Pantheon and Capitoline Museum

Yesterday was our final day in Rome, so we visited some areas we missed on our tours.  The Pantheon is a wonderfully preserved building which you will recognize if you have seen the movie Angles and Deamons.  It is the building with the free standing dome with the huge oculus at the top.  It is a place of worship now.  There are many outstanding works of art that are too numerous to post here.

 

The Pantheon, built in 27 BC is the oldest building in Rome that is still intact.

Next we walked to the Capitoline Museum which houses many of the treasures of the region.  The most important item is a huge bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius on his horse. 

Again, there are hundreds of pieces of artwork on display, enough to make your head spin.  The statue below was interesting to me.  It depicts some poor soul that pissed off one of the roman gods and he was bound in this position to remain for eternity.

Rome is a very clean city.  There is never any litter or trash on the street...even though there are Americans here.  The reason is that they clean the streets and pick up the trash and empty the trash containers every day.  There is an army of workers that sweep, drive trash trucks, run sweeping machines, etc.  You know they are there because they all wear uniforms.  The first time I saw one of these guys, I thought he was a fireman because of the uniform...see below.

Different workers wear different uniforms...highway workers wear the same uniform in yellow, city road crews wear red, etc.  It really gives a professional look to the government employees.

Today we got our rental car (a Lancia) and drove to Siena.  The toughest part was getting out of Rome.  The guy at the car rental company said just drive straight down the road the car was parked on to get to the main highway that circumnavigates the city.  Well friends, there is no such thing a straight road in Rome.  And most of the roads are one way in the opposite direction of the way you want to go!  It took us about an hour and a half of wandering around to accidentally finding our way out.  There are few if any street signs to help you.  The names of the streets are carved into the sides of the buildings at the second story level, not on signs where you can see them.  By the time you see a street sign, you have just passed the street you were looking for!  It really makes you appreciate the bus drivers and the taxi drivers.

Eventually, we arrived at our apartment...a few rooms in an old farmhouse near Siena.  It is a fantastic place with stone walls inside and out and a view to die for.  The old couple who own the place are just adorable.  They only speak a few words of English, but we managed to comunicate well enough to check in and get directions to a restaurant.

Before we could even sign the rental agreement, the old man, Mario, opened a bottle of his wine and a bag of cookies and toasted our arrival with us.  He proudly said, "Faccio il vino, e Lei fa i biscotti",  which means I make the wine and she makes the cookies.