February 13-14

Here are a few pictures from Sunday and Monday, February 13-14. On Sunday, we went to the nearby Villa Borghese. The sumptuous villa was built for Cardinal Scipione Borghese in 1615 and is located in the middle of a vast park, a welcome green space in the city. Today, it is a museum housing his art collection, which includes several important works by the painter Caravaggio (1571-1610) and a number of absolutely amazing marble statues by Bernini (1598-1680). It is also home to a temporary exhibition of 60 paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553), the German Renaissance painter, gathered here from museums around the world. To get to the park, we had to wade through a huge crowd protesting against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Several of the pictures in this set come from two of our favorite destinations. The first is the ancient Jewish Quarter dating from the 2nd century BC. The neighborhood near the Tiber was enclosed by a high wall and transformed into the Ghetto by Pope Paul VI in 1556. Residents were only allowed out of the Ghetto during daytime hours and were forcibly herded into the parish church on Sundays until as late as 1843. In 1943, thousands of Jewish citizens were deported to German concentration camps, although many were also protected by their Christian neighbors. The area is still a predominantly Jewish neighborhood where we often go to shop for food, eat, and explore the narrow streets and alleys.

The other area we like to visit is the Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II, a park surrounded by shops under an arcade and a large indoor fresh food market. The neighborhood is one in which many Indian, Thai, Chinese, and African immigrants reside, and the incredible variety of offerings in the food markets reflect this rich ethnic variety.

The weekend ended with a walk through the city, ending up on our side of the Tiber at the Castel Sant' Angelo. This huge structure was originally built as a mausoleum for Emperor Hadrian (129 AD). It was later transformed into a daunting fortress and prison and then later still into a papal residence. A well-defended elevated bridge extends from the castle to the Vatican and was used by various Popes and their courts when they had to flee to the castle in time of invasions or civic unrest. Here is the picture album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/SteveDC505/TwoWeekends#