Mosaics, Frescoes & Gellato

Determined to stay awake, we headed out on foot the first day in Rome to find the National Roman Museum. The sky was blue, temperature pleasant, views fascinating, and company wonderful!

We passed the ancient Diocletian Baths! Diocletian was an Emperor of Rome in 300 A.D. Everywhere you look there are remnants of past civilizations. It is an odd sensation to be looking at something that was used so very long ago, and imagine how it would have been then.
We saw street markets in Rome and Florence, mainly in the many Piazzas, or large squares in the middle of sections of the city. At this point I was still pinching myself to see if it was real!
The National Roman Museum was full of frescoes(painting on wet plaster), mosaics(pictures made by putting thousands of little pieces of stone together on the wall or the floor), sculptures, mummies and gold coins.
Some of the colors in the frescoes were so rich. At her feet it says virtue, honor, and I can't remember what else!

Amazingly intricate mosaics.

Look for this tree top in the next mosaic of the Gods fighting. So many tiny little pieces--it took years to create these mosaics.

The gold coin collection was impressive--rooms full of them~

In this mosaic there is a design I have been drawing all my life: the inter-twining ovals! These remnants of full walls of mosaics were inspiring.
This fresco, covering all four walls of the room, came from a Roman villa, and was a forest-garden scene with animals and vegetation that strongly reminded me of a garden room I have been in many times. It is one of the best preserved Roman frescoes still in existence.
The Discus Thrower is famous, and interesting from any side or angle. In those days, artists met secretly to study the human form to learn all the bones and muscles. I went to Italy with lukewarm feelings about sculpture--and returned with a new appreciation and love for this artistic medium. Sculptures like this one, several at the Borguese Palace, the Pieta in St. Peters Basilica, and the David in Florence were some of the artistic highlights of Italy. I get a lump in my throat thinking about them!
A sarcophagus with intricate, detailed carving all over it, depicting the battles fought and won by the man buried inside. He is in the middle of this carved side.

We took a taxi to the Borguese Museum next, stopping at McDonalds for the one and only ice cream sundae we had in Rome. After that it was gelatto only for us! My first one was Lemon in a cone dipped in chocolate.