National Museum of Rome

After a wonderful lunch we went to the Palazzo Massimo, which was just a few short blocks from our hotel. I should mention lunch. We started with a shared plate of prepared vegetables that were terrific: fava beans and prosciutto, puntarello in an anchovy vinaigrette, roasted onions, some kind of spinachy bitter green, olives, and an eggplant dish. Ira had the caccia e pepe spaghetti while I had the alio e olio. These are both simple dishes, but Italians know how to make a simple pasta come alive. It starts with al dente pasta that is always the perfect texture. We also polished off a half bottle of house red, so we went home and took a quick nap.

Next up of course was the museum, which features an amazing array of mosaic floors and ancient wall paintings. Many of the room decorations came from the neighboring area when they were constructing the train station. Anywhere you dig in Rome you're likely to find ruins of some sort. There were amazing sculptures as well. One of the fun things we saw there was an amazing sculpture of two griffins eating a deer that forms the base of a table. It's a very "deco" piece of ancients art, and we originally saw it at the Getty Villa in Malibu. We had gone there to see all the best artworks before Italy sued to get them back. Well, they did and they did! At least it's gorgeously presented at the national museum, which is free. So fun all around. Dinner tonight and then we'll head to Venezia tomorrow. Don't worry, we'll be back in Rome soon.