I is back, for more than five minutes this time. In fact, for almost exactly a month.
Rome was awesometastical – I was not slacking at all (yes, I’m looking at you Semaphore) as I was either at the graduate training school or taking a lifetime supply of photos for future powerpoint presentations.
I mean, yes, I did spend my evenings hanging out on the Spanish Steps or around Piazza Navona and the Campo de Fiori eating and drinking tasty things and making new friends, and I did spend a bit of Saturday morning snoozing in the grass at Tivoli, but I also spent four hours in the Vatican museum taking photos of the Prima Porta Augustus from every angle, and the whole of Sunday in the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, and the Capitoline Museum and it’s truly amazing annexe down on the via Ostiense, and learning new stuff about the Ottoman and Byzantine empires, and comparative history. Incidentally, the Capitoline’s annexe – Centrale Montemartini, is my new favourite museum. It’s an old power plant, and it still has all the heavy machinery in situ, with the artefacts laid out around them. It’s such a great exhibition space, and the collection is really good and well put together as well. I loved it – I just haven’t got editing my photos of it yet.
April 29th, 2009 on 07:18
Am I right in thinking the arse-shot is from the ruins of one of Hadrian’s villas? He’s a man I could imagine having a lot of male statues with pert bottom’s in his garden…
Also, I’ve never understood what was going on with the tiny baby/cherub hanging off Augustus’s robe.