Tuesday November 20th we are back in Rome. We have a student led tour of the Borghese Garden, via Veneto and the vicinity. We told the students to pack a lunch because we had tickets to visit the Borghese Gallery in the villa from 11-1. The museum strictly limits the number of visitors each day and only allows one to visit for two hours. This always makes it challenging to arrange. But once again Danilo Mori has come through for us!

We start the tour at Santa Maria Vittoria which houses a famous statue by Bernini, The Ecstasy of  St. Theresa. We travel down to piazza Barberini to see the Fontana del Tritone and Fontana delle Api both of which were also created by Bernini. Then up via Veneto past the Hard Rock Cafe and the American Embassy. The students stopped to take pictures but we were shooed along by the guards.

Then into the gardens themselves making our way to the villa. Once we arrive we discover that a mix up has occurred and our reservation doesn't start until 1p instead of ending then. So we adjust on the fly, a common occurrence in this program. We decide to have lunch earlier, hold class in the park and then proceed to the Gallery for our 1-3 appointment. It turned out to be great. Students got to eat earlier. And food is very important to this group.

The museum houses some of the greatest works by Bernini, Caravaggio, Ruebens, and other great artists. Pictures are not allowed. This troubled some of my students because they were wondering what they could do in the museum if they were not allowed to take pictures. I encouraged them to look at the works of art.

I had a nice printout describing the more famous works of art in the gallery, courtesy of Professor Brad Beach. I emailed the packet to all the students. My wife and I had a wager as to how many of the 16 would print it out and bring it with them. I predicted that at least one student would print it and bring it. She said none would. She won. She always wins.

After the museum Amy and I wandered back down via Veneto to a little cafe we stopped at over two years ago. It was fun to sit there and reminisce about that experience and compare it to this trip.