A sunday morning wander around the area surrounding the Piazza di Spagna ended with lunch at ‘Gusto and then our first chance to see the Ara Pacis, the Altar of Augustan Peace, in its fancy modernist cocoon. There is some controversy about the meaning of the left scene on the East wall — the so-called Tellus panel:
But there’s no doubting that it is a marvellous hymn to the bounty of agricultural biodiversity. You can see a cow and a sheep. wheat and poppies, grapes and pomegranates. Oh, and a sea serpent. No wonder one of the more solid interpretations identify this lady as Mother Earth.
More details here.