wonderful having more people here with us and we have been having a great time.
We got lucky and Monday was a holiday so Tom had off of work. The holiday was Ferragosto. In modern times it is celebrated as the accession day of Mary to heaven. In olden days and it's original meaning was a celebration of pagan rights. It was started as a holiday (ferie) by Caesar Augusto (agosto)...'ferie'+'agosto'...therefore...Ferragosto. No matter it's origin, it was just wonderful to have Tom home for an extra day!
We hit many of the normal places... The Colosseo, the Fontaine di Trevi, the Pantheone but we also went to the Galleria Borghese - a beautiful museum right across the street from the house.
The Galleria Borghese houses a substantial part of the Borghese collection of paintings, sculpture and antiquities, begun by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, the nephew of Pope Paul V (reign 1605–1621). The Villa was built by the architect Flaminio Ponzio, developing sketches by Scipione Borghese himself, who used it as a villa suburbana, a party villa at the edge of Rome.
Many artists from Bernini, Canova, Caravaggio, and Raffaello are represented in this amazingly beautiful suburban villa! Here are a few photos from inside the Galleria (note - no pictures are allowed):
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| Ceiling paintings from... |
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| The Room of Hercules or... |
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| More ceiling art... |
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| ...and more... |
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| Stephen and Tom at the Galleria... |
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| Canova's Pauline Bonaparte |
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| Stephen, George & Tom in the Garden |
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| Bernini's David |
This was my second time at the Galleria Borghese and it still amazes me the amount of art and beautiful in a single small space. I also enjoyed that the gardens were open this time...just breath taking:
A view of the garden from a second floor window.
Well I know there will be more from Stephen and George's trip in the next blog.
I am not sure exactly when I will post next...some exiting stuff is coming up. I am flying back to the states to get Mom & Dad for their trip to Rome!
For now I am going to sign off...
I would like to end this blog with a note to James & Greg - We finally saw one!
Enjoy!
Love to all! Ron & Tom
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