Rome

It always takes me aback... how wonderful Rome is. I'm more likely to say that Venice is my favorite Italian city, but every time I'm here, Rome feels like home. This morning we took a cab out to the Scuderie del Quirinale to see the big Tintoretto show there. I've never been a huge fan, as he seemed almost slap-dash in comparison to other Renaissance and late-Renaissance and Mannerist painters. But seeing paintings grouped together always makes you appreciate an artist more as you get to see what is style and substance in an artist's repertoire. Turns out the flamboyant, quick gesture is what Tintoretto specialized in. My favorite story was that instead of producing a sketch for a competition for a Venetian Scuole, Tintoretto just painted the work on spec and gave it to them as a gift. End of contest. Our favorite painting, though, was Susanna and the Elders, which Ira and I had just seen in San Francisco. It's still terrific, with the prying old man's bald head poking out of the canvas space towards the viewer, putting us in the same uncomfortable position of Susannah. The show starts off with a bang, featuring Tintoretto's electrifying debut on the grand Italian stage of great painters. The Miracle of the Slave is incandescent, as it boldly features the rescued slave, his naked body surround by the broken implements of torture.

Next up was the Ara Pacis museum, not for the altar, but for the works of avant-garde and modernist russian art in the space below. Ira went in before me while I photographed some interesting buildings in the neighborhood, but when I went it, it was an education. Many of these paintings and painters are rarely seen outside of Mother Russia, so it was fun to get a fresh look at a movement that I thought was old hat.

Another taxi ride, this on to MAXXI, Zaha Hadid's wonderful contemporary museum. We've been trying to go here for years, and it was such a delight to go inside and see how it all works. It's complex but never confusing, large but never massive. In Ira's words, "it makes everything else look old-fashioned." The art was a mixture, but with many high notes. A walk-through camera obscura, where you followed a docent along a pitch-black walkway, holding onto a handrail until you see the inverted image of the neighboring buildings. It was great fun of course.

Now, we're having a well-deserved rest and getting ready for another rooftop drink and then leisurely outside dinner.