May 29, 2026

Dateline: Rome, Italy

Up this morning together with Thomas in order to continue some exploration of the eternal city. After the usual hotel breakfast buffet, we decided upon a visit to the Capitoline Museum and so headed back down to the Tiber, past the Castel San Angelo (no falling divas today either) and across the bridge and into the old part of the city. Threading through narrow streets, we eventually reached the Capitoline Hill and made it up the steps to the 16th century palace that now stands as the centerpiece of the museum complex. Parts were designed by Michelangelo and other buildings and wings added on over time. It’s still used for important official functions, especially the great painted salons at the front with late Renaissance and early Baroque scenes of mythological and Roman history.

I had been to the museum before, some forty plus years ago and remembered almost nothing about it so it was a bit of a rediscovery. It has a lot of very good sculpture including the famous she wolf suckling Romulus and Remus and the fragments of the giant statue of Emperor Constantine that were unearthed in excavations of the Forum centuries ago. Constantine’s large disembodied foot had me giggling as all I could think of was the opening credits of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. There were some very nice displays and models of how the Capitoline changed from the Bronze age (pre-Rome) through the early Rome of the kings and on into classical Rome.

After a well spent hour, we descended the backside of the Capitoline into the Forum area. June 2 is apparently an important Italian national holiday so preparations are underway for a parade and viewing stands were up along the road through the center of the area. Rome’s firefighters were all up on the upper reaches of the Colosseum prepared to attach a very large Italian flag to the structure as a backdrop to the celebrations. We’ve both been to the Forum and Colosseum before so once we had a chance to wave at it, we headed up the Quirinal hill and back into the center of town where we did a little shopping and a google search of restaurants with Michelin stars near the Pantheon sent us to Poldo e Gianna Osteria for a lovely lunch of pastas and wine.

For our afternoon activity, we headed for the Capuchin museum on the Via Veneto. I had never been there but Thomas, with his anthropologic background and love of bones, wanted to see it again. The museum is not much, other than one greatish Caravaggio painting of St. Francis, but then you get to the ossuary. Apparently when the monks relocated here from elsewhere they not only brought the living members of their order, but all of the dead ones from several centuries as well. It had never occurred to me but when faced with what to do with several thousand human skeletons, some sixteenth century monks decided floral motifs. Six rooms in the ossuary were decorated centuries ago in human bones in all sorts of arrangements and patterns, with some mummified Capuchins thrown in for variation. It’s fascinating, beautiful, horrifying, and macabre all at the same time. I can’t decide if the originators were some sort of Renaissance era Ed Geins or artists working in a rather unusual medium. It’s not something I would have sought out on my own and it’s not going to be for everyone. But it’s certainly eye opening. On one of the displays was a quote from the Marquis De Sade on his visit in the late 18th century. Not generally the celebrity figure you usually have endorsing art displays.

After that, it was nap time followed by cocktails. We then headed off for dinner at a rooftop bar and restaurant a few blocks away with the rather improbable name of Mama’s Shelter. The view was lovely. The food very good, but the vibe of millennial europop meant that the music was a wee bit too loud making conversation somewhat difficult. If you go, ask for a table away from the DJ. Came back from that, and are watching a little TV and trying to decide on tomorrow’s activities. The fine weather, the impending holiday (which seems to have brought in half the population of Italy for a city weekend on top of the usual throng of foreign tourists), have made us want to do something that is less likely to be overrun by the hordes tomorrow. We’ve seen most of what we want to in town so we’re talking about a bit of a side trip. We’ll see what happens.

I read through today’s political news a few minutes ago. The less said about the goings on in the US, the better. The administration is considering tanking the entire airline and hospitality industries in its attempt to score points against ‘sanctuary cities’ trying to order the post office not to deliver mail (unconstitutional), and interfere in state electoral processes (also unconstitutional). On a brighter note, the entire entertainment industry seems to have woken up as to how toxic association with the administration is and is fleeing its planned Capitol Mall concert as rapidly as possible. There’s always Kid Rock.