May 5 Last Day with Road Scholars-Jewish Quarter, Borghese Gallery, Farewell Dinner

We began the day with a walk to the Jewish Quarter and that took us by the huge Victor Emmanuel Monument.  I posted a side view previously.  This is how it looks from the piazza.  We were on the way to the Jewish Quarter, where we entered a synagogue:

There are two synogogues now but, during the time of the Ghetto, there was supposed to be only one.  Because there were actually different congregations, evidently there were five.  The one above is still used today by descendents of Sephardic Jews who escaped during the Spanish Inquisition in about 1492.  The larger synagogue is in the same building and is called the Great Synagogue:

In the foreground of the Great Synagogue, you can see locked boxes where men are able to keep their papers relating to the services.  Even today, women sit in the sides or at the back.  However, women have been very important in these religious sites.  We learned that in the times of the Ghetto, when Jews were mostly confined to the Ghetto and had to wear hats and garments that identified them as Jews when they left the area, the women used second-hand textiles to make religious tapestries.  The  museum has preserved some of the most remarkable examples with brocade, velvet and elaborate embroideries.  I did not photograph those, but they were stunning.

We then went by van to the Borghese Galleries, which are truly amazing.  I couldn't get over the ceilings, much less the works of art.  Here, for example is a ceiling:

Those figures at the top of the column, which appear to be three dimensional are actually frescoes.  As you will notice, the arches have painting at the top, too.  When I say "over the top," it may be an understatement.  The ceilings are decorated throughout and there are numerous rooms.  There are so many paintings, frescoes, and statues that I cannot even begin to summarize them.  For me, the most amazing thing was a statue by Bernini of  "The Rape of Persephone."  By the way, Pluto is the one who is raping her.  What I loved the most (from an artistic standpoint) was this:

This is marble, and yet it seems that he has actually indented her flesh...and look at those hands...they are so realistic.   Just for perspective, here is a larger view of the statue.  

We returned to have a farewell dinner with our fellow Road Scholars and then tomorrow we will part ways.   I, however, will stay in Rome another week and so will have more to say.