8/7 - Rome-Naples (Part 1)
One good thing about traveling with the Cock is that he takes ownership of his cockitude. He knows and does not deny it, and doesn't mind being exposed.
Some people complained that Florence was very touristed/touristy. I said that was a good thing, since it meant they'd speak English.
The previous day, Andrew and I had been very pissed off because San Giovanni metro had been closed at 10:08pm. A talk with out room mates the previous night had revealed that there would be a metro strike this day, which probably accounted for the early closure the night before. I thus resolved to walk to the Galleria Borghese; I could've taken the bus, but I wasn't sure of arrival and traveling times, which would mean I'd have to pad my travel time such that it'd probably be faster to walk - it took me 1 hr 45 mins in the end.
The Galleria Borghese is a famous Roman art museum situated, together with many others, in a huge public part in the northern part of Rome. This also means that traveling to the individual museums inside is a bitch, and there was a train and people renting 2 person pedal carts (where people sat side by side under a canopy and pedalled).
There was a map in the Villa Borghese showing where wireless hotspots in the park were. Wah.
Galleria Borghese
The stupid Galleria Borghese had a 2 hour time limit, and a supposed 30 min limit for the picture gallery. This on top of a high admission fee (€12,50 including a €2 reservation fee which you have to pay since it's de facto reservatie verplicht), and the threat that tickets not collected 30 mins before your slot can be cancelled. Further, you're not allowed to bring in anything - even cameras and handphones are supposed to be checked in at the cloakroom; I think I saw a woman's small handbag being rejected at the entrance - I saw one or two men surreptitiously snapping away though. Heh heh. Unfortunately, I hadn't been pissed off sufficiently by greedy and contemptible Italian museums at this point yet, so I didn't try playing any games, nor taking any pictures with my phone.
One translator of an information sheet was called "Laura Carbonara". Heh.
There were no labels on or below the items. Instead, there were information sheets but it was hard to tell what was what because it wasn't clear which walls were being referred to (the information sheets talked about Wall I, Wall II etc), and though pictorial representations of the outlines of paintings, sculptures and other artefacts were drawn on the information sheets, the walls did not always conform to their representations (maybe items had been moved), and many walls were hard to tell apart, at least on first glance. The order of item descriptions also wasn't specified, and wasn't always consistent, contributing to the amount of time spent hunting for items. The items had Roman numerals on them to indicate the catalogue numbers, but it was still frustrating hunting, not least since some were blurry or smudged and others were small.
After a while I gave up matching items with information sheet descriptions because I was getting confused and a headache to boot from spinning around looking at walls; I suspect it was a devious ploy to make people come back again, since even though I didn't buy the audioguide, take a tour, read all the information sheets (which included information on the history of the rooms/museum) or match all items to their descriptions, I still barely finished the whole place in 2 hours (and that by not giving every item the attention it deserved).
The paintings were labelled, but not in English! Luckily I saw some of them in Amsterdam during the Rembrandt-Caravaggio exhibition. At least the light was stronger here.
I gave most of the sculpture only a cursory look, since sculpture could be seen everywhere. All of it was extremely restored or reconstructed, unless the place had the only intact Classical sculpture in the world (I think not), but not all the item descriptions said they had been restored. The same held for the mosaics, all of which were labelled 'frammento di mosaico' despite apparently being in excellent condition. Looking closely at some of the sculptures, I could see seams where new marble had been added - much more restoration than the information sheets let on. Restoration is usually good, but there's such a thing as too much, especially if you don't admit it, its extent or where it was undertaken.
There was a very intriguing small statue of a man with a Phrygian cap, with his left hand across his waist, his right elbow resting on his left hand and his right wrist inclined so his palm faced his face. I would've imagined this to be a modern pose. Maybe it was the damn Renaissance restorers.
There was a Raphael exhibition where some of his paintings were displayed. His portraits look very medieval in style. The exhibition was annoying though - a sign on the first floor said the exhibition continued on the upper floor, but the staircase on that storey was shut; I had to go to the basement to access the upper floor - the staircase was assessible only from the basement or the rear exterior of the building (probably another devious plot so people won't find the Pinacoteca, which is housed on the upper floor).
Canova's Paolina Borghese in the guise of Venus Victrix was a wonder to behold. The marble was carved so skilfully (the folds and the all) that it looked like a real sofa mattress.
In the Pinacoteca, they'd reassembled the original altarpiece of Raphael's Entombment/Deposition (which'd been stolen by Cardinal Borghese, tsk). For their sake, I hope they took a picture of this reassembly and displayed it in the individual museums after the end of the exhibition.
At 10:53am (my slot was the first: 9-11am) they started closing the doors and chasing people out of the place. What a horrible museum.
Dog in fountain
A Umberto I - statue in Villa Borghese
The building looks too good to be a modern art museum