Now in Rome, I spent the morning writing cards and taking it easy generally. I went for a bit of a walk and took a couple of photos. Rome on the Sunday is nice and quiet. In the afternoon I took a bus tour to Villad'Este at Tivoli where the gardens were great. Lovely and green and it was a thoroughly pleasant afternoon.
I had dinner at "La Pace", a Chinese restaurant. The food was OK nothing special and not too expensive. The hotel was generally OK, especially breakfast, but the room was very noisy as it opened onto a stairwell and it was a bit difficult to sleep.
The next day was a Monday, and I called the Museo Nazionale to arrange a visit but there was no answer so I assumed the it was closed!
I wasted most of the morning trying to get a cash advance on MasterCard.
I spent the afternoon wandering around and took some photos at the Fontana di Trevi, as did a hundred other people.
I then crisscrossed the central bridges, visited the Vittorio Emanuel II Monument and Castel Santo Angelo, before walking around the Palazzo di Guistizia (Palace of Justice). There was lots of cleaning of buildings and statues going on.
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| Bernini's elephant sculpture |
I loved the charming elephant sculpture by Bernini designed to support a 6th century BC Egyptian obelisk at Piazza Minerva.
Rog and Len moved hotels today, because they were unhappy at the Madison, and we had dinner together at Ristorante Esperia.
The next day, Tuesday, I discovered that the museum wasn't closed, the phones were out. I took a chance and caught the train to EUR which is modernism gone mad.
I met Dottoressa Alessandra Antinori, the Curator of the African collections, but also defacto curator of the Oceania collections at the Museo di Antropologia ed Etnologia, who said she expected me last Thursday! We talked a bit and I had a tour around the museum. They have a good collection, with some objects on display, sparsely spread in huge cavernous areas. I talked to Dr. Marco Biscione, the anthropology technical officer, who gave me a bit of a background about the museum and their cataloguing system.
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| Museo di Antropologia ed Etnologia |
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| Dottoressa Alessandra Antinori |
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| Part of the exhibits |
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| Dr. Marco Biscione |
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| Glass plate negatives |
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| Contact sheet catalogue |
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Amazingly well-preserved
headdress |
Later, I had a nice lunch in a bar next to Hotel Vallee, then spent the afternoon sorting my photographs. I had dinner with Len and Rog before going back to the bar to have a coffee and a Sambucco which was huge. I sorted the rest of the photos but then couldn't sleep - too much going through my mind! Antinori had set aside the morning tomorrow to have a further discussion.
I spent the morning talking to Antinori - I gave her heaps of information about the Australian Museum collection and procedures. She was quite impressed with the AM catalogue and cards and general cataloguing system. She was generally very helpful and we spent some time looking at the Oceania collection and gallery and storage. I was unable to photograph any artefacts individually which is a great shame. She is very interested in exchanging information and mentioned that she has had difficulties with Curuzzi> She had also been in contact with Sylvia Ohnemus in Basel and gave me a book to take to her. At the time, there was a group of approximately 20 African museum curators and others attending an
ICCROM course there.
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| Len, Roge and Michaela |
I did very little in the afternoon, said goodbye to Len, Rog and Micheala who were returning to Australia.
I then caught the 14:40 train to Basel. I passed at Chuisi at 21:50, and then arrived at 7 AM, dawn, at Domodossola where I saw snow on the hills.
The next day was a Monday, and I called the Museo Nazionale to arrange a visit but there was no answer so I assumed the it was closed!
