Our Last Supper, the Villa Borghese, & The Etruscans

Part 21:  Our Last Supper, the Villa Borghese, & Etruscans  

Tuesday night we gather for the official group photo and our last group meal at Ristorante Terme Diocleziano (Baths of Diocletian Restaurant).

The Official Team Photo

                                                 Thanks to Gary Ong for the Last Supper pictures

Tomorrow morning is the end of the tour and most of our group will be heading for home.  Bonnie and I are staying an extra day.  We plan to sleep late then visit the Villa Borghese and Etruscan Museum.

These are the only pictures we have of the Villa Borghese and they don't tell you much.  The gardens begin at the head of the Spanish Steps then spread our mostly to the north over 148 acres.  They contain formal gardens, art galleries (Villa Medici, Galleria Borghese, and the National Gallery of Modern Art) and traditional park amenities like bike rentals, playgrounds and a zoo (Bioparco).

National Gallery of Modern Art

Just outside the Gardens (west side) is the Etruscan Museum.  The Etruscans were an advanced civilization that existed on the west coast of Italy north of Rome from the 9^th to the 6^th century BC.  Very little is known about their language, but their skill in ceramics was highly developed and ancient Rome seems to have adopted much of their culture.

The museum is in this building, the Villa Giulia, a beautiful renaissance palace dating from the mid 16^th century. Pope Julius III commissioned the building, and it was transferred from one papal family to another until 1870 when the new Italian state confiscated it and eventually gave it to the National Etruscan Museum in the early 20th century.

The Museum is filled with Etruscan craft and fine maps and re-creations of their towns.  There are hundreds of pieces of their distinctive gold on black ceramics. The prized piece is an almost life-size terracotta sarcophagus picturing a married couple reclining on their tomb at an everlasting banquet.  No photography is allowed. 

                                                         from Wikipedia

                                                                                                                                              from the website "Studyblue.com"

We capped our day with a late lunch at Ristorante all’ Orsetto (Lttle Bear) where I ate this pizza before it ate me.  Bonnie had a more nutritious salad.

Yep, that’s a whole hardboiled egg.

Then, early to bed.  Tomorrow is the long journey home and we have to leave for the airport at 6 AM.