Today has been pretty amazing, as usual. We started our day by going to the Villa Borghese Gallery. I had never heard of this museum and didn't really know what to expect. I was blown away. It isn't quite as incredible as the Capitoline Museum, but it's close. For one thing, it's much smaller (though that isn't necessarily a bad thing). It's so small that your ticket is only good for two hours, after which they kick you out. So you have to make the most of those two hours, because there are many wonderful sculptures. Taking Alessandra's advice, we started on the second floor to avoid the crowd. This was predominantly full of paintings depicting religious figures, which I don't find terribly interesting. however, there were some paintings that I really did like. I walked into one room and saw Barocci's Aeneas' Flight from Troy. I then turned around to see Domenichino's Diana. After walking around for a bit, I went downstairs to the statures. This is where the museum really appealed to me. It was mostly full of depictions of antiquity. I entered the floor to see Bernini's Rape of Persephone right in front of me. And if that wasn't enough, Bernini's Aeneas was in the next room. I then moved on to see his David and finally his Daphne and Apollo. It was all so incredible. After leaving the museum, we walked to the Piazza del Popolo to hear Patrick give a really excellent presentation. We then took a break for lunch and a few of us went to a really cool stationary store called Vertecchi. After that we went to see the Ara Pacis. It is an amazing monument. I was astonished by how much of it is left. I also loved the way that it was presented. From a distance, the altar looks complete, giving a good idea of what it would have looked like. But when you get closer, you can clearly tell the difference between the restored and the ancient parts. It was all housed in a beautiful, modern building which really complimented the altar with lots of air, windows, and open space. After that, we saw the Mausoleum of Augustus, which was a bit disappointing but still cool. We then broke for the day and I rested until dinner, when went back to the wonderful narrow and winding streets of Trastevere. We found a really good restaurant called Cornucopia, where I had some of the best lasagna of my life. Also notable was Kristin's meal. She was unaware that her pasta would come with two prawns that would be staring at her. It took her a while to get over this, and she even named them Buster and O'Neil. It was pretty hilarious to watch. We then walked back after we finished and called it a night.
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