Saturday: The Borghese Gallery

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Saturday, October 13th 2012: The Borghese Gallery and a dinner to remember (Part One)

(Written by Allan) Today I made breakfast for the group: a simple egg scramble with prosciutto and Reggiano parmesan from our local market down the block. There was fruit yogurt, toast, and juice as well. A little comic moment when I was hunting for any spices that might be lying around – only to find black peppercorns and no pepper mill or grinder… Hmmm, what to do? Necessity is the mother of invention, yes? I used our stainless creamer to crunch the peppercorns into a usable coarse grind and found a little salt. Alas, no garlic, onions, or bell peppers this morning for the eggs. We hadn’t thought/planned ahead quite that well.

After breakfast we cleaned up and Steve left to pick up our tickets for our 11AM entrance into the Museo Galleria Borghese. This was the day I’d been waiting all week for. The Borghese is my favorite museum in Rome, and possibly my favorite of any I’ve seen. I do love the Peggy Guggenheim in Venice and the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, but the Borghese was the first of the world’s greatest museums that I was privileged to see. It stole my heart from the moment I walked into the side room where Bernini’s “Apollo and Daphne” is displayed. I finally decided after this visit today that the “Room of the Emperors” is the most sublime space I’ve ever seen. Exquisite in every detail, I will return to that place every time I am fortunate enough to come back to Rome.

After we left the Borghese we headed back to our flat for a rest, but not until we’d had a delightful lunch at Sofia, a wonderful tiny bistro run by two lovely women.

(This is being written at 2AM Monday morning – after packing to leave for the ship in the morning. I will finish the post after discussing with Steve and getting some necessary details of the dinner to be covered here. Till tomorrow then – Buona note. Allan).

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