Bernini

May 16th--Today we had reservations to go to the Borghese Gallery. This is the only museum in Rome that requires reservations and is hard to get into. Our reservation was from 1 to 3 so we decided to have a picnic lunch on the grounds of Villas Borghese. It was a beautiful day and there were plenty of shady spots to enjoy lunch. We all perched ourselves on a cement wall and ate our lunch while people watching. There were lots of people out today. A little before 1:00 we entered into the bag checking area of the Borghese Gallery. This took a little time, but we had our bags checked a little after 1:00 and immediately took the elevator up to the top floor. It was a good idea to start on the top floor because everyone who enters starts on the bottom floor and crowd the area. The top floor was filled with many paintings and a bust of Cardinal Borghese done by Bernini. We also saw 2 Bernini self-portraits. Upon finishing up this floor, we walked down the spiral staircase to the bottom floor. We immediately walked into Room IV which houses Bernini's "The Rape of Prosperine". We were instantly in awe of his work and stared at this statue for a while. It was amazing how Pluto's fingers dig into her body like it was real. This was probably our favorite piece in the gallery, but we did move on and witness several other amazing pieces by Bernini..."Aeneas" (Aeneas's home in Troy is in flames and he escapes with the three most important things to him), "David" (although not near as good as Michelangelo's, it is still amazing) and "Apollo and Daphne" (this is another wonderful piece that tells the story when you walk from back to front of the sculpture). After leaving the Borghese, we took the metro to the Trevi fountain. It was a little warm again today so the kids enjoyed splashing the water all over themselves. We all tossed a coin into the fountain for luck and an assured trip back to Rome. From here we took the metro back to the apartment. MeMom and Gilda went to a restaurant nearby the apartment for a final dinner in Rome while we fed and bathed the kids. Then when they got back to the apartment, Amy and I headed out on another "date night", taking advantage of our last night with a babysitter. We started off in Campo de' Fiori. This square is lined with restaurants and we enjoyed the patio seating of Ristorante la Carbonara. We enjoyed a nice Italian meal while watching the people and activity of the square. After dinner, we walked over to Bernini's Four Rivers Fountain. In addition to enjoying another Bernini work, it was also a prominent piece in Angels and Demons. We took some pictures (again, no dead cardinal) and then strolled a couple of streets over to the Pantheon. We started to skip this area since the last time we were here we didn't have such a great experience. However, we decided that it would be worth seeing the Pantheon at night. At this point it was a little after 11:00pm and we thought the subway closed at 11:30. We hoped on a bus and started back for the metro station. We then remembered that it was Saturday night and the metro is open until 2:00am on the weekends. It was a good thing because the traffic was horrible and it took us over 30 minutes to go the couple of miles to the metro. We got back to the apartment tired, but having enjoyed a great day and night with Bernini in Rome.