La dolce vita il Martedi

It's Tuesday and everything is open again so down the Museo e Galleria Borghese for a look at the art collection there. The main picture is the marble statue by Gian Lorenzo Bernini entitled Ratto di Proserpina ( The Rape of Persephone). He did this around 1621/1622 at the ripe old age of 23. The man was a genius.

After exhausting the collection and ourselves in the process we took the Metro out to St Peter's. We had been inside it before, years ago, but thought it worthwhile to have another look. It's as well we had seen it before as the queues waiting to file into the Basilica were horrendous so we gave it the body swerve and headed back, pausing only to take a photograph of some posing State Police on the way.

On the way along the banks of the Tiber we dropped in to have a look inside the Church of San Rocco but didn't linger long as a service was being conducted and, as an unbeliever, I felt I was intruding and certainly superfluous. One of the many things I love about this city is the seemingly nondescript entrances in buildings that open out into marvellous courtyard spaces that are discreetly guarded by gates or security, or both, to keep the hoi polloi such as myself from wandering in. 

I think we deserve a day off tomorrow. And so to bed.