Borghese Gallery

When Bill and I stepped into the Borghese Gallery Domenichino's The Hunt of Diana, 1616, caught our eye.

Bill got this detail of the famous nymphs.

Is that a Bellini? It is a Bellini: circa 1510. Don't you always feel happier when there is a Bellini in the room?

In an adjacent room we found a staff person lecturing a small group about a rather magnificent, colourful, painting.

When the crowd moved on I saw that it was a Deposition by Raffael. Raffael's figures and groups and his colours have a quality all their own We must see more Raphael.

We have become interested in Piero di Cosimo. Here is a lovely Adoration of the Child, after 1510.

Look closely at the right, there is a pair of hermits coming over a ridge at 3 o'clock. Can you make out the dark skinned figure behind them in the river?

Here's a closer look at the celestial Christ child.

Raffael, Lady with a Unicorn, painted about 1506.

Fall in love.

The rooms with the Bernini sculptures are very large and very grand. Rape of Persephone, 1622.

I was thrilled to find the room with the Caravaggios. His St Jerome, 1606, is one of my favourite paintings.

Caravaggio's Madonna and Child with St. Anne, also 1606. I was surprised by how big these paintings are.

Guido Reni: Paul Rebukes the Repentant Peter, with tourist. What a room!

Be sure to look up. You will no doubt see the apotheosis of someone or other. Who is being lifted into heaven now?

Bill waited while I had a quick look in the bookstore. We exit on the right.

We had our own apotheosis walking through the pines of the Borghese Gardens: we proceeded down the Via Veneto and into the heavenly City Centre for lunch.