Travels Around Roma Part XII: I Musei Capitolini

This post is about my visit to the Capitoline Museum, or I Musei Capitolini.  This museum is located on the Capitoline Hill, the same hill as the big white national monument and one of the seven hills of ancient Roma with the Palatine Hill down the street with the Roman Forum being where Roma was founded.  Needless to say, this is a pretty significant national museum then.  A street called Via Del Corso (where Burlesconi lives, among others) starts from the Campidoglio in front of the Vittorio Monument and goes straight (a rarity in Roma) to Piazza del Popolo, which is a major piazza with one of 4 ancient Egyptian obelisks around Roma.  Where else do you see a Capitoline Hill that leads to an obelisk? Hmm, where could it be???...

Yes people, our very own Washington D.C. is modeled after Roma, a modern capitol city modeled after the ancient one.  The Founding Fathers were really fond of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and America itself still follows the lead.  And of course we get Capitol Hill from the Capitoline Hill in Roma.  I was really surprised when I learned this in my Urban History class one day during lecture, and seeing this picture really confirms it.  To learn about America I guess its essential to go to Roma. You can kind of see it from a picture I took on the roof of the Vittoria Emmanuele Monument (future post) but just know that there's an obelisk at 

the end of the road. You can kinda see the grass of Piazza Venezia in the foreground and then you can see Corso (as its called in Roma, you dont need the Via del...) running all the way straight to Piazza del Popolo, which has many protests and rallies all the time since it is the piazza of the populace.   This picture is looking north, so to the left or west is the Vatican while the Forum ruins are down the street to the right.  You really can't see the obelisk but its at the end of the road in front of what appears to be a pointy church facade.  And by the way to make a straight road like this that runs right through the city requires massive demolition and money for eminent domain payments, so this road is really important.  

Well besides the Capitoline Hill there is the actual museum as well. Located next to the Monument and up the street from the Theatre of Marcellus, we first go to the Piazza del Campidoglio right in front of the museum. What do we see here? Why yes, its a sign saying that Roma Wants Its Citizen Gilad Shalit Free. There is another one of these in the Jewish Neighborhood, but I didn't know that this was here until I saw it. Definitely a pleasant surprise.

Here is the rest of the Piazza del Campidoglio.  This significant space was designed by Michaelangelo and now is the home of Renaissance Palaces that have been converted to the museum.  You can see a statue of Marcus Aurelius on horseback right in the middle of the piazza, with a clock with an Italian flag in front of it.  The inscription on the base of the statue says it was put in by pope Paul III (who basically rebuilt Rome after it was sacked the second time in the 1530's) and in fact the statue was put erected in the year MDXXXVIII or 1538.  Going to Rome made me sharpen up on my roman numeral reading and I can even get a little bit of Latin down too.  Of course by a little I mean very little.

Here is someone making a big mistake (like other people I've seen). Don't do it! Since he's balding now he's probably made the same mistake already but he probably is rich if he's getting married here.  Mistake.

Well now on to the actual museum.  There are a lot of marble statues and ancient Roman artifacts.  There are also a lot of papal statues and at the end of the museum you can get a perfect view of the Roman forum.  As they say in Italian... andiamo! (here we go!)

Here is Pope Innocent X followed by various other things I saw...

According to a tour guide I overheard at the Vatican Museum (future post!) all figures that have a lion's skin on them are of Hercules because he slayed a lion.  So here he is, Hercules himself.  Even though my picture is a little blurry its good enough.  Watch out for more of Hercules with the lion carcass around him in the future.  

Why what's this? Whom is it? The next picture will tell us... 

Why of course! Its the one and only Marcus Aurelius, who also made the Aurelian walls that surround Rome.

Here is another view of this huge statue (Marcus Aurelius could step on my head).  I want one of these, but instead its me riding the horse and its in diamonds and platinum and silver and gold.  One day...