Day 20: Barbareni Palace to Cabonara

Beatrice Cenci

Palazza del Barberini

There were sculptured bees all over the Barberini Palace added a nice touch to the gallery that we visited there. At either side of the front are two stair cases both in marble and equally impressive - one by Bernini ascending around a square and the other, which was a spiral, by his contemporary and rival Boromini . Inside the Barberini Palace Gallery was another array of masters but I will just mention the ones I liked best:

• Portrait of Beatrice Cenci by Guido Reni.  The story behind it is very sad (she was beheaded on Ponte S'Angelo with other family members for involvement in the murder of her abusive father).

• The 'Judith and Holifernes' by Caravaggio along with his 'Narcissus'
• The sculpture (probably) by Antonio Corradini of the veiled 

  

  veiled vestal virgin

  
  vestal virgin who carried the water of the Tiber in a sieve to prove her innocence against accusations. This is extraordinary as the veil in marble appears to be a veil over the top of the statue. 
• The star of the gallery is the luminous 'La Fornarina' by 

  

  La Fornarina

  
  Raphael - a portrait of his mistress and there is a real story behind it. The effect of this painting is mesmerizing - the face with bright, dark eyes follow you around the room. The half smile at you makes you also want to smile. As an uninformed viewer I rank this as better than the Mona Lisa. 

On the way to a return visit to the Trevi Fountain we entered the intersection of the Via della Quatre Fontane (Road of the four fountains ) and the Via Quirinale.  At this intersection are four fountains on each corner.  

One of 4 fountains

The water comes from an ancient aqueduct and is still drinkable.  From this point one can see right down to the obelisk in Piazza del Popolo and in the other direction, Santa Maria Maggiore.  From here we walked down the Via Quirinale on the Quirinale hill of Rome to the Palazzo del Quirinale. As this is the highest hill in Rome it has been used since ancient times and Constantine I put baths here.  Many 

Palazza del Quirinale

Popes and rulers lived in the Palace where the Italian President now lives.  

With Maureen going up the main shopping strip the 'Corso' ( I was able to go to an exhibition on the influence of Raphael and Michelangelo on renaissance art in Rome. This had a number of original pieces and a lot of documents especially about Michelangelo's plans and drawings for St Peter's Basilica and Raphael's plans to do an audit of all the ruins in Rome (never done). The paintings after these two Masters followed their style. For example paintings of the Deposition (taking Jesus down from the Cross) followed Michelangelo's pietas with showed the anatomical characteristics of a pale, limp dead body. This exhibition helped me understand the movements in art such as Mannerism a little more. One point of interest: there was an original of the crucifixion by Michelangelo which showed a very muscular Jesus. 

Trevi

On the way back to Trastevere I went back to the St Ignatius Loyola Church to have a closer look at the false cupola (ceiling painted so it looks like a cupola). On my walk back I passed through Campo De'Fiori one of the most popular piazzas in Rome. I will bring Maureen back here.  The piazza is arranged with restuarants and stalls right around the outside and is so inviting. In the middle is a bronze statue of the 17th century Dominican priest, philosophizer, and scientist Giordano Bruno. He fell foul of the church by pushing Copernicus's ideas of heliocentrism (planets go around the sun) and contesting many absolute views of the time. He wandered all over Europe but was brought back to Rome to face the Inquisition and after a n

Campo de'Fiore

umber of years in prision was burned at the stake at Campo de'Fiori and his ashes thrown in the Tiber. However he is remembered still in the square and some of his ideas were later shown to have merit.


We finished the day at a local Trastevere restaurant where I sampled Cabonara  'Trastevere style'.  It had lots of bacon!