Rome in December: Cold Days, Sunny Skies, Empty Museums

Rome may be hot in summer, but it’s been cold lately, down close to zero at night! Of course, that’s in Celsius (meaning around freezing at night) … the lovely white cyclamen I bought for the empty planter by the front door are not happy!

Luckily, the daytime has been clear and sunny since late November, with highs in the low teens (meaning the 50s farenheit).

One day last week, we went out searching for Christmas decorations.

Afterwards, as we wandered home down some unfamiliar side streets, we heard music ahead. Following it, we finally tracked down two men in shepherd’s lambskin coats, one playing the Italian bagpipe and the other a wooden whistle. Turns out the Zampognari are a Christmas tradition in Rome and other parts of Italy.

Also last week, we got up early to catch the Trevi Fountain unmobbed by tourists. We had it to ourselves: so different not to have to wedge ourselves near the sides where the crowds are not quite so crushing!

We also recently returned to MAXXI, Rome's museum featuring modern art after 2000, for a wonderful exhibit by Pakistani-American artist, Shahzia Sikander. She began her career in the ancient art of Indo-Persian miniature painting but now does huge video and other large pieces. I loved the catalog description of her work as addressing “some of the critical issues of our age: the tensions between the post-colonial world and the inexorable evolution of culture, between the experiences of migrants and the constitution of nations, between diverse geopolitical conditions and religious doctrines.”

As a bookend to that experience, we finally visited the Musei Capitolini, the world’s oldest public museum, opened by Pope Sixtus VI in 1471. The Piazza in front of the museum was designed by Michelangelo and, in keeping with what one author called the “too-muchness” of Rome, the collection is crammed with amazing bronze and marbles pieces as well as paintings and much more. Among those few included in my little slideshow are the Boy with Thorn bronze from the 1st century BC, the massive equestrian Marcus Aurelius from 180 AD, the almost-as-large Hercules in gilded bronze from the 2nd century BC, the Brutus bust (with yellow wall behind)—yes, that Brutus—from the 4th or 3rd century BC, the bronze of Remus and Romulus (Rome’s legendary founders) suckled by the she wolf possibly from the 5th century BC, and Bernini’s Medusa from 1648. At the end of our tour, we stepped out onto an empty terrace overlooking the monuments of the Forum lit up for the night.