Just Borgias.

Make the B Line for heavily inked trains.

Rome, Italy - The heat rose wearily as we descended with waves of people to the subway below.

An exhalation of cool air welcomed the heavily tattooed oncoming train, which harkened back to 1980s New York City. The blur of colour melted into the air like crayons in a double boiler as the subway's brakes squealed hello.

It was just the beginning of the day's art – a modern take on the creativity practiced here for thousands of years.

We started by visiting Villa Borghese, where we saw countless Bernini sculptures – with marble cascading in waves of ornate hair and delicate clusters of leaves, and framed by gracefully contorted arms.

One bust had an incredibly ornate beard; another had a veil, which was completely sculpted behind the head. One might have forgiven the artist for cutting a corner by literally not cutting a corner. But this is why it is they who were the masters.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini's 'The Rape of Proserpina' was notably impressive, possessing incredible movement and such detail as indentations from the fingers gripping her marble thighs.

I was also impressed by lighting techniques used in paintings by Wolfgang Heimbach, by a Peter Paul Rubens and by a room-full of paintings by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Then, there was the statue from the year 196.

None were behind so much as a rope.

Wandering around Rome throughout the afternoon, we climbed the Spanish Steps, tossed coins into the Trevi Fountain, saw Raphael's tomb in the Pantheon and walked down the middle of the closed road to the Colosseum.

At which point my camera, quite naturally, told me it was exhausted.

So was I.