Containing a journal of our life, its journeys, experiences we've had, things we love to do and of course family…!
Palazzo Madama Museum
Madonna and Child – Circa 1330
Glass Chandelier from Venice (Murano)
Each cabinet contains not only wares from different regions of Italy, but also other countries, including Austria and France.
Beautiful ceilings
Ceramic bowl
It was a cloudy day, but the views at the top of the museum were still enjoyable.
Interested by some literature, we happen to read in our apartment, we decided to visit the Madama Palace on via Giuseppi Garibaldi at piazza Castello. The entrance fee was 10€, 8€ for students, which included a map.
Some of the amazing historical items I found in there were the wood carvings. The one example I found the most compelling, was the depiction of Christ’s birth in the manger as shown above. There were other similar carvings and most were done on choir screens or benches. Most of these were reliefs, as well as all of the pictures and stained glass, were, or course, for the benefit of the illiterate part of the congregation.
The museum is filled with many other artifacts and itself is built on an ancient castle or other ruins from the Roman times, as is evident within one of the stairwells. Ascending to the parapet on the roof provides an excellent view of the city.
Saturday, prior to my son Tristan and I knowing that we had contracted the flu, we all walked into the center of town to visit the Egyptian museum. It contains the largest collection of artifacts, outside of Egypt. We had thought that Italy was still allowing free admissions to museums from the 5th – 9th. However, this was not the case. In fact, we could not even get a student discount since those are only offered on Thursdays – oh well. The one thing we did get unexpectedly were headsets, which unfortunately ended up to be useless technological throwbacks to the early 1990’s. Undeterred, we soldiered on determined to make the best of it, even among an afternoon throng.
The amazing pieces were the statues and sarcophagi which were surrounded by glass so you can see all sides.
Below is Patti in front of a 4200 year old Sphinx, like the one near the pyramids of Giza.
And finally the sarcophagi we mentioned before.
Well after an hour, which we really enjoyed (our son, Tristan is an ancient history buff), we took our leave to consume some of Italy’s really fine coffee.
Next time we hope to post about something a little less macabre.