Rome, Italy

 The cruise ship docks about an hour away from Rome, so we had a day on our own, and took the local train into Rome.  We have been to Rome several times, so have already seen most of the major sights, but we have been wanting to visit the Borghese Art Museum for a long time. We were able to get tickets several months ago, so went on our own.

The Borghese Villa is in the middle of the large Borghese Gardens. It was owned by the wealthy Cardinal Borghese in the 1600's. He was a favored nephew of the Pope, and was passionate about art and sculpture. He built the villa solely to showcase his collection of masterpieces, so it was never a home that anyone lived in. The building itself is a masterpiece of  frescoes, carvings and floor mosaics.

The exterior of the museum.
The garden surrounding the museum.

An example of the ceiling decoration found throughout the museum. Often, the ceiling decoration illustrated the theme of the statues in the room.

This is a sculpture of David getting ready to slay Goliath, by Lorenzo Bernini. Bernini was known for his ability to freeze his characters in motion, and this is the only scuplture of David depicted during the act of  slinging the rock.

The face of David was said to have been a self portrait of the young sculptor Bernini.








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