Michelle Obama: When in Rome

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Michelle Obama: When in Rome

by Mark Silva

Michelle Obama may not have made much of a splash in Moscow, where any obsession with Western fashion still has one foot in the Cold War, but the Romans are watching the American first lady, on tour with her husband for the G-8 summit .

The first lady arrived at the Capitoline hill, one of Rome's seven, around noon today, catching a brief bird's eye view of the Roman Forum. The Capitoline Museums are part of the Campidoglio, the Capitol Hill of Rome. The spouses of the G-8 leaders had lunch there with their host, the mayor's wife, Isabella Rauti Alemanno.

. "It's the city, the most important in the history of the city," said Gian Paolo Pelizzaro, a spokesman for the mayor, speaking of a museum that houses a colossal sculpture of Marcus Aurelius on horseback as well as the original bronze of the she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus, which is the symbol of Rome.

Before a tour of the museum, the first ladies had lunch on a terrace overlooking the city. The head table was covered in ivory tulle with centerpieces of red and yellow roses mixed with oranges and apples. The chef, Heinz Beck, a German-born gazillion star chef with a restaurant in Rome called La Pergola, delivered the fare: Lobster medallions, veal filet on apricot puree and, for dessert, walnut semi-freddo.

Michelle Obama wore black flats and what the print pooler described as a taxicab yellow sheath with an oversize green floral brooch on her left shoulder. "From a distance it looked to be bakelite and frankly resembled lettuce,'' the pooler noted.

With thanks for the pool reporting of Robin Givhan of the Washington Post.

lPhoto of Michelle Obama, above, with Sarah Brown, wife of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, during their visit at the Capitoline Museums in Rome, Photo by Domenico Stinellis / )

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