A walk-about Rome!

Monday we took up off up to Tempietto to finally see what Bramante has done up there but once agian it was closed. So after a Falafel at the best place in town, Planet Kebab, we headed to the Imperial Forum. Im working on an engenius plan to combine a Falafel and a Kabab together and have them make me a Kalafel... its brilliant. Best of both worlds. By the time i come back, it will be the biggest rage. Anne, Laura and Brittney sketched Trajan's Forum while i headed to Apostle Paul's cell in the Mamertine Prison. But with our Monday luck of rain and everything else being closed, it was closed for renovations. I was so close to my dream of sitting in the place of Paul's last days. But outside was close enough I guess.

By now the clouds liquified and i found the girls hudled under a tree waiting for my return. Since the rain was rapidly soaking into our clothing we made an executive decision to dive into the closest museum- Museo Centrale del Risorgimento- the museum under the Victor Emmanuel Monument, which had a Monet Gallery. So we shifted gears from Antiquity to the 19th century Impressionist movement.

Etchings, black and white photography and oil landscapes were the featured mediums which juxtaposed epic landscapes with little villages; huge cliffs with tiny seaside huts, dark forests with open meadows, or spacious greens with an imposing factory- A statement on the industrial revolution. But i stepped into the French eye for an hour. Most of the exhibit was French or Ex-Patriot artists who depicted Italy and the rest of Europe. Monet was great in his "Across the Meadow," but when i came to his "Ninfee" 1914 waterlillies, i was not as impressed as i thought. Not to say i wasn't impressed, just not quite what i remembered. It was the end of a movement and his loose strokes ushered in an abstraction and freedom of modern art of Picaso and Van Gogh.

The end of the exhibit jutted us out onto the east terrace of the Victor Emanuel's gigantic monument. Another view for the books. A glass elevator would take us to the top for 7 Euro more and after the 10 for Monet, we were done. We finished up at the massive Santa Maria Maggiore, which is one to see. We took loads of pictures, sketches and Anne even took some gum on her bum, to everyone's amusment.

Across the meadow, by Monet- my favorite.