Side Trip

I’M NOT INVITED? WHY NOT? I need culture, too!

Well, papa took mama to a beautiful villa here in Rome that belonged to a very eccentric man, of the family of Chigi.  His summer house on the Tiber River is called the villa Farnesina, and legend has it that after throwing a huge feast at his villa with gold place settings, he had all the servants toss the settings into the river.  Saved on dish washing I guess, haha.

But when mama questioned this, papa told her that after the guests had gone, he had his servants pull up a huge net that he had placed in the river to catch the golden place settings!

Cool guy, if you ask me.  But no one did.  Still, you have to be pretty savvy to think that one up, no?  And mama says the gardens were full of various kinds of lemon trees and roses and lovely plants, not to mention the spectacular art inside the villa.

See, I never get to go on these little jaunts, not having been trained with a leash, but I think I really should have been invited on this one.  Mama said the whole huge driveway was made of fine sand…heh, heh, think what I could have done with THAT! 

MY photos would have been far superior to these…

This was a vaulted ceiling that is painted with what are called groteschi, and mama likes them better than the figures in the ceiling and walls.  The circular design looks a bit Japanese, mama says, but how could that be?  No Japanese around there at that time.