Last days in RomeOct 28, 2009
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Ben probably has no idea how important this statue is in our...
We were trully in awe of this place.
Well, Rome is quite a city. Every street seems to have something of interest to see or do. We only began to see this city and we put in six good days being tourist.
We returned to St. Peters Basilica to see the inside. Ben walked in, I went to look at a statue and when I was done, Ben was in the same spot so I returned to him and he looked at me and said "Wow...all I can say is Wow". We walked around the church for over two hours. Ben and I were more interested in the art and achetecture of the place, Lydia was more interested in the stories of the saints, Simon...well Simon did us proud by putting up with this for over two hours but as not one of those statues transformed or shot lasers there was not a lot of interest for him, but we each in turn gave him something to look at or talk about even if more than once it was what we call the Holy Zamboni that was posishing the floors. Jokes aside, this was a spectacular place to spend an october afternoon.
We did not go up to the dome but we did go down into the tombs of the past popes. I was quite taken with the..well worship..of Pope John Paul II tomb. I am not certain what to think about what I saw, but I am certain that thoughts will occure.
The next day was our last full day so we decided to just pop out of the metro stops, see what there was to see then move on. We did not get too far as there is so much to see at each stop. Be it putting our hand in the Mouth of Truth, or walking up to the ENORMOUS marble building of victor Emanualle II Monument but the highlight for Bob was an art show.
I stumbled upon a combination Dada and Surealism retrospective. All the big names were represented. Dali, Duchamp, Ernst, Magaritte, Miro, Man Ray and I recognised at least a dozen pieces. a highlight was Duchamps Nude Decending Staircase with some peliminary photes he used as studies. The only negative was that the boys were not with me. This is rare but we were feeling a bit poor as everything is way over budget here and it would have cost a lot to take the boys into such an unknown show. If I knew how good it was there would have been on decision but we did have a few pathetic art shows in Istanbul and I guess this effected our thinking today. Oh well, kids are resiliant, they will get over not having seen Magaritte's Le cCateau des Pyrennes in real life. I am foolishly proud that they have seen all of these artest genuine pictures in gallaries before except for Magaritte and they have seen Magaritte in an art book they bought me for a bithday a year back. But still...I should have brought them, a mistake that will not happen again. (In years to come, Bob will look at this and see how pompus he is sounding - there was an almost endless wealth of art in this city which we did not have the time or strength or money to see - and this will always be a problem. The Editor)
