Isn't it Romantic?

I'm in a special state of ecstasy. I'm bad at hyperbole, it turns out, so I left out all of the verys, the best-evers, the amazings, from the following entry. Otherwise, it would be "very best-ever amazing" in every sentence.



In the interest of keeping things interesting, I left the two most famous museums in Rome for last - the Vatican Museums (collectively) for today and the Villa Borghese for tomorrow. So, it promised to be a good weekend, and its delivering in a big way so far.

Things accidentally got started a little early. I took a stroll around the city center on Friday morning and ended up just sitting in the Pantheon for an hour. I ain't much of a fan of architecture, but this place is perfect. When I'm inside, I'm resonating like a plucked violin string. Is this what people mean by the so-called "quality without a name"? After a while, I walk out feeling dizzy and exalted.

Outside the Pantheon, I overheard some British tourists discussing a nearby church "with a Caravaggio" around the corner and decided to tag along. This turns out to be San Luigi dei Francesi, which has three stunning Caravaggios in one of its chapels.

Tenebrism.



This morning I headed over to the Vatican Museums, which include Sistine Chapel. Its a huge complex of conjoined museums, and makes the Met feel small and manageable.

Its all kind of overwhelming, and I'm sure it'll take me a while to process it all. Perhaps the less said the better.

I'll say this: the museums contain large sets of Michelangelo and Raphael's masterpieces. The art historians, the guidebooks, the audio tour, even the layout of the museum clearly place Michelangelo in a rank above others, including Raphael. But for my money Raphael's work in the Pinacoteca serves Michelangelo two very familiar cheeks on a platter.

The Sistine Chapel reminded me of the Van Gogh room at the D'Orsay - a handful of guards were absurdly trying to enforce the "no talking, no pictures, no flash" rule in a mob. Supposedly, the chapel has an average of two thousand people in it at any given time.

I've conceived a love of Guido Reni in the last two years, and I was looking forward to seeing more of his work here in Italy. There's tons of it here, but most of it is pretty lame compared to the pieces I've seen in American museums.

I guess my provisional conclusion is this: I came to Europe thinking Painting was a dead medium. I now feel its very much alive and full of possibility. Put that in your blowpipe and shoot it.

On the other hand, I can't imagine being serious about painting without constantly traveling to visit paintings in person.

Tomorrow, the Villa Borghese. Tip!



If you enjoy driving crazy, Rome is the place. Multi-lane avenues have no lane markings. "Crosswalks" involve pedestrians just jumping out into traffic. People drive like its go-carts. Intersections are madhouses.

Song of the day: Magic Sam - Lookin' Good.

Bonus beat: Six Cups Of Rebel - Arp She Said. Why, oh why, did Lindstrom quit making music?