Day 6 May 28, 2023
Walked to the Borghese Gallery where we had a 2-hour tour of the gallery and the gardens. The gallery has a collection of world-class Baroque sculpture, including Bernini’s David and Apollo and Daphne (these sculptures were just amazing!!!) as well as many paintings by Caravaggio, Raphael, Titian, and Rubens. Two hours is all you get as they manage the amount of people in at one time well. I could have easily spent much more time looking at everything.
We were done by 11:30 and so strolled around the neighborhood for a while and then stopped to have a great lunch at a place called Mezzo. We shared some salmon and shrimp/veggies (needed a pasta break, lol!) before heading to another guided tour of the Catacombs of Priscilla. These catacombs, which were used for burials from the late 2nd century to the 4th century, are less commercialized and less crowded. We saw 250 years of tunneling that occurred from the second to the fifth centuries. You see carved burial niches and some beautiful frescoes, including what is considered the first depiction of Mary nursing the Baby Jesus and the earliest known painting. (Including a pic found on the web of what we saw). It is only a 30-minute tour, and no photography is allowed. Tomorrow, we have a bike tour of the Appian Way and will see other catacombs to compare to what we saw today.
We attempted, for the third time, to use one of the little scooters to zip around on, and apparently John and I are not too savvy with them. We think we know the issue, besides operator error, and will attempt again tomorrow.
We came back to refresh, have a glass of vino, then off to dinner at our favorite spot. Ended the night with a gelato, of course! Ciao!
Miles walked – 8.5
