Blog 14 Rome and Vincent

It’s so easy to get to Rome! “The eternal city“. “All roads lead to Rome”. And many more memorable descriptions of this magnificent city. I love coming into Roma Termini! An upscale Mall with so much activity and very nice restaurants abound. Italian advertising is both creative, cool and fun.

Armani continues its clothing campaign with new dogs, models and clothes. Italians love their dogs so no surprise the advertising reaches out to them. Many times I see advertising that makes me giggle or makes me think. Their creative brilliance truly captures you. But it requires you to really look and think. They also use so much of the ‘arts’ in talking to their audiences. Statues, history and amazing color palettes. I find their advertising messages more warm and funny. But they also as a country have a major element of common sense. Quite refreshing. It’s why they don’t allow ancient historical buildings to be changed. Mostly noticeable on the outside of buildings but many times on the inside. It took many years for them to realize their amazing history must be saved. But I digress.

I decided I needed to relax a bit and go view the Vincent Van Gogh Exhibition at Palazzo Bonaparte in Piazza Venezia, central Rome. Walking from Roma Termini to Piazza Venezia, I came upon a ‘Protest’. Yes every day somewhere in Rome, something is protested. This one was a government protest, the new President. Apparently the fascism writings of the new President – from awhile ago – are not now appreciated or accepted. Should get interesting.

Palazzo Bonaparte was the home of Napoleon’s mother. Originally built in the mid 1600’s, and bought by a Florentine family, Madame Bonaparte bought the palace years later and added many frescoes and statuary. It intrigued me to not only see the Van Gogh Exhibition here but to also see the building itself. It didn’t disappoint.

A Palazzo is a building, a Piazza is a ground area. And Piazza Venezia is magical eye candy for me. As we shall see, Roman statues are abound and somehow the Romans/Italians have worked in nude Italian men statues everywhere. After I thought about it, they are everywhere. Not so with women. We are ‘covered’ generally when we are there in a statue. Probably numerous reasons and rationales but interesting.

Palazzo Bonaparte had a male statue as the Van Gogh Exhibition Video began…adjacent to the seating. And of course, the male Italian statue was huge. Seemed out of place, but a gorgeous un-dressed Italian man in white marble. Hmmm…

It is easier to simply buy a ticket there at the Museum than online! A few dollars cheaper also but the line was not too long. Of course the Van Gogh Exhibition would have his most famous paintings, Starry Night, the Sunflowers and my favorite, Cafe Terrace at Night. But no. They had many of his paintings and videos that explained his life of struggles and how his paintings illustrated those harsh times. I guess I should have known the most famous treasured paintings would not leave their current museum locations. Surprisingly the most well known paintings are in various museums around the world. There was however one of his self portraits and that was the highlight of the Exhibit.

Helen from Virginia, was ahead of me in the ticket line, a most interesting and lovely person. We ambled through the exhibit and eventually decided lunch would be a good thing after the exhibit. In the surrounding areas of Piazza Venezia are many restaurants and the ones down the side alleys are always interesting. Some are obviously touristy. But an overload of Van Gogh called for sitting down and processing what was seen.

Helen and I had a lovely lunch. The Carbonara (Italian style) is lovely. A nice glass of wine…we chatted on and on…then our good byes. So a big ‘Hello Helen, so nice to meet you and share a lovely moment in time’!

I left a lovely lunch to visit my old stomping grounds of Testaccio. A bus was easy to get there and I walked quite a bit when I arrived, ending at a Cafe/Bar/Pasticceria called Bernini’s. Where the pastries are art pieces! A cappuccino and a Baba Rum were my choice. I generally just sit quietly and watch the Italian world go by. Testaccio is a very Italian neighborhood with few tourists. Not much English is spoken so the few words I know, work great. And then I head back to Piazza Venezia to see the tree lit.

Sundown is around 4:30pm here. The Italians don’t change so daylight savings time. I had plenty of time once I reached Piazza Venezia again, so up the big stairs I went to Piazza del Campidoglio on Capitoline hill. The views are breathtaking. The statues, museums are amazing. Few tourists were there – that was also quite a bonus! This particular location has in every corner, something interesting and mostly just beautiful. The ruins have many stories… many battles, lives, history…all woven together. Rome is easy to fall in love with. Sometimes you just have to stand there, and take it all in very slowly. The architecture, engineering and building…so many hundreds and thousands of year ago. The eternal city.

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