FIVE DAYS IN ROME, Part 2: Guest Post by Paige Arnold

Bike riding on the Appian Way, Rome, Italy

My granddaughter Paige (age 13) and her parents recently went on a trip to Rome, and while she was there Paige kept a diary of their activities. Paige is a competitive swimmer, so although she was on vacation, she tried to fit in practice when she could. I thank her for sharing her thoughts and photos of the trip with The Intrepid Tourist. 

On our third day in Rome we went to the Borghese Gallery, but since we had tickets to go at 3:00, we decided to go to another museum first. It was a museum of musical instruments, which had many pianos and harps and such from a long, long time ago.

Harpsichord at the National Museum of Musical Instruments, Rome.

I really liked how the pianos and organs had paintings and art on the covers--it just made them that much prettier.  After that we went home for about ten minutes and then walked to the Borghese museum.  

Ceiling paintings in one of the twenty rooms of the Borghese Gallery.

At the Borghese Gallery, there were many beautiful statues and paintings and lots of rooms to wander through and look at things.   

Stone sculpture of person carrying a lion pelt (Borghese Gallery)

There was an app you could download to experience an audio tour that guided you through the rooms, which gave you a detailed explanation of the important pieces.  Since lots of people were using the audio tour, it was very quiet for those who didn’t, which was nice. 

Villa Borghese Park

There was also a park behind the museum with statues and trees, and we found that walking through it was very enjoyable.  For lunch, we had gotten sandwiches before, so when we got home we just ate those.  The sandwich place we went to was a “make your own” place, but it was a bit difficult since we didn’t know Italian.  They cut the meat right in front of us with one of those sharp spinning metal wheels, which was fascinating to watch.  After eating lunch, we relaxed for a while then went out to dinner at the same place that we had gone to the first day.  

The fourth day, I was in charge.  Early in the morning (at least early for me), my dad and I went out to the park near our house for me to draw and for him to take pictures of the Colosseum.  We spent about thirty minutes there, and then headed back to get ready to go out for a swim.  This time, we knew exactly which place we were going to and exactly how to get there.  We arrived, I swam for a bit, and then we went home.  I wanted a bit of a relaxing day, so we spent the rest of our day in the apartment, and ate a measly dinner that we managed to put together from the ingredients already in the kitchen.   

Bike riding past ancient ruins on the Appian Way

The last day, we woke up late and went on a bike ride on the Appia Antica road, which is the ancient road that connected Rome to Brindisi (also known as the Appian Way.)  It was a very bumpy ride, since the road was paved with cobblestone. On the way back, we stopped at a little restaurant off the side of the road, where the waiter was very kind and talked to us in English about how he used to live in California around where we live. He showed us a book he was mentioned in, and told us lots of stories about the author. In all, the trip was very interesting and it taught me how different Rome is from the U.S.
(Additional photos by Matt Arnold.)

Paige at the Vatican

THE COLCHAGUA MUSEUM, Santa Cruz, Chile: From Shark Teeth and Pre-Columbian Pottery to Old Maps and Automobiles

Pre-Columbian sculpture from the Chancay Culture on the central coast of Peru at the Colchagua Museum, Santa Cruz, Chile

I never expected to find the giant jaws of megalodon, model ships, or the piano played Bernard O’Higgins, the founder of Chile, at a museum in a part of Chile otherwise known for its agriculture. It turns out that the Colchagua Museum, in Santa Cruz, Chile, is the largest private museum in Latin America and is packed with thousands of objects ranging from cowboy gear and weapons, to religious artifacts and pre-Columbian pottery and more. Founded by controversial tycoon Carlos Cardoen, the museum includes something for everybody.

The Colchagua Museum is located in the small city of Santa Cruz in the Colchagua valley, 110 miles from Santiago.

We visited as a day trip from Rancagua (about an hour and a half away), where we were visiting our son-in-law’s family. As we drove to Santa Cruz from there we passed orchards, vineyards, and ranches that are the heart of  this verdant valley and one of Chile’s several wine growing regions.

In the fossil and paleontology room

After purchasing our tickets at the museum entrance, we watched a short video and then set off to view the exhibits, listening to our English language wands for key explanations in each room. As you make your way from the entrance you pass through rooms containing fossils and exhibits of the early history of world, and then move forward in time through archeology of Chile, Peru and Columbia, then to the period of the conquest by Spain, to national independence, influence of the church, and up through life in the nineteenth and twentieth century. The last rooms on the main level feature old carriages, cars and farm machinery. A recently added exhibit, The Great Rescue, honors the men who were trapped and rescued from a copper mine in northern Chile 2010.

Portrait of Bernard O'Higgins, Chile's liberator, and his piano, which he imported from Europe

Every room was filled with so many fascinating objects that it is impossible to describe them all. Here are some of my favorites.

Fossil teeth in the jaw of the giant extinct shark, Megalodon. When a tooth fell out, a new one was always ready to rotate up and replace it. Megalodon could grow more than 50 feet long!

A small reptile (gekko) trapped in amber; from the Dinosaur Age

Ceramic vessel decorated with a bean design. (From the Nazca culture in Peru.) Beans (frijoles) have been a staple in South America for centuries.

Stone figure from the Pucara Culture, which developed in Peru in the area near Lake Titicaca.

Knotted strings called quipu, from the Inca culture. The knots were part of a counting system used in trade. The cords had different colors for each product and the spacing of the knots indicated the quantity sold.

Silver cup for tea (mate)and jewelry from the Mapuche culture of southern Chile.

Carvings and artifacts from Easter Island (Isla de Pascua). Easter Island, which gets its name from the day of its "discovery" by a Dutch sea captain in 1722, is part of Chile.

Our reflection, in the room at the museum displaying farm implements

We should have allowed more time to spend in the museum and to visit the associated Automobile Museum, located in a nearby vineyard, and the Chilean Craft Museum, located in a restored house in the nearby town of Lolol, featuring traditional crafts of Chile (stone carving, basket making, wood crafts, pottery, metals, naval and textiles.) As it was, after visiting the Colchagua Museum we took a walk through the center of Santa Cruz with its beautiful colonial era architecture around the main square and visited a few of the local shops before having ice cream at a favorite local restaurant. Someday we’ll have to go back to Santa Cruz to see the other museums and tour some of the vineyards.
For information about and directions to the Colchagua Museum, click HERE.

The Colchagua Valley

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