Wednesday March 4, 2009

This is Heather, comparing the size of herself to the huge size of Constantine.

On Wednesday we adventured to the Capitoline Museums in Piazza del Campidoglio. The Capitoline Museum consists of two buildings; Palazzo dei Conservatori and Palazzo Nouvo. We entered Palazzo dei Conservatori and first looked at the very large fragments of Constantine's statue. The size of Constantine's head was taller than me! From inside the Conservatori we could still see parts of the Temple Of Jupiter. It was amazing that we could still look down a stair case or into a room from the temple. A new wing of the building was built to hold the original Marcus Aurelius statue. There were also a couple good pictures of what the marshy hill of the Capitoline Hill used to look like. Also inside is the famous “She-Wolf” sculpture of a wolf with Romulus and Remus underneath it. This sculpture is the ultimate symbol of Rome and we got a group picture around it! The upstairs of this museum is all paintings, including paintings by Caravaggio.

There is an underground passage that connects the two buildings of the museum. We took that passageway into Palazzo Nuovo. This building was added to the Campidoglio to complete the symmetrical look and so is a very narrow building. The main attraction to this side of the museum is the sculpture of Oceanus, which was in the courtyard.

Later in the day we had Mary’s class! We kept getting side tracked, but we had a good talk about the Sack of Rome and Martin Luther. We only have three more classes with Mary in Rome and we are all getting very sad that we are going home!