Last Day in Rome

Sorry for the delay in blogging.  We appear to have lost track of time in Santorini, which I will explain in another blog.

Our flight from Rome to Santorini was on Saturday and we really wanted to go to the Galleria Borghese before we left Rome.  http://www.galleriaborghese.it/borghese/en/edefault.htm

The Borghese has several amazing Bernini sculptures and paintings by Caravaggio.  The Borghese is located at the far end of a large park in Rome and we decided to take a taxi in order to curtail the complaining later on [e.g., my legs are tired].

When we arrived at the Borghese we were informed that you had to have a reservation to enter the Gallery.    We did not have a reservation.  The next available time was 5:00 and it was 10:00.  We booked the reservation and decided to explore the park, have lunch and kill time before we could return to the Gallery.

We started walking through the park and, behold, we came across the Rome Zoo!!  We have a love/hate relationship with Zoos and Ella has only been to the Calgary Zoo once.  The Rome Zoo was quite good and many of the enclosures were new and spacious.

After an hour of exploring we came across the orangutan enclosure and we decided it would be a good place to sit and do some sketching.  As soon as I took my sketch book out, an older orangutang walked over and sat right in front of me.

It was really bizarre.  He was looking at me and at the book.  He was clearly interested in what I was doing.  We also took a video:

Unfortunately, the coolest part was not captured on video.  I showed the orangutang my sketch and he leaned back and clapped his hands.  We tried to capture is again on video, but he was adamant that one clap was all my sketch was worth.

After the Zoo, Ella had a bit of a meltdown because we could not take the orangutans home with us.  We managed to capture that on video as well:

This was a clear sign that we needed food, fast.  We walked to a cafe in the park and had a great lunch with amazing cappuccinos [Italians make the best coffee].  Ella sampled the tiramisu and was pleased.

As we were lunching we saw couples and families pass the cafe on tandem bicycles.  We decided to find the bike rental place and rent a bike for four.  Cristin insisted on a bike with an electric motor that kicked in and, considering that I would be doing all the pedaling, I agreed.

We had a blast touring the park:

When we finished, we had a short wait until we were able to attend the Borghese.  It was well worth the wait.  Bernini's sculpture is incredible and you cannot believe it is carved in marble.  I found this video on google, which is a little cheesy, but gives you a good sense of the sculptures and the Borghese Gallery.

The Caravaggio paintings were also incredible [one of my favorites]:

It was a perfect day for us in Rome.  Next, the Greek Island of Santorini!!